Edited paragraph ten on 14 August 2003 to correct information about Gait's all star game history.

National Lacrosse League commissioner Jim Jennings announced today that Denver will host the 2004 NLL All Star Game.

As first reported yesterday by the Outsider's Guide, Pepsi Center will be the site for the league's first all star game since 2002, in a game scheduled for 4:00 PM Mountain (6:00 PM Eastern) on Sunday, 22 February 2004.

Unlike the 2002 contest, held at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Connecticut, the 2004 game will be at an NLL arena and is slated for midseason, rather than after the playoffs.

By selecting Denver, the league places its resurrected All Star Game in the hands of its most notable resurrected franchise. The Colorado Mammoth averaged better than 16,000 fans at Pepsi Center last season, the team's first in Denver after playing to puny crowds as the Washington Power in 2001 and 2002.

Once a highly successful franchise, the Mammoth (then playing as the Baltimore Thunder) fell on hard times in the 1990s, played one season (2000) as the Pittsburgh CrosseFire, and moved on to Washington.

"Colorado has welcomed professional lacrosse in record numbers and we're delighted to showcase the very best of our league here," Jennings said at a midday press conference.

Jennings was joined at the announcement by Denver mayor John Hickenlooper and Mammoth captain Gary Gait.

"The National Lacrosse League joins other great sports in recognizing Denver as the best sports town in America," Hickenlooper said, noting that Pepsi Center hosted the 2001 NHL All Star Game and will play host to the NBA's midseason classic in 2005.

"Denver loves its sports and on behalf of local sports fans, the Mile High City is thrilled to once again invite the best sportsmen in the world to Colorado," Hickenlooper added.

Gait, the NLL's alltime leading scorer and one of only four players selected to appear in all three previous All Star Games, said, "You won't find better fans than those in Colorado... We guarantee the most enthusiastic crowd in the league and, on behalf of the players, I'll tell you that we're all excited to be coming to Denver."

As part of the All Star festivities, a youth game and a skills competition will be held before the game.

Rosters will be selected by fans, coaches, general managers, and the media. The public voting will take place at the league's official web site, NLL.com.

NLL will likely divide its players into East and West teams, corresponding to a proposed realignment from three divisions to two. If so, it would be the first time the All Star Game was played by natural division since the original edition, a 1991 bout between the MILL's National and American Divisions at the Spectrum in Philadelphia.

The next All Star Game wasn't for another eight years, when the seven-team NLL split up by nationality, Canada vs. the World, for a 1999 all star game at the Blue Cross Arena in Rochester.

At Mohegan Sun, the five Canadian franchises combined with the Rochester Knighthawks to form the North team, while the other seven clubs joined forces as the South.