The first event at brand-new Glendale Arena will the National Lacrosse League's 2004 season opener, the league announced today.

The league's eighteenth season will kick off on Friday, 26 December 2003, when the Vancouver Ravens visit the unnamed Arizona franchise (formerly the Columbus Landsharks) in a Western Division showdown.

The Vancouver-Arizona game will be held one night before the NHL's Coyotes, managing partner of Arizona Lacrosse, skate out for their first game at the arena.

That puts the NLL in the very eviable position of having a built-in audience for opening night. If you want to be a part of Phoenix sports history, you'd better be up for the fastest game on two feet.

"This will be a treat for the sports fans of Arizona," Ravens head coach Paul Dal Monte said. "In the former Columbus Landsharks, they'll have a very good young team playing in front of them, a team that we certainly won't take lightly given the way they've come on in the past two years."

Columbus finished a respectable 8-8 last season despite being the league's youngest team. Vancouver, meanwhile, posted a 9-7 record and reached the playoffs for the second straight year.

The rest of the 2004 NLL schedule will be released Monday.