The Toronto Rock, this city's new professional indoor lacrosse franchise, was playing all the right tunes yesterday.

With a star-studded ownership group that includes the likes of Bobby Orr, Paul Beeston and Tie Domi, team officials were drumming up support for the National Lacrosse League team, which starts play in January at Maple Leaf Gardens.

"This is a product we think we can sell without much trouble," Rock president Bill Watters said at the official unveiling of the team's nickname and jerseys.

"I don't know how it can miss."

The Rock becomes the NLL's seventh franchise, joining Buffalo, Philadelphia, Baltimore, New York, Rochester and Syracuse. The season runs from January to May.

In its previous incarnation, the Rock was the Ontario Raiders, a team which earlier this year played out of Copps Coliseum in Hamilton. Shaky ownership and a cool reception by Steeltown fans led the team to fold after just one season. Watters said the Toronto franchise will have none of the ownership or marketing problems of the Raiders. But he admits it will be tough to sell the game to fans in the fickle Toronto sports market.

"We don't want to mislead anyone by saying we're going to pack the joint every night," Watters said. "We've got to build a fan base and we've got great marketing people to help in that regard. If it doesn't go now, it'll never go."

The Rock is hoping to attract an average of at least 10,000 fans for their six home dates this season. The team already has 1,500 season-ticket subscriptions.

The team has even come up with a jazzy logo, which depicts a caricature of the CN Tower with arms playing an electric guitar, and a large, red maple leaf in the background.

The Rock will open the season on 9 January, at Baltimore, and play its first home game on against the Buffalo Bandits on 22 January.