Urban passes Rush torch to Priestner family

Blades ownership buys NLL powerhouse club

The Rush celebrate winning the NLL title in 2018.

Shockwaves were sent through Saskatoon’s sports scene, and it would be safe to say Saskatchewan’s sports scene on Monday.

During the morning hours, news broke that the NLL’s powerhouse Saskatchewan Rush had been sold by Bruce Urban to the Priestner Sports Corporation, which has owned the WHL’s Saskatoon Blades since 2013. Mike Priestner leads the Priestner Sports Corporation along with owing the Go Auto automotive dealership chain.

The official announcement of the sale of the Rush was made Monday afternoon.

Colin Priestner becomes the new president and governor of the Rush while continuing his role as the president and general manager of the Blades. Jared Priestner takes on the role as the alternate governor for the Rush, and Steve Hildebrand, who is the associate general manager of the Blades, will be part of the Rush’s leadership team.

The Rush enjoy an NLL title winning goal by Jeff Cornwall, centre.

All of the lacrosse operations of the Rush will continue to be run by the team’s current all-world general manager in Derek Keenan.

Following the official announcement, Colin Priestner made the media rounds talking about the sale.

A thank you letter by the Urban family to the fans of the Rush was released on the team’s website. It was signed by Bruce, his wife Cindy and son, Brandon.

Brandon served as the director of media relations for the Rush Since January of 2017 and added the title of director of business development in September of 2017. He held those roles until the Rush were sold.

A crowd of 15,182 celebrate a Rush NLL title win in 2016.

He was very active during game days ensuring everything ran smoothly behind the scenes.

Until the sale was announced, it wasn’t really on anyone’s radar. It came out of the blue.

For anyone that has interacted with Bruce Urban, you always got the feeling that the Rush were his baby. He had owned the Rush since they were born as an expansion franchise in 2005 and first began playing in Edmonton.

The Rush won an NLL title in 2015, while calling Edmonton home. Playing out of Rexall Place, the Rush ran into issues where they were unable to promote their branding in that facility by the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers, who also called that building home.

The Rush celebrate winning the NLL title in 2016.

Unable to secure a long term lease deal for the brand new Rogers Place in Edmonton, Urban relocated the Rush to Saskatoon and the club was branded as the Saskatchewan Rush for the 2016 campaign.

The Rush won NLL titles in 2016 and 2018 and gained massive popularity. 

In the four complete seasons and a fifth partial campaign played in Saskatoon, the Rush have averaged 13,482 fans per game during the regular season and 13,425 fans per game in the post-season.

The Rush got to play 10 games in 2020 before the rest of the NLL campaign that year was cancelled due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The 2020-21 campaign ultimately got cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic too.

Captain Chris Corbeil raises the Champion’s Cup in 2016.

Like the CFL’s Saskatchewan Roughriders, the Rush draw fans from all across the province of Saskatchewan.

The Rush also had the best game day presentation out of any sports team in Saskatchewan. Going to a Rush game was an event and a party.

Music played throughout the game by a DJ. The Rush had an extremely talented dance team that performed during stoppages, an official mascot in Bruiser the Bulldog, an unofficial mascot in Rush Hulk and tonnes of fun things happening around the game to add to the entertainment aspect.

All the fun elements allowed the fans to even be more engaged in the game, and they gave the Rush an incredible home floor advantage.

Their most famous fan in Joyce Souka, who is best known as “Grandma Rush,” is one of the club’s diehard fans from Edmonton who traveled to Saskatoon for every Rush home game.

Tailgating at Rush playoff games was a common sight.

Captain Chris Corbeil, high scoring forward Mark Matthews and gritty transition player Jeremy Thompson have all become household names in “the Wheat Province.”

Urban enjoyed every perk that came with owning the Rush while the team called Saskatchewan home.

Both the Urban and Priestner families are from the Edmonton area. The Urbans call Calgary their home base now with Bruce owning the Western RV Group of Companies.

With both the Rush and Blades calling the SaskTel Centre home, personnel from both teams would converse from time to time.

Over the past year, Urban and the Priestner family had a series of friendly conversations.

Mark Matthews is a top scorer for the Rush.

During an online media conference on Monday, Colin Priestner said his family reached out to Urban asking if there ever might be a desire to retire or move on from owning the Rush. Things progressed organically from that point to where the Priestner Sports Corporation ultimately bought the Rush.

As the owners of the Blades, the Priestner Sports Corporation entered a massive rebuild with that team, which was devoid of prospects and WHL Bantam Draft picks after hosting the 2013 CHL championship tournament – the Memorial Cup.

After missing the playoffs for five straight seasons, the Blades finished fourth overall in the 2018-19 WHL regular season with a 45-15-8 record. The Blades have remained one of the WHL better franchises posting a 16-5-2-1 mark in their recently completed developmental regular season.

Now, the Priestner Sports Corporation owns a team in the Rush that is responsible for one of the most iconic moments in the history of the SaskTel Centre.

“Grandma Rush” is the Rush’s most famous fan.

On June 4, 2016, the Rush were looking to win Game 2 of the NLL championship series at the SaskTel Centre against the Buffalo Bandits and sweep the best-of-three set to take the league title.

Locked in a 10-10 tie with under 25 seconds to play in the fourth quarter, the Bandits had possession in the Rush zone. A hard point shot from a Bandits player rebounded high into the air off the back boards and was collected by Rush defenceman Jeff Cornwall near the edge of exiting the defensive zone.

With a clear path to the Buffalo goal, Cornwall dashed down the rink on a breakaway. He tucked home a shot low stick side with 12 seconds to play to put the Rush in front 11-10.

Derek Keenan has led the Rush to three NLL titles.

At that point, the SaskTel Centre became a madhouse going bonkers in a good way. The cheers might have been the loudest the building had experienced in its history.

The final 12 seconds ticked away allowing that 11-10 score to hold up as the final as the Rush swept the series 2-0 to capture the Champion’s Cup.

Cornwall’s goal would go down as one the most iconic moments in the history of the SaskTel Centre along with John Slaney’s golden goal that won Canada top spot at the world junior hockey championship on Jan. 4, 1991 and Bret “The Hitman” Hart capturing the WWE heavyweight title on Oct. 12, 1992.

One key thing Urban did to allow the Rush to have success was bring in someone who knew the lacrosse game well and let them run the team. After not being able to win more than six games in each of team’s first four seasons, Urban brought Keenan in to be the Rush’s head coach and general manager in June of 2009.

Captain Chris Corbeil lifts the NLL Cup in 2018.

With Keenan as head coach and general manager, the Rush franchise posted a 116-66 record during the regular season and a 15-8 mark during the post-season.

After the 2020 campaign was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Keenan turned over the head coach role to Jeff McComb, who has been the Rush assistant coach responsible for offence for seven seasons.

The Priestners plan to follow that same blueprint.

“Our goal is to continue that winning culture with the same great group of people who made it happen,” said Colin Priestner in a statement. “Derek Keenan is a big reason we made this investment.

“His track record is simply unparalleled, and we want him running this franchise for years to come. To any Rush fan reading this: we’re keeping the players you love and the people who worked so tirelessly to build this organization.”

Bruce Urban raises the National Lacrosse League Cup in 2018.

Colin and his wife, Alanna, live in Saskatoon, which will allow the new ownership group to be a little more hands on locally with the business side of things. The Urban family continued to live in Calgary, while the Rush played in Saskatoon.

While the NLL is hoping to return to play in the upcoming 2021-22 season, an era has come to an end for the Rush franchise.

Bruce Urban and his family set the bar incredibly high when it came to operating the team.

Now it is the turn of the Priestner family carry the Rush franchise torch. They have learned a lot when it comes to running a sport franchise in owning the Blades, so it wouldn’t be a surprise to see them carry the Rush torch well.

If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

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