Did Your City Make The Cut For The 30 Finalists To Host The First Year Of The Premier Lacrosse League?
In case you forgot, Paul Rabil and some of the best lacrosse players in the world have started their own professional league which gets going on June 1. Instead of having teams based in specific cities, the entire league will travel from one location to the other throughout the 14 weeks. Now I realize that the majority of the haters and the losers out there (of which there are many) will say that there’s no possible way that a tour-based model can succeed for a professional sports league. They will scream and scream about how a pro sports league needs to develop rivalries between teams and fan bases, and that by not having teams in specific locations won’t do anything to foster those rivalries.
But those people are all so very stupid and archaic in their ways of thinking about professional sports. The times are changing. Through social media and the fact that you can watch quite literally every game around the league these days thanks to modern technology, more and more people are starting to become fans of individual players rather than actual teams. I feel like most of us are all too old for that and we’re still team first, individual players second. But the younger generations? They follow players and player rivalries way closer than they do from city to city.
So with that in mind, 6 different teams going to 12 different cities per summer makes a helluva lot more sense than it would to just have the league be seen by only 6 cities. It quite literally doubles the amount of people who can go and watch these games live in a summer. And it also allows the league to get to different markets that probably couldn’t handle hosting their own team for 6 home games over the summer. Like I’m sure that the sport of lacrosse is growing rapidly in St. Louis but is there enough of a market there to justify putting a singular team in St. Louis right now? Probably not. But can the PLL travel to St. Louis for just one weekend in the summer and sellout a venue there with the best lacrosse players in the world all playing there for 2 days? Of course they could.
Which is why you see so many cities on this group of 30 finalists to host the first year of the tour that you wouldn’t be able to see in a tradition professional sports city-based model. The league can reach newer markets, continue to grow the game in those markets, and before you know it? Lacrosse has completely taken over North America. So if you’re somebody who hates on lacrosse and is constantly doubting it’s growth, I’d say have fun while you still can because the takeover is coming very very soon.
Now if I had to take a guess on which 12 of these cities end up officially hosting during the first year of the PLL? I’d go with…
- Atlanta
- Baltimore
- Chicago
- Denver
- Houston
- Los Angeles
- Miami
- NYC
- Philly
- Salt Lake City
- Seattle
- Toronto
- .
I’m not exactly sold on that list so if any of them don’t make the cut, here would by my first 4 out.
- Atlanta (Already have the Blaze in the MLL that could interfere with scheduling)
- Philly (Already hosting LaxCon and the NCAA Final 4 this year. That should be enough lacrosse)
- Toronto (I’m sure the league wants to get to Canada, but maybe in year 2)
- Miami (Lacrosse has been buzzing in Florida for a while. But not sure how Miami’s market is)
- .
And if any of those 4 cities were to be cut from the list, here are my next 4 in.
- Boston (only reason they weren’t on list to start is because the MLL is based there)
- Columbus (Ohio has become a serious hot bed, they deserve a weekend)
- Minneapolis (Again, lacrosse is really picking up in Minnesota. Would be a real solid new market to hit)
- Orlando (Like I said, lacrosse has been buzzing in Florida. I feel like Miami is more of a marquee spot, but Orlando is a solid backup)
- .
I know that a lot of people are going to want me to have Albany on my list but keep in mind here that Lyle Thompson is still playing in the MLL this year. I feel like you can’t go to Albany until he makes the switch over to the PLL. Once that’s the case, the population for Albany is somewhere around 98,000 people. I think that’s how many would show up for a PLL event with Lyle playing.