The Premier Lacrosse League Signed A 4-Year Broadcasting Deal With ESPN And Now There's Nowhere For The Haters To Hide
Icon Sportswire. Getty Images.Huge news for the sport of the future present. The PLL and ESPN have partnered up for the next 4 years of broadcasting rights and now you can catch every game this summer on either ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, or streaming on ESPN+.
Now it's not like the PLL didn't have a nationally televised broadcasting deal before. The past 3 seasons on NBC were great. I thought everything the league and NBC did from a broadcasting perspective was awesome. They revolutionized the game by having players mic'd up and able to communicate with the commentators throughout the game. They had sideline reporters who would interview guys as soon as they came off the field. And Ryan Boyle is a star as an analyst and can break down the game so easily for fans at home who may not know much about lacrosse without dumbing it down to the point where it's borderline patronizing. But…I mean…
Listen. We all have our own thoughts on ESPN. But the fact of the matter is that they're the worldwide leader for a reason. Nobody is able to get more eyeballs on a sport if they want than ESPN does. The moment they have the broadcasting rights to a league, they immediately start blasting it all throughout their shows. We'll have more PLL clips showing up on SportsCenter. Maybe we'll get Stephen A screaming about Blaze Riorden and Tom Schreiber on First Take. The games on NBC were easy enough for fans to watch, but after that it was nothing.
And again, say what you want about ESPN but they've made a pretty decent investment to become the home of lacrosse. You can catch so many college men's and women's games streaming on ESPN+ this year. They have the broadcasting rights with the NLL so you can watch more box lacrosse games in the United States today than ever before. And now they have the new 4-year deal with the PLL. Lacrosse has never been more easily accessible to watch than right now. And it also doesn't hurt that ESPN+ just seems to be a much easier app to work with than Peacock. So if you're on the beach over the summer and there's a PLL game coming on at 1pm, you can just watch it right there on your phone without any headaches. Honestly that's what I'm most excited for. Nothing is worse than having to leave the beach early on a perfect Saturday afternoon with a cooler full of ice cold Diet Millers all because your stream won't buffer and Jeff Teat is about to do the thing he loves to do and score a shit ton of goals.
Sidenote: Biggest question that still needs answering here is what the PLL on ESPN theme is going to sound like. Personally I wouldn't hate if they just took the NHL theme. Either way, get ready for way more of this for the next 4 years.