The PLL Gets One Step Closer To World Domination, Announce Teams Will Be City-Based Starting In 2024
Icon Sportswire. Getty Images.Sportico -- The Premier Lacrosse League (PLL) will shift from a tour-based model to geographically based teams starting with the 2024 season, as first reported by Sportico. This marks one of the biggest developments in the league since its inaugural season in 2019.
Beginning in 2024, all of the teams will travel to each of the eight home venues (which will be named later), and the home team will play a doubleheader. To round out the 14-weekend season, two regular season weekends will be played at neutral sites, and the all-star game, playoffs and championships will be held at a location to be named later.
The way I look at the first few seasons of the Premier Lacrosse League, it's almost like the pro lacrosse went away to college. The game needed a few years to just fuck around and try some new things. They needed to experiment, they needed to let loose for a few years just to get some things out of their system.
So they started up a tour-based model that allowed teams to travel the country all summer long just throwing parties from city to city. It was fun, it was exciting, it was different. It worked, but was it truly sustainable? College is fun and everything, but it's not real life. Eventually you need to grow up and settle down.
Which brings us to phase 2 of the Premier Lacrosse League. Starting in 2024, each team will adopt a host city. That's not to say the PLL will completely look like a traditional league by then. All 8 teams are still going to travel to the same city every week rather than strictly having home and away games. But it's a start in that direction.
There will (presumably) be 8 cities designated to the teams, and the league will just travel around to those 8 cities with the host team playing 2 games on those weekends. I'm going to assume it's still going to take a little extra time to lock in venues in each of those 8 cities to host 5 different home games every summer. I'm not a big logistics guy but that seems like something that would take a couple more years to put into place. So the 2024 PLL season is still going to look very similar to how it looks now, but the wheels are in motion for it to start to look like a regular professional sports league.
And most importantly, the wheels are in motion to build up some rabid fanbases a few years before they actually get to the point where the teams play the majority of their games in a specific city. Give fans an extra season or two to really get into their team before they have to start putting their wallet on the line to purchase season tickets. That's just good business.
Lastly, if I had to take a guess on the first 8 cities…you have to start with the hot beds. But a team in Baltimore/Annapolis, a team on Long Island, a team in Philly, and a team to cover the New England area. Then you get start to hit the newer markets. Dallas would be one, throw something in the midwest like a team in Ohio or Minnesota, I'd imagine the league wants something in California so we'll see how the World Championships in San Diego looks this summer, and then you can either go with Denver or start with a team in Upstate NY. Personally I think skipping California would make the most sense and go with Dallas, Ohio, Upstate NY and Denver. But that's just me and my incredible brain thinking. Guess we'll just have to wait and see.
P.S. -- Philadelphia Waterdogs needs to happen.