An emerging league MLS to contend with?

Lacrosse

 

I'm highly skeptical, myself, (Imagine that, the guy running a new league pimping it as "the next big thing.") but wasn't there some talk at one point of building and running stadia with these guys to share costs? That'd be fine with me, and it would be an easy way to get an MLS-sized stadium for a team in Philly.

 

Lacrosse is too east-coast to make it as a nationwide sport. It's even more niche-oriented than soccer, and less appealing than hockey.

 

I don't know about you guys, but I can never see the ball. Most of the game just looks like a bunch of guys carrying sticks in the air.

More like the Broadway production of "The Lion King" than a sport.

 

exactly, I haven't even seen it on TV once either. If I didn't know any better, I'd say they didn't have a league either, but I guess one could be just as dumb about soccer but at least we get a couple games on network tv a year (ABC).

 

Lacrosse on TV has the same problems as hockey. The ball moves to fast to be seen, and you can't get a good look at the action without being too close in and losing the "court vision". It's a great game, I played it in my youth, but I can't see it taking off. The NLL has been around for a loooooong time, longer then MLS, and it is still very small. If you think MLS has crappy salaries, you should check out what NLL players make. That probably helps with the profit line. MLS is competing, to some extent, with soccer leagues all over the world, so they have to at least attempt to have competitive salaries. NLL doesn't have to worry about that, NO ONE is competing with them for talent. There is no other professional lacrosse league. Unlike soccer, the indoor lacrosse game is a pretty decent approximation of the outdoor version, but it isn't like the outdoor version is that popular in the first place.

 

That was for the outdoor league, the MLL, which is run by the Body by Jake guy.

A proindoor league has been around for ages, probably 15 years or so because I remember high school buddies playing in it after we all graduated college in 90. I remember one guy saying he only played because each game equalled one car payment.

Neither league pays much, from what I know. In fact, the outdoor league has engineered trades so guys could be closer to their full-time jobs.

I love lacrosse, outdoor more than box. But I've been hearing that it will take over the West ever since they started playing the Vail Classic back in the day. They probably have better luck spreading the sport to other countries than they do to outerlying states in the US.

 

As a big lacrosse fan, I would love nothing more than to see the NLL grow. However, I just don't see it catching on and becoming a major sport in the US. It IS too East coast, and would translate to sub MLS ratings West of the Mississippi. MLS will most likely become the 5th "major" sporting league in the US (and maybe pass the NHL someday), but the NLL will probably remain a small niche league, and there really isn't anything wrong with that.

ps--personally I prefer college lacrosse to the NLL. It's just a better game for some reason.

 

Word.

I can't even get into the outdoor pro league because of the shot clock and such.

 

1) What I find interesting is that this guy is setting up a lacross vs. soccer dynamic.

Why?

Just promote your sport. People aren't going to come because "it's better than soccer." That's just strange positioning/marketing out of the guy. As others have stated, who cares if its the "fifth major sport"? (I also don't see why soccer fans/MLS care about that distinction, either. Just become profitable and show strong attendance -- TV and general ad revenue will follow.)


2) This league should be making nice with MLS and A-League. The possibility of entering into favorable agreements where MLS/A-League have decent stadium deals would (one would think) create a natural partnership possibility.

Perhaps more positive for MLS, but certainly not something that the NLL would want to dismiss or actively work AGAINST. Right?

 

The NLL plays in basketball/hockey arenas, so probably isn't much interested in MLS/A-League stadium deals.

 

The NLL expanded west to California this year, relocating teams to San Jose and Anaheim (along with Phoenix). Colorado has a very successful team, and is drawing excellent-sized crowds (bigger than some NHL franchises, though not the local Avalanche). In its first three games, Anaheim is averaging 5,000 fans (and off to an 0-3 start).

What will be interesting is if the NHL strike affects this league. A lot of these NLL teams are tied to the local hockey club (in Anaheim, the Storm are owned/operated by the Pond, which I belive falls under the Mighty Ducks), and the NLL moved franchises west only to locations that had the NHL infastructure already in place.

RS

 

It should be noted that lacrosse is played outside the States, albeit to a very limited extent. It's played in schools in Japan and England, at least that I know of, but it's the non-contact variety played in polo shirts and skirts.

 

Fixed.

(It's the national sport of Canada, after all)

RS

 

NLL=Indoor
MLL=Outdoor

Easy to confuse, but the guy running his mouth is not the guy who could use these small stadia.

I agree about the obsession over wo says what. So the guy takes a shot at soccer. Shows me that he's desperate, not that soccer is in any danger. After all, he recognizes it as something to strive for.

 

If we're still talking about the CNBC blurb, he wasn't really comparing the two. In fact, I THINK it was one of the interviewers that thought soccer was too slow for TV. (And I didn't really take it as a slam on soccer - just an opinion.)

But I do remember him saying the league 'encourages' fights....something about 'knowing what the public likes'....

I don't know, I think that if a third major indoor sport was going to be the 'next big thing' it would have been indoor soccer.

 

All I know is that the goalie for the team in Pheonix (NLL) is one fat-looking hombre. And that, while I've enjoyed the hell out of the last few NCAA tournament matches on ESPN, I've been bored by the MLL games I've seen. The shot clock and the two-point goals might have something to do with it, or maybe I'm allergic to the "Body-By-Jake" guy, I don't know. But if MLS is seriously threatened by either of these leagues, it's doomed.

 

To be honest, I think the thing that hurts the MLL more than the shot clock or the two-point goals is the fact that these guys are mostly buddies and have real jobs that they don't want to get killed for.

 

If any sport has a chance of claiming the title of "third major indoor sport," it is Arena Football.

 

White man say stick game fun!

Lacrosse is the TRUE North American invention to the sporting code.
It is strongly supported back east and in Colorado, yet its roots are evident with the Native Americans from all over. My grandpa has told stories of the intensity and drunkeness that begins and concludes a day at the Lacrosse field with the "ingin boys". That was in Nowata Oklahoma in 1933.
Again, Lacrosse like Basketball is a North American creation and all the qualities that the sport displays echos the running warrior and his hatchet from our native roots.
Adding a shot clock is like MLS adding a shootout...beyond stupid.

 

ditto lacrosse is so boring, people talk about soccer?
on a related note didnt the NCAA championship fill up 3/4 of the Ravens stadium