Grow the Game®

Paul Rabil Lax.com Boston Cannons MLL
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MLL: Meet Me Halfway (+Beach Lacrosse Update!)

Lacrosse now draws a lot of national attention. With big highlights making ESPN‘s top plays, new contracts with tv stations carrying full tourneys at times, and even having baseball kids cross over to the lacrosse side so frequently that they feel threatened by it, lacrosse is now in the national spotlight.  So…where do we go from here?

With the NFL dealing with the fallout from a possibly long-term lockout, it is now time for the MLL to strike, and start gathering the fan base it needs to expand the league!  This is absolutely true.  Although there are many ways of going at it, here was one idea I was pondering the other day:

We need to go with a “Genghis Khan” approach so to speak, and have the MLL plant its seed across the country in as many cities as possible. What I mean is that the MLL needs to have a couple games in cities that don’t have an MLL team, but where lacrosse is growing in popularity. The site of the game should also be between two teams’ cities. When I thought of this, I initially thought of a game played in Philadelphia played between the Long Island Lizards and the Chesapeake Bayhawks.

It’s not only exposing the MLL name, but also assesing oppertunites for new teams in these cities by judging how well the event goes over in the city. (Yes I know Philadelphia has already had a team but this is just a prime example. It’s a city located very close to both teams home cities and it’s a city that is very passionate about their sport.)

The NHL does something very similar at the start of their season every year.  They have a few teams play one or two games in Europe to exand their fan base.  It started in 2007 when the Anaheim Ducks played the LA Kings for 2 games in London and despite soccer being its primary sport, the games drew pretty solid attention.  This past season they had 6 teams play games in Sweden, Finland and the Czech Republic (Read more about it here).

So… what do you guys think? Does it seem like a good idea or do you think it would be a waste of time and money for the MLL?  Does the MLL have enough money to make something like this work?  Do they need to focus on growing their fan base in the Cities where teams already exist?  It just seems like there is a really big opportunity for the MLL to really grow this year, and I want to see that happen!  Sound off in the comments with your thoughts!

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LAS READERS!!! Summer is upon us all now and with Summer in south jersey comes Beach Lacrosse. Beach Lacrosse will be going into it’s second year with many new teams coming from different parts of the country (predominantly from NJ,NY,PA and MD, but there is even a team from Michigan coming out!).

Among them this year will be a new LAS team referred to here on out as the the LaxAllSharks. We will be competing in the Men’s Open Division and I will be covering the two day tourney right here on LAS. Below is our final uniform mock up for the tourney, which is currently in production. Let us know what you think and if you’ll be at the tourney playing with a team or there to cheer on the LaxAllSharks and seeing what Beach Lacrosse is all about. Thanks for reading!

LaxAllSHarks uniforms unlimited lacrosse
Lax All Sharks! Sweet.

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