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pro box lacrosse is coming to Maine
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Welcome Pro Lacrosse to… Maine!

The USLL has announced the first franchise in league history. The Maine Moose Trax will be playing out of the Cumberland County Civic Center in Portland, Maine, starting in the Fall of 2014. Moose Trax is an interesting name to say the least, and I immediately think of the chocolatey goodness ice cream flavor. Maybe they didn’t need to add the Trax portion, as everyone will probably just refer to them as the Maine Moose (Mooses? Meese?).

Michael Allen pointed out something kinda catchy about the full name though, so maybe they will go with “Trax Lax” for something in the marketing department, like a t-shirt or bumper sticker? I personally think it’s a pretty cool mascot and no one has used it in a while. Unfortunately, the last time I remember a franchise using it was in the ECHL, and they became the Ice Caps. I’m looking at you Manitoba.

I hope professional box lacrosse does well in Maine, I really do. All jokes aside, there aren’t a lot of attractions of this type in Portland, so I hope the city becomes fond of the Moose Trax, and shows their support in the seasons to come. The Cumberland County Civic Center holds just under 7,000 people and this makes it a good arena for a smaller sport, like US box lacrosse.

The United States Lacrosse League is the United States’ next answer for professional box lacrosse. After the NALL and PLL both folded, those who wanted to keep the dream alive formed the USLL. You can find the official release here, and many of the same guys are involved in this new venture, like league commissioner Anthony Chase.

A couple of days ago the official page of the Kentucky Stickhorses announced that they are joining the league but it has since been removed. The league plans to make another announcement on Friday and I’m guessing since Anthony Chase, the owner of the Stickhorses, is league commissioner, it could be them. But hey, it’s just speculation at this point.

The USLL Facebook did ask for people to weigh in on their ideas for 6 teams in 4 different conferences. Below you can find my ideal list (using Cities that don’t already have an NLL franchise), which doesn’t mean anything other than “I like to make lists.” It’s a lot of teams, but they dream of even more. I’d love to see it happen, but with the lack of success box has had here in the States, I tend to see the final list as being much smaller. Start small, think big!

West

Portland, OR

Missoula, MT

Southern CA (LA?)

Northern CA (SF?)

Dallas, TX

Seattle, WA

Northeast

Syracuse, NY

Burlington, VT

Long Island, NY

Boston, MA

Trenton, NJ

Portland, ME

Midwest

Louisville, KY

Chicago, IL

Grand Rapids, MI

Madison, WI

Detroit, MI

Columbus or Cleveland, OH

East

Charlotte or Raleigh, NC

Baltimore, MD

Atlanta, GA

Southern FL (Ft. Lauderdale?)

Nashville, TN

Richmond, VA

If you think your list is better, then PLEASE post it below! Also make sure to let us know what you think about professional lacrosse coming to Maine! Will it work? Will people come out and support the team? Where will the next franchise be announced?