On episode 81 of the Going Offsides podcast, Nick and Ryan discuss what’s going wrong with the women’s lacrosse tournament scheduling and take a hard look at the championship weekend matchups.
Women’s Lacrosse Scheduling
As fathers of young girls and lacrosse fans, both Ryan and I are invested in the future of women’s lacrosse. It is unsettling that with all of the progress that seems to be being made in society, we’re still struggling to get little things right. One of those little things is as simple as scheduling marquee games during accessible times.
It isn’t rocket science that if you want a sport to grow, you need people to be able to watch it, and yet Friday we will have four of the world’s greatest lacrosse teams playing on what is very much still a weekday at 12 p.m. and 2 p.m. Some will argue it was the only prime TV slot available, and I will immediately counter that by saying it’s more important to have the games at better times than to be on certain networks. I’m sure both of these teams would rather play at 5 p.m. and 7 p.m., 6 p.m. and 9 p.m., even 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. if needed so that their fans and new fans wouldn’t have to choose between school/work and the sport they love.
As teachers, Ryan and I are off tomorrow and able to enjoy the games with our young daughters, but we are very much the exception.
Championship Weekend Preview
Covid be damned, we made it. Through all of the ups and downs, cancelled and rescheduled games, terminated seasons, protocols and testing, we made it to the greatest weekend in our sport: Memorial Day Weekend. The quality of lacrosse has never been so great and so widespread as it is this year. If you’re a DI or men’s only fan, I encourage you to take a moment and really enjoy the great women’s, DII, and DIII games that will take place this weekend. If we want the game to grow, we need to do our part and watch it on TV as much as possible.