Premier Lacrosse League: The Future of Pro Lax?

I've played lacrosse my whole life. I was introduced to the sport when I was six years old, and what turned into casual catches and throws with my dad in the backyard turned into a deep love for the game. To this day, I still love watching college lacrosse. The best Division 1 players are any young lacrosse player's idol. They are arguably the most skilled players in their sport, but sadly, college lacrosse is about the peak of any player's lacrosse career. I wondered when lacrosse would finally get its chance to be one of the big professional sports in the US. I think I can confidently say that with the new Premier Lacrosse League starting up this summer, professional lacrosse might finally be on the rise in popularity, media coverage, and (the best part in my opinion) actually competitive lacrosse.

For those who do not follow professional lacrosse (and I don't know many people who do, myself included), there have been multiple attempts to establish a legitimate pro field lacrosse league in the US and Canada since the early 2000s. The first real opportunity for a pro league came with the creation of Major League Lacrosse in 2001, which began with six teams based in Boston, Long Island, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Rochester, Toronto, New Jersey, and Connecticut. The MLL gave audiences the chance to see some of the early 21st-century phenoms like the Powell Brothers (Casey, Ryan, and Mikey) of Syracuse University. It was believed that the MLL could follow a path similar to the early NHL: six teams playing each other multiple times a year, with a playoff bracket and championship game. The league's founder, David Morrow, was convinced that the league would grow through media exposure and fan love. For awhile it seemed like the MLL could emerge as a real professional sports league, and even expanded into markets like Denver, Los Angeles, Columbus, Chicago, Dallas, Charlotte, and Tampa. Yet, almost all of the expansion teams have folded or gone on hiatus. Even though the MLL had stacked up a collection of lacrosse superstars like Paul Rabil, Kyle Harrison, Tom Schreiber, and Myles Jones, the league struggled to bring in fans and adequate player compensation. The league was lucky if they were able to get a live game on cable TV. Even in the digital age and the era of online livestreaming, the MLL was slow to pick up on successful ways to market the brand of the MLL, the teams, and appeal to players.

Paul Rabil is the driving force behind this new era for professional lacrosse. He played twelves seasons in the MLL as a member of the Boston Cannons and New York Lizards, but he learned to adapt to the digital age incredibly well. Since the MLL couldn't pay him enough as a player, he decided to navigate the difficult realm of social media influencing and marketing. However, he did so in spectacular fashion; his YouTube page currently has a little more than 198,000 subscribers; he is a Red Bull athlete, and a global ambassador for the sport. You could consider him to be the David Beckham of lacrosse: everyone knows his face, his skill, and how much he has done for the sport, much like how Beckham was a huge reason that MLS soccer rose to fame in the United States. Rabil grew tired of the MLL's slow rise to fame. Through his social media skills, Rabil learned in order for professional lacrosse to succeed, it was going to need to learn how to market players as celebrities rather than just the team and the sport alone. After meeting with some investors at Bloomberg, Rabil and his brother Mike successfully founded the Premier Lacrosse League as of June 1, 2019. And it has done incredibly well.

The PLL is different from its MLL counterpart. Instead of having a team established in one city, there are six teams that all travel together on a touring circuit for fourteen weeks. Players earn $25,000 a season, and the league has the financial backing of businessmen such as Joseph Tsai, founder of Alibaba. A litany of MLL stars jumped ship to play for Rabil's startup league, and multiple games have been broadcast of NBC Sports Network on cable and streamed on NBC Sports Gold online. Already, there is much more media coverage for the league and more benefits like higher pay and healthcare. In less time than the MLL has been around, the PLL has cracked the code on how make a legitimate professional lacrosse league: six touring teams, fresh jersey designs from Adidas, promotional events like $50 for all you can eat and drink, and they even gone so far to include the players' social media tags on the back of their jerseys. The ceiling is incredibly high for the PLL and with a new wave of college players set to come in next year, the talent is only going to get better. MLL is the old face of pro lacrosse that couldn't figure out how to market itself or players; the PLL presents a new dynamic and a fresh face to professional lacrosse.

Rabil's idea for a higher quality league has become true; now it looks like it could be the next big thing for lacrosse. This season has been a resounding success for the league. Attendance has been decent at most venues; they have been playing in the same stadiums that MLS teams use; and the league's Instagram page has racked up 162,000 followers and it hasn't been a full season yet. I believe that it is fair to say that the PLL will be the future of professional lacrosse. The inaugural season has blown expectations and there is still plenty of room to grow. Hopefully by 2024, the league will have a sizable following and more cable or digital air time, larger crowds at venues, and the same level of talent it has now.