MLL Success

[Led_Zeppelin]

Hey All,

I'm a pretty new fan of lacrosse, I played rugby and wrestled while I was in high school, but have sice become interested in lacrosse. My question is this, box lacrosse is more popular in Canada while field lacrosse is more popular here in the States. Yet, the NLL teams in the US seem to draw larger crowds than the MLL (Colorado is a good example). I've also read that the MLL is having problems with drawing crowds, but it is based on the East Coast in the areas that field lacrosse is popular, such as Boston, New York, and Baltimore, where college games draw huge crowds. I don't understand what the problem would be? Is the NLL more popular because it is a faster, rougher game that more Americans can easily relate to due to it's similarity to hockey? Or is the MLL just having growing pains, due to the lack of more well known playing venues and a more regional audience?

It just seems to me like it would be a shame to see what could be a very good thing sputter and die so soon, due to lack of interest and/or profit. Any thoughts would be welcome.

Thanks

[Mr. Big]

Keep in mind the NLL is a lot older than the MLL. Also, the styles of play are very different. The MLL is taking "baby steps" towards becoming big time. In '06, four new teams take the field. In '08, two more, bring team totals to 12. More importantly (to me), the MLL becomes more geogrphical and less regional next season. We are witnessing the beginning of a professional lacrosse explosion. I believe crowds in excess of 15,000 aren't too far away.

[groundballs1111]

College lacrosse, in general, does not draw "huge" crowds. With the exception of the marquee matchups, and the NCAA tourney, many college teams play in front of a few hundred fans. Even with the marquee matchups, many college lacrosse games are very inexpensive to attend as well. The MLL is doing a great job of growing and increasing attendance in their markets. I agree with Mr. Big, it is only a few years until it really hits the big.

[Pedro995]

I agree with Mr. Big and groundballs, the MLL is still very young, and with the western expansion, the explosion is certainly near. I was wondering, how many games does each team play in an NLL season? Each team in the MLL only has 14 games I believe each summer, 7 of which are home (right?), at that there aren't many opportunities for people to attend games, especially in beantown, where the sox have 3 or 4 game stints at Fenway. So most games only bring the same fans each game and not an extreme amount of newcomers and people unfamiliar to the game. The majority of people I see at Cannons games are kids with their friends and parents. Time will tell for the MLL.

[temporary1357]

NLL plays only 16 games, and I think anywhere from 16-22 games is a good amount for the MLL at this point. Remember, the more games there are, the fewer people attend each game.

[Stopper22]

i think the biggest problem is the fact that the MLL is during the summer whne people have more things to do, while the NLL is durign the winter when there is less to do. In ROchester we get crazy amounts of snow, so what else is there to do but go sit inside and watch a game.

[bonedaddy]

agreed. MLL's problem is Summer vs. Spring (or late spring) schedule. Start in May, end in June and play some double header weekend four team tournaments to get the games in (or Thursday night, Saturday games). Maybe copy Soccer and create "cup" games to add interest

[RedBird1]

Its possibly cuz the NLL is the shiet!!

[temporary1357]

A winter schedule? Do you guys like playing in a blizzard or something?

And in MLS, cup games generate ZERO interest. Big crowds only come when lower division teams host MLS teams. It doens't work the other way around.

[mdawg12087]

begin in May end in June, thats retarded.....u cant really have them play any other time during the summer
Imagine the Cannons....they have to compete with the redsox, and the revs(maybe) during the summer...not to hard esp. with only one game a week....but do it any other time, ur competiting with baseball and basketball, and hockey maybe(if early) and then if the did it later, it would be them vs. baseball, the Pats, and bball if late....so the summer and there current one game a week schedule is as good as it gets

[Bama Boy]

begin in May end in June, thats retarded.....u cant really have them play any other time during the summer
Imagine the Cannons....they have to compete with the redsox, and the revs(maybe) during the summer...not to hard esp. with only one game a week....but do it any other time, ur competiting with baseball and basketball, and hockey maybe(if early) and then if the did it later, it would be them vs. baseball, the Pats, and bball if late....so the summer and there current one game a week schedule is as good as it gets


I agree. The timing of MLL is just fine. Summer is already boring for the most part because most of the US media only cover and show games of one sport -baseball. All the other sports like soccer, lacrosse, and rugby (Rugby Super League plays a Spring schedule, though, and MLR plays Summer) play only one game a week and fans from all three sports are left to watch baseball during the week for sports entertainment. I thank God that MLS sometimes plays games on Wednesdays and like this Summer, has played a lot of exhibitions against big European teams, and I can watch MLL on a usual boring Tuesday afternoon.

We need MLL as well as soccer and rugby to get more games on TV and more coverage on ESPN and other outlets so the Summer can can be as filled with sports like in the Fall and Winter.

[broslax16]

I think another reason the MLL doesnt have a huge fan base is due to the lack of advertising. Im not quite sure about how well the NLL does on advertising. I bet if you exposed more people to the MLL teams, or when they are going to play, you would have better average attendance. Just a thought.

[8-ball]

on a very good note, their attendence is more on average then the whole season last year, and this season isnt even over yet. the attendence isnt up too much, but its still up. thats a good sign for a 5 year old league. i remember the 1st year of the league, people were talking about how they should advertize more. its still a question worth being raised. one thing i think is that theyre concentrating on their budget for other things first, b/c advertizing can be very expenseive.

[RichfromBoston]

I think you are going to see a crowd of 15,000 to 20,000
for a Cannons- Bayhawks championship game

Hopefulloy that will give the league some momentum going into next year!

[shiftylax]

Quick and dirty? Thier Marketing is the worst in professional sports. See any MLL billboards? I haven't. See any news paper adevertisements? Me either. How about radio ads? Nada. There have been minimal - if any - grass roots efforts. The only thing they have done is cater to peopel that are already lacrosse fans, instead of sports fans.

They put all of their time and efforts into their TV deal, which gets them national exposure...on tuesday afternoons. I didn't even see a commercial or a blurb on sportscenter for the all-star game. As a result, I missed it - and I'd like to think I'm pretty plugged in to the lacrosse community so I was pissed.

The MLL likes to tout the potential for growth in their market, and their great demographic (white, rich, rural AND urban) but they have so far refused to capitalize on it. Hire an ad agency guys, a good one.

[Led_Zeppelin]

I've noticed that the MLL has a lot of sponsors that you wouldn't think of supporting a pro sports league, like Tommy Hilfiger and Starbucks. I wonder if attracting more mainstream sponsors like Gatorade, Reebok, or Nike?

[groundballs1111]

First of all, advertising costs a lot of money. "National" advertising on ESPN costs a lot of money. Many of these teams were spending boatloads of money in years 1-2 on advertising and didn't see the returns. It is a simple cost analysis... you need to see the money returned to justify where you are marketing (print, television, etc). Just by putting something in the paper or on the radio/tv does not bring any guarantee that the fans will flock in large numbers to the games.

Second, in judging from your location, it looks like you are living in Austin, TX. Honestly, how much advertising do you really expect to see in the south for games played in the northeast? While televison ratings are great, these teams need their local fans to buy tickets. That is where their advertising should be if they feel inclined to spend the money. But again, if the costs outweigh the rewards, then it doesn't amke a lot of sense to drop high-end dollars.

[shiftylax]

Hahaha, bro I JUST moved down here last month. I've been living in NH and MA for that past 20 years. (I'm 26).

Your assertion that the league spent a lot of money in the first few years is true, but not in the way that you have stated. Most of the money - too much of the money- went to the players. All of the marquee players paid like "real" professional athletes nearly bankrupted the league.

Radio ads, print ads have always been sparse, if not non-existent. Hell, the Barrage played on NCAA weekend this year but they only had a flyer presence and they were only around for an hour or two. They weren't giving out promo tickets, they were just handing out cards that said where the game was. The cards didn't even have directions or who they were playing that evening. At the game that night there were more people cheering for Boston than Philly - it was embarassing.

I get what you're saying, but it sort of supports my point that the money has been misspent.

Oh, and FYI - Dallas is the 4th MLL team.

[groundballs1111]

touche! Although the teams market themselves, and the players are paid by the league. Too much money to players should not have any effect on how the individual teams market themselves. In a round about way, I think we agree... somehow!

[cannonslax624]

MLL is on SportsCenter. It gained the number one highlight for the top 10 after the allstar game skills competition. highlights from tuesday games are on espn often. give the league and the channel a break. how much would it cost to do a segment on the MLL? Sportscenter has better offers on the table, and the MLL cant afford something like that. With that said, they do decently in terms of highlight reels and recaps on smaller segments like "SportsCenter Express".

And the Cannons are ALWAYS IN THE Boston Herald! Or do you not read that newspaper. Look at today, in the Sports In Brief Section, the headline is how the league penalizes three Cannons in huge font. So what are you talking about? The team gets press. Maybe not as much as we'd like , but it's there alright. Take the Cannons-Hawks game. I knew exactly who won and Millon's 14 pt performance and Leveilles 9 goal display just out of the paper alone.

How much would an ad agency cost? More than in the normal payroll of a 5 year old league? Definitely.

[shiftylax]

No one reads the Herald, dude. I buy the globe at Borders down here in TX, for chrissakes.

My point on the all star game is that they didn't advertize that it was going to be broadcast on saturday. Did you see an ad for it? The only reaos I knew that it happened is that my buddy called me into the room after the top 10 highlights you're talking about.

You don't pay for newsbroadcasts and coverage on sportscenter - the programming director decides what to put on and in what order and how to frame it. No one pays to have a story done on them, reports find the stories and report them. And you don't have to hire a whole agency to get help advertizing - just hire some interns from BU to do more than hawk tickets.

[cannonslax624]

Yes, dude, people do read the Herald. The Globe may be more popular, but people do read the Herald. Besides, the Herald has a better sports section. Much better.

Why would a reporter report a story on lacrosse when hundreds of thousands more people care about Golf or even Soccer? They base their stories on Mass Appeal..Would you rather hear about Raffy Palmeiro, or the All Star Game? Again, I would appreciate an announcement about the game as well. But it just isnt goign to happen. on SportsCenter tuesday morning, can you expect them to say Watch the game today on ESPN2?

And yeah, the Cannons could do a better job marketing. But oh well. I'll take what I can get. The league is STILL HERE, for those of you who don't know, so obviously they've done something right. Attendance is up. It could be up more, but I still won't complain. For all the doubters and naysayers - we're still right here.

[Bama Boy]

Yes, dude, people do read the Herald. The Globe may be more popular, but people do read the Herald. Besides, the Herald has a better sports section. Much better.

Why would a reporter report a story on lacrosse when hundreds of thousands more people care about Golf or even Soccer? They base their stories on Mass Appeal..Would you rather hear about Raffy Palmeiro, or the All Star Game? Again, I would appreciate an announcement about the game as well. But it just isnt goign to happen. on SportsCenter tuesday morning, can you expect them to say Watch the game today on ESPN2?

And yeah, the Cannons could do a better job marketing. But oh well. I'll take what I can get. The league is STILL HERE, for those of you who don't know, so obviously they've done something right. Attendance is up. It could be up more, but I still won't complain. For all the doubters and naysayers - we're still right here.

Amen, brother. :worship: