Major League Lacrosse

[Cringer]

And people made fun of Dominoes being shown by ESPN? I think that had 4x the fans at the actual event then this LA-Chicago game that is on ESPN2.

And whats funny is the tv analyst just said "The fans here in LA love it" about the LA style of play. Yeah, I can tell, they turn out by the dozens.

Then LA scores to take a 13-4 lead and they show a shot of the fans. The section of the bleachers they show has about 25 people in the shot, and 2 guys are clapping right after the goal.....PbP guy says "And there's a shot of the fans showing their appreciation."

This is almost Comedy Central material. The college lacrosse games where much better, the fans in the stands helped. The Stadiums helped actually, this looks like a high school field.

[Lathum]

what does that say about the people who watch it on TV

[Cringer]

Originally Posted by Lathum

what does that say about the people who watch it on TV

I just woke back up and it was on ESPN2 from earlier. And I see something called Major League ______ and I will take a look.

And after visiting the league website I saw this...

The MLL will add two more expansion teams for the 2008 season. For more information on which cities are under consideration, or how you could become involved in bringing an expansion team to your city please contact MLL Commissioner David Gross. His contact information is the following:

I want my own team! They can play on the golf course behind my house.

[Cringer]

Dang, I just found out I couldn't actually own my own team I guess. They are all league owned. The main owner, and founder, is the Body By Jake guy.

[Young Drachma]

Yeah, the league is single-entity and they don't draw well at all, despite playing at HUGE stadiums. The teams that are out west were just added this year, that's after they did a west coast all-star trip out here last year.

Those limited dates drew pretty well, but, playing to empty football stadiums just seems like a terrible idea to me and yet, that's precisely what they do.

Denver's team plays at Invesco Field at Mile High. I guess its a way to fill some afternoon dates at the stadium, because otherwise....you have to wonder.

I prefer the indoor game to their outdoor version, because its not presented well and the game just doesn't look that appealing on TV. But, its a good way for me to take notes on what not to do with our product as we get closer to launch.

[Young Drachma]

And yeah, the college game looks better not only because its better quality (seemingly), but the stands are packed.

[wade moore]

Originally Posted by Dark Cloud

Yeah, the league is single-entity and they don't draw well at all, despite playing at HUGE stadiums. The teams that are out west were just added this year, that's after they did a west coast all-star trip out here last year.

Those limited dates drew pretty well, but, playing to empty football stadiums just seems like a terrible idea to me and yet, that's precisely what they do.

Denver's team plays at Invesco Field at Mile High. I guess its a way to fill some afternoon dates at the stadium, because otherwise....you have to wonder.

I prefer the indoor game to their outdoor version, because its not presented well and the game just doesn't look that appealing on TV. But, its a good way for me to take notes on what not to do with our product as we get closer to launch.

Now THIS is what I expect when someone brings up an obscure sport on TV ...

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by wade moore

Now THIS is what I expect when someone brings up an obscure sport on TV ...

hehe...I know. Just filling my niche.

[BishopMVP]

Originally Posted by Dark Cloud

Yeah, the league is single-entity and they don't draw well at all, despite playing at HUGE stadiums. The teams that are out west were just added this year, that's after they did a west coast all-star trip out here last year.

Those limited dates drew pretty well, but, playing to empty football stadiums just seems like a terrible idea to me and yet, that's precisely what they do.

Denver's team plays at Invesco Field at Mile High. I guess its a way to fill some afternoon dates at the stadium, because otherwise....you have to wonder.

I prefer the indoor game to their outdoor version, because its not presented well and the game just doesn't look that appealing on TV. But, its a good way for me to take notes on what not to do with our product as we get closer to launch.

They draw a lot better for the other teams. Up here in Boston they average close to 6,000 a game. All the other teams were in the Baltimore/Boston corridor where a lot more people play lacrosse, which is why many questioned the expansion to Denver/Chicago/LA/SF. Denver actually is leading the league in attendance right now, ~11,000 a game, but the other three cities aren't doing as well. There just aren't enough people who played/know lacrosse to build a fanbase in a place like California at this point in time. Hopefully it comes together, because I love the sport, but it seems kinda like the expansion is going too fast and the teams might be forced to fold in the future.

I hate the indoor game, it's pretty much for Canadians. The outdoor MLL is different than college (and HS/youth) in that a lot of rules are in place to help scoring and the speed of the game - a shot clock most prominent, with other rules like a 2-pt line and fewer longsticks allowed. I can see some merit to the rules because I hate it when teams stall and try to keep the score down, but in the end it's like hockey going with the 4on4 overtimes - purists think it ruins the game. Throw in the fact that like any new league there are no established rivalries and it kind of falls into the category of "yeah, I'll watch it, but I don't really care who wins." And unlike other sports, I actually have met/played with a number of guys in the league (part of what makes lacrosse so great a community is how easily accessible even the best players are), so it's really cool to turn on ESPN and say "hey, that guy burnt me last summer," but even so I don't care who wins.

As for the stadiums, I agree it looks bad playing in with tons of empty seats or what amounts to a high school field, but this league doesn't exactly have the funding to build lacrosse specific stadiums (also take into account that even at UMass - national runners-up - the field has bleacher seating for maybe 300 people, with a hill on the other side and is used for practice by every other outdoor team, and at Syracuse it's the Carrier Dome with tens of thousands of empty seats, so I'm not even really sure if such a thing as a lacrosse-specific stadium exists outside maybe Hopkins and Hofstra.) Also, just FWIW to Cringer, even though it's early in the season, and it's completely correct to say the atmosphere and TV presentation was better for the college games, any of these teams would kill the best college teams.