2023 Lacrosse

[4_tattoos]

 

[4_tattoos]

I'm going to guesstimate on 4 regions that could be locks for a PLL team in 2024

 

1. New England. The Cannons would get this region by default. They wouldn't be limited to the Boston area for home games.
2. New York City Metro Area. This would cover both Long Island and Northern New Jersey.
3. Rocky Mountains. Would cover both the lax hotbed that is Colorado as well as Utah. Whichever team ends up there would likely be rebranded as a new Outlaws club.
4. Baltimore/Washington DC area. Could see the Whipsnakes ending up there given the club's history of practically being a University of Maryland alumni team. Of course Baltimore and Washington each could realistically support a team of their own, but I think the more likely scenario would be seeing a team placed in Annapolis. If an Annapolis based club were to be the Whipsnakes, I don't think we would see the Bayhawks brand revived. The PLL may want to keep the brand of it's first champions alive. In a scenario where both the Baltimore and Washington area somehow each ended up with a team, I could see the Baltimore adopting the Bayhawks identity while Washington gets the Whipsnakes.

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

They are correcting the major flaw with the PLL.

 

I wonder if, in light of the merger with the MLL, they will consider bringing back some of the longstanding MLL nicknames, particularly Lizards and Bayhawks.

[4_tattoos]

45 minutes ago, Ferdinand Cesarano said:

They are correcting the major flaw with the PLL.

 

I wonder if, in light of the merger with the MLL, they will consider bringing back some of the longstanding MLL nicknames, particularly Lizards and Bayhawks.

In one of the videos I posted Rabil said the team names as we know them right now could change in 2024. With that said I don't think we will see many of the PLL teams rebrand under former MLL identities. Keep in mind the Cannons' name was carried over to PLL.  So that's already 1 out of 8. I could see two PLL teams potentially rebranding depending on where they end up being based. Especially since Rabil also said he wasn't wild about all the original 6 clubs names.

[Seadragon76]

Well, that's something different...

 

You can figure that four cities will more then likely land teams: Boston, Denver, New York and either Baltimore or Washington D.C.

 

The next four? That's the hard part, but I think that Los Angeles, Dallas and Atlanta are good bets.

[4_tattoos]

9 minutes ago, Seadragon76 said:

Well, that's something different...

 

You can figure that four cities will more then likely land teams: Boston, Denver, New York and either Baltimore or Washington D.C.

 

The next four? That's the hard part, but I think that Los Angeles, Dallas and Atlanta are good bets.

Limiting the amount of northeastern teams will be tough as there's about 10 markets in the region that could realistically work. But they don't want to make the same mistakes MLL made in regards to geography.

[4_tattoos]

I thought that slow start would have led to a blowout for Duke, but they managed to come back in the second half to make the game competitive.

[burgundy]

On 5/27/2023 at 4:16 PM, Seadragon76 said:

 

The next four? That's the hard part, but I think that Los Angeles, Dallas and Atlanta are good bets.

 

Chicago seems like a good bet. With Notre Dame winning the men's championship and Northwestern winning the women's, It's a perfect time to put a team in Chicago. Rabil even mentioned Chicago in the video.

 

[4_tattoos]

32 minutes ago, burgundy said:

 

Chicago seems like a good bet. With Notre Dame winning the men's championship and Northwestern winning the women's, It's a perfect time to put a team in Chicago. Rabil even mentioned Chicago in the video.

 

I think if they go to the midwest/great lakes in 2024, that Minnesota could get the nod.  The fan turnout during the last 2 tours at the Vikings complex was pretty good. A Minnesota based PLL team could realistically play homes at the Vikings complex until NFL training camp began, then switch up to Minnesota United's old NASL stadium for the latter part of the season. Or just play in the old NASL stadium the entire season, which is probably cheaper.

 

I'm going on the assumption that MLS clubs would reject a PLL team as a multi month long tenant

[leopard88]

It's about damn time!

 

I know we've had this discussion before and I've always said the PLL would eventually need home cities even if they used some sort of hybrid home game/touring model.  This is basically that.

 

It wasn't clear to me whether each team would get one or two home weekends during the season. I think two would be preferable to help build local ties.  However, if my math is correct, they could only have one each in order to still leave dates for neutral site tour stops.

[MJWalker45]

13 hours ago, 4_tattoos said:

I think if they go to the midwest/great lakes in 2024, that Minnesota could get the nod.  The fan turnout during the last 2 tours at the Vikings complex was pretty good. A Minnesota based PLL team could realistically play homes at the Vikings complex until NFL training camp began, then switch up to Minnesota United's old NASL stadium for the latter part of the season. Or just play in the old NASL stadium the entire season, which is probably cheaper.

 

I'm going on the assumption that MLS clubs would reject a PLL team as a multi month long tenant

I don't think they look at lacrosse the same way they do football, so they are probably fine with it.  The wear and tear is less than what you get with American football. 

14 hours ago, burgundy said:

 

Chicago seems like a good bet. With Notre Dame winning the men's championship and Northwestern winning the women's, It's a perfect time to put a team in Chicago. Rabil even mentioned Chicago in the video.

 

Bridgeview would be a great place for them to set up. With only the Red Stars out there, having another pro team to bringing locals would be better than trying to play out of Soldier Field. 

 

[4_tattoos]

6 hours ago, MJWalker45 said:

I don't think they look at lacrosse the same way they do football, so they are probably fine with it.  The wear and tear is less than what you get with American football.

I don't know about in other MLS stadiums they've gone to, but DC United fans have been vocal about the condition of the grass after each PLL visit. Granted once they transition to the city model, there would not be 4 lacrosse games played on a field in a 48 hour period.

[4_tattoos]

7 hours ago, leopard88 said:

It wasn't clear to me whether each team would get one or two home weekends during the season. I think two would be preferable to help build local ties.  However, if my math is correct, they could only have one each in order to still leave dates for neutral site tour stops.

I'm still not sure how they'll manage to tour neutral sites and play in home markets next year. All I know is Paul Rabil's explanation sounds more complicated than it needs to be.

 

I think one of you guys may have actually birthed this idea before in one of the lacrosse threads over the years, but this is how I think a combo of both schedules should be handled. Let me start by saying this is assuming 1) they will remain at 8 teams for a while, 2) there will be an even geographic (ideally east/west) split of the teams in which divisions can be formed, and 3) the PLL maintains a 10 game regular season. 

 

1. Play division opponents twice, with those games being played in the traditional home/away model. (ie, New England @ Long Island,  Texas @ Utah)
2. Play each team from the other division once, with those games played in neutral site double headers (ie New England vs Texas 3:30pm, Long Island vs Utah 6pm in Minnesota)
3. With 8 teams in 2 divisions playing a 10 game schedule that would make 3 home games, 3 away games and 4 neutral site games.

 

 

[MJWalker45]

15 hours ago, 4_tattoos said:

I don't know about in other MLS stadiums they've gone to, but DC United fans have been vocal about the condition of the grass after each PLL visit. Granted once they transition to the city model, there would not be 4 lacrosse games played on a field in a 48 hour period.

If the only complaint they really had with the XFL was paint on the field, I think one or two lacrosse matches every couple weeks won't be a big issue. But was there a Washington team that played somewhere else before? I wonder if Louden United would be too far for the league? 

 

[JayMac]

I understand that Baltimore and New York are in close proximity, but I don't know why Philadelphia would be overlooked. There have been a couple of PLL championships there as well as some NCAA championships. Philadelphia is a strong lacrosse market. You can put the team at Subaru Park in Chester.

 

 

[leopard88]

19 hours ago, 4_tattoos said:

I'm still not sure how they'll manage to tour neutral sites and play in home markets next year. All I know is Paul Rabil's explanation sounds more complicated than it needs to be.

 

I think one of you guys may have actually birthed this idea before in one of the lacrosse threads over the years, but this is how I think a combo of both schedules should be handled. Let me start by saying this is assuming 1) they will remain at 8 teams for a while, 2) there will be an even geographic (ideally east/west) split of the teams in which divisions can be formed, and 3) the PLL maintains a 10 game regular season. 

 

1. Play division opponents twice, with those games being played in the traditional home/away model. (ie, New England @ Long Island,  Texas @ Utah)
2. Play each team from the other division once, with those games played in neutral site double headers (ie New England vs Texas 3:30pm, Long Island vs Utah 6pm in Minnesota)
3. With 8 teams in 2 divisions playing a 10 game schedule that would make 3 home games, 3 away games and 4 neutral site games.

 

 

 

I think this sounds similar to something I may have concocted once upon a time, but this version sounds better than what I remember.

 

In particular, it seems especially fair for playoff race purposes -- division games all home-and-away, non-division games all neutral site.

[4_tattoos]

5 hours ago, JayMac said:

I understand that Baltimore and New York are in close proximity, but I don't know why Philadelphia would be overlooked. There have been a couple of PLL championships there as well as some NCAA championships. Philadelphia is a strong lacrosse market. You can put the team at Subaru Park in Chester.

 

 

I think there's going to need to be more than one Mid Atlantic team in 2024. Having a Boston based team represent all of New England may be what we are used to, but that won't fly in the Mid Atlantic. I can't even imagine a team being placed in Philly then have Paul Rabil with a straight face on camera saying this team would also represent DC, Baltimore, New Jersey, Long Island, NYC, Albany, Buffalo and Rochester.

[4_tattoos]

8 hours ago, MJWalker45 said:

If the only complaint they really had with the XFL was paint on the field, I think one or two lacrosse matches every couple weeks won't be a big issue. But was there a Washington team that played somewhere else before? I wonder if Louden United would be too far for the league? 

 

DCU fans have complained about the wear and tear on the grass from XFL. This year they appear to use a lighter coating of paint.

 

IIRC before the Bayhawks settled in Annapolis, as a Washington based team they played home games at both Georgetown and George Mason Universities.

 

I have my doubts about Audi Field as a PLL home stadium simply because that would be four teams (DCU, Defenders, Spirt and Whipsnakes) all playing on that field consistently from February through November. Granted the XFL and potential PLL teams would have way fewer games than the soccer teams do.

[Jer15]

Well.....the next few years will be interesting for the Toronto Rock.

As many know, the First Ontario Centre is about to go under huge renovations. 

They lost the CEBL's Honey Badgers to Brampton permanently. The OHL's Bulldogs have moved to Brantford and it's up in the air if they will return or not (I suspect they will).

Now the Rock have announced they will start next season in Hamilton and move to Mississauga to complete the year and stay there until the  renovations are complete in Hamilton.  

A 3rd move in 3 years. Hopefully this doesn't hurt attendance. 

 

https://torontorock.com/news/2023-24-toronto-rock-season-will-begin-in-hamilton-followed-by-temporary-relocation-to-mississauga/

[4_tattoos]

Not sure how to feel about this being part of the equation