The Premier Lacrosse League

PLL Logo

Today I am going to be highlighting some aspects of the newly created Premier Lacrosse League. Although there is already the Major Lacrosse League, the PLL is unique in many ways. The PLL is in its first year of operation and has seen tremendous success. The co-founder, Paul Rabil is a player in the league and started this new league from his dissatisfaction with the MLL and how it treated its players. Some of the main problems that this league faced were low wages, decreased exposure on a national stage, and consistent PR problems. With these problems in mind, Rabil set out to create a new league which would be much more attractive to players.

The MLL is structured like any normal professional league with teams that have host cities and play each other in a regular season into playoffs until eventually a team is crowned champion. In the newly formed PLL however, the league is tour based. This means all 6 teams do not have an affinity to any city and will go to various cities around the country each weekend to play all of their games. For example. In week 1, all 6 teams traveled to Gillette Stadium, home of the New England Patriots, where 3 games were played over the weekend. The next week, all 6 teams traveled to New York City to play in Red Bull Arena, facing a different opponent than they did the week prior.

This is an interesting concept and an especially new one to the sport of lacrosse. One of the main reasons for this idea is because lacrosse is still very much in a growth stage. By traveling to each city once a year for 3 professional lacrosse games, the hope is that it will spur major excitement and interest around the sport and the weekend. By being able to showcase professional games in cities that might not be familiar with lacrosse, Rabil hopes to spread the game across the country instead of just on the east coast where it is most prominent. This is a very interesting league which has caused a significant amount of controversy with the old and still existing league. Be sure to check back in as I post updates on the latest news happening around the PLL!