What is the Ideal Lacrosse Market?

The National Lacrosse League has tested almost every potential market possible to bring their product to that city. Failures such as New York, Chicago, Arizona, Vancouver and Baltimore make many doubt the league's legitimacy.

 To those nay-sayers, the proud supporters of the league point to Buffalo and Colorado, two thrives areas where lacrosse matters to the residents and the team gets constant support. The Buffalo Bandits have existed since 1992 and last week vs Washington sold out before game time. The team issued a press release saying that there were no more tickets at the box office.

 But the organization I am the most proud to support isn't even my own. The Boston Blazers support their team well, but the team I point to is Colorado. The Mammoth did not win a home game for two years before last week, yet they constantly set league records for attendance. Now that they have won two home games this season, we can only hope the NLL can use Colorado as a launching pad for further success.

Why to markets like these succeed and so many others fail? If the league is proven to get support, how come obvious lacrosse hotbeds like Baltimore and Vancouver fail? Can a pro sports league survive with only ten teams or less?

When the National Lacrosse League was born way back in the day as the Eagle Pro Lacrosse League, we saw the Washington Wave, Baltimore Thunder, Philadelphia Wings and New Jersey Saints. Since that day back in 1987, the Philadelphia Wings still live and the Thunder survive as the Colorado Mammoth.

 The Saints ended up in New York, one of two failed attempts at the Big Apple. The New York Titans lasted four years before their failure in Orlando. The question here is, why does the biggest populated city in America not draw?

 One thing we all have to remember is that box lacrosse is a foreign sport in the US. It was invented in Canada and is far different from field lacrosse. Is that a draw back for American viewers? I highly doubt it, seeing that we follow the NHL, but it is a question often brought up, and is worthy of investigating.

 But the NLL has failed in Vancouver, Ottawa, Hamilton and Montreal as well, so maybe there is no substance to this point.

 So we continue to delve into the mystery that is the NLL. How do markets succeed so well, yet others fail? Baltimore should be an obvious market, but they failed in the NLL and their MLL team can't decide if they are Washington, Chesapeake or Maryland. It seems to be more of a college following in that area, sort of like Arkansas or Alabama in college football. College football hotbeds, but would never work in the pros.

 The NLL is lucky they tested Colorado, or else they would have never known. Who knew Colorado cared about lacrosse? The MLL's Denver Outlaws constantly outdraw their MLL opponents all season as well. What other disguised markets are out there?

 Milwaukee is one market just waiting to be explored, as well as Texas. I feel Vancouver will be back again, and would be shocked to see NY be tried again. But right now teams like Rochester, Calgary and Washington are in unstable situations, so should the league focus on that first? Or is expansion in the near future?