What We Need in Lacrosse Growth- Part I, NLL

In regards to media coverage, I am reminded of a feature that our local sports anchor did after the Stealth lost in the championship game this year. I’ll try to find the video for it and get it up. The outline of his argument was a comparison between the NLL and MLS.

First, if we look at the MLS (in Seattle specifically), the Sounders have the largest attendance by far, but this is not due to the media. The crowds were promoting the Sounders while they were still a USL team and then even more when they got promoted. It was only after the first game that the media really jumped on board, when they realized that all of the hype was true. Ever since that day all games are televised, almost daily updates about the team, and advertisements using the rave green and blue in countless different mediums.

Now, let’s take a look at the NLL in Seattle (Everett to be specific). The Stealth have been here for multiple years now and what have they done? Win the championship and then return to it the next year. It seems like the team is doing their part to be likable by people (especially since Washington teams don’t have the recent history of winning that much). Now, I was able to go to the Stealth v. Roughnecks game during my Spring Break and it was my very first NLL game that I went to. I’ll admit, I hadn’t heard of the Stealth much before that date, so I wasn’t expecting a lot.

When I finally arrived at the stadium, there was parking specials in a garage right across the street ($5 for parking) that would run for every home game. This was surprising due to parking for the Sounders costing $20+ since day one. The stadium was very nice (Comcast Arena), but it was also pretty quaint because it was used for a minor league hockey team. There were lines of people waiting to get in over half an hour before the game. I was expecting the place to be almost sold out (especially because it was free poster and mug night). When I got inside I realized that most of the people were from local youth lacrosse leagues or high school teams. Then the music began. I thought it set a good atmosphere at the beginning but it got old very fast (songs being changed every minute with the styles clashing and being played at a very high volume). The announcer was great though, he was able to get the (very small) crowd involved. But at the end of the day, the Stealth lost and I left the game thinking that it was fun, but not very memorable. It was my first game, it should have definitely been memorable.

Now to get back to my original point, the thing that is different between the NLL and MLS is there was no crowd that is promoting the NLL. The media will pick up the games if people actually care about them. The Stealth are doing everything that they can to be popular (winning, giveaways, and being accessible), but they need the fans to promote them more if they wish to grow.

I agree the NLL/MLL have a lack of promotions. The Swarm (Team Closest to me) do draw a good crowd and have a strong following but from my experince many of the seats are give aways. I attended the Cancer night (pink Jerseys) and they had a very large crowd and the crowd mostly seemed to be pumped for lacrosse but the atmosphere created at the game was far from awesome. to much music which many people complained about. The nightly promotion was chuck a ball and if you made it in the garbage can in the center they gave you 2 free airline tickets, a great promo. only with the nets at the ends people were scrambling to get to the sides to throw there ball so it had 1/2 a chance. Still with Lacrosse growing big time in the Minnesota area they need to get out and get the word out. maybe having the players show up in uniform at a high school game or tourney would help. it wont get fixed over night and while I hate to admit it the NLL having a video game will help the league long term.