Premier Lacrosse League with ties to LI making move to put teams in cities

The Premier Lacrosse League is about to make a significant structural change to its operating model. The five-year-old league, which has its eight teams barnstorming to different cities across North America each weekend in the summer, is set to choose eight permanent sites it will visit in 2024, and it will assign each of its existing teams to one of them.

The change does not mean the league is ditching its tour-based model in favor of the more traditional home-and-away games format. For now, the league's eight teams — Archers, Atlas, Cannons, Chaos, Chrome, Redwoods, Waterdogs and Whipsnakes — are not presently affiliated with a city or region. The league will continue with the touring model, which has proven very popular and successful.

“How it will come to life is that we will certainly have players that live in-market,’’ PLL president and co-founder Paul Rabil told Newsday.  “We're going to have a youth presence; we are going to be working with community groups, whether it's YMCA, Boys and Girls Clubs, local partners, local media, and make sure we're a part of all local events … year-round.’’

Beyond being able to have local youth camps and clinics, affiliating teams with cities or regions will make it easier for television viewers to pick a favorite team, Rabil said. It also opens possibilities for local sponsorship deals, and positions the league for future expansion, though Rabil said that won’t happen “in the near term.’’ One of the reasons for that is that the league likes the tour-based model, and that works best with eight teams.

“Our sweet spot right now is two doubleheaders over a two-day period — a doubleheader each day,’’ he said. “And so, if you look at our existing model, eight teams fits that squarely.’’

He did add, though, that “expansion is in our plans.’’ So, having teams entrenched in markets will make it easier to switch from the tour-based model to a city-based model when the time comes.

For now, the eight permanent markets will each host a weekend with two doubleheaders, one each day, continuing the current format. The “home’’ team will play two games, one each day. Since the league plays a 10-game schedule, the other two regular season weekends will take place at “neutral sites,’’ which will allow the league to continue to test markets for their viability as potential expansion locations, as well as trying to introduce the game to new, non-traditional markets.

As for which eight markets will make up the permanent circuit, the league is giving its fans the opportunity to decide that. It has chosen 23 cities/regions as finalists, from a mix of traditional lacrosse hotbeds, like New York, Baltimore and Albany, and non-traditional spots, like Louisville, Ky., where the All-Star Game was held last weekend. Fans can vote for two finalists by going to the PLL’s website, premierlacrosseleague.com and clicking on the “Home City Vote’’ tab.

With roughly 25% of the league’s players being from Long Island, New York seems a likely choice for one of the eight permanent markets. Once the markets are chosen, the teams will be assigned.

“I think, from a fan-base perspective, it's going to open up PLL to a whole other fan base that they haven't had prior,’’ said Rob Pannell, an attackman who plays for the league’s Redwoods team, and who was captain of the U.S. squad that won the gold medal in this summer’s World Lacrosse Championships.

Pannell, who is from Smithtown and played for the old New York Lizards of Major League Lacrosse, said the Lizards had supporters who weren’t initially lacrosse fans, but attended games at Hofstra because they were local, and then became fans. The PLL will be able to find ways to take advantage of that, he said.

“The PLL is on a whole other level [than MLL] when it comes to marketing, when it comes to social media, when it comes to building brands and teams,’’ he said. “Now adding a city to that team, I have no doubt that they're going to get this out to that entire city, through social media, through email marketing … and double or triple that fan base just because the city is attached to it.’’

Tom Schreiber, a midfielder on the U.S. team who plays for the PLL’s Archers in the summer, and for the National Lacrosse League’s Toronto Rock indoors in the winter, said while he likes the current touring model, he likes the traditional home-and-away model, too.

Schreiber, who grew up in East Meadow and went to St. Anthony’s High School, now lives in New Jersey with his wife Kathleen and their 18-month-old daughter Lillian. With the NLL, he lives at home and flies to Toronto for home games, or meets the team wherever it is playing on the road. Playing for Toronto, he said, he has gotten to know the city a little bit, and he enjoys seeing the same fans at games.

“Seeing them in the stands, knowing that they've been a part of that organization for quite some time, and have had their kids become fans … it's just a different perspective, and just kind of a different experience overall,’’ he said. “It's been really cool to kind of get to know the area and get to know some of the fans from the area and see them really rally around the team.’’

By Colin Stephenson

colin.stephenson@newsday.comColinSNewsday

Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.