By David Rogers. CHARLOTTE, N.C. — There were winning teams and losing teams on June 9-10 when the Premier Lacrosse League for its second weekend of the 2023 season, this time at the American Legion Memorial Stadium. And yet, the biggest winner of all may very well have been Charlotte, the city and major media market.
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Only two weeks earlier (May 25), Premier Lacrosse League distributed a press release announcing that beginning in 2024, the eight clubs comprising the league’s competition would be assigned to home cities. Since the league’s formation in 2018, PLL has taken its eight franchises to as many as 12 different markets. The teams have been identified only by their nicknames: Whipsnakes, Waterdogs, Chaos, Chrome, Redwoods, Atlas, Cannons, and Archers, each one playing a single game each weekend. On June 3-4, they played in Albany, N.Y. to kickoff the season. On June 16-17 the tour traveled to Columbus, Ohio, then the next week to Minneapolis; and so on to Fairfield, Conn.; Louisville, Dallas, Baltimore, Denver, Seattle, and Salt Lake City before staging playoffs in Boston, Long Island, and Philadelphia.
Ostensibly, each of the cities hosting the tour are vying for a coveted “home city” designation beginning in 2024. Charlotte made a strong case by nearly filling the 21,000 capacity Memorial Stadium venue. In previous years, a typical PLL crowd, according to stats gleaned from online sources, numbered in the 12,000 to 13,000 range. The Columbus-based event will be hosted by the recently built Ohio State University lacrosse stadium, with a capacity of about 3,000.
According to the Inside Lacrosse Recruiting Database found online, 169 high schools in North Carolina offered men’s lacrosse in 2023 and 106 schools offered women’s lacrosse in the most recent season, including both public and private institutions. From PLL’s perspective, participation at the middle and high school levels translates into good potential market demand for a professional lacrosse product.
In the short-term, the scores of the four games on June 9-10 were important for the players, coaches and PLL organizers. Three matches were decided by a single point, one by a wider margin:
- Archers def. Chrome, 12-7
- Redwoods def. Waterdogs, 10-9
- Atlas def. Whipsnakes, 12-11
- Chaos def. Cannons, 14-13
As the scores suggest, the action was fast-paced and all of the teams will be looking on with interest as to which home city they will be representing next year.
BONUS PHOTOS
