Premier Lacrosse League debuts at Gillette Stadium

With the 2021 re-launch of the Premier Lacrosse League, America’s oldest sport has its newest professional league — and it all starts at Gillette Stadium this weekend.

“What the PLL has created, they’ve gotten the best players in the world together and put them on a select number of teams. We’re all going out there and creating this environment for people to come and watch at different stadiums in different states, to try to spread lacrosse all over the country,” said Cannons Lacrosse Club player Chris Hogan.

If that name rings a bell, it’s because Hogan spent three seasons as a wide receiver with the Patriots, winning two Super Bowls. The Penn State lacrosse alum left the NFL and went undrafted, but was picked up by the Boston Cannons before the start of the ’21 season.

Now he’s back at his old stomping grounds, practicing on the field at Gillette.

“Obviously I’m very familiar with this stadium, and I get to see the banners up there that I was a part of. It’s pretty cool coming back here. I haven’t really been back here since I left,” he said.

Hogan might be the most familiar name on the Cannons roster, but he’s not the biggest — that would be Paul Rabil, who cofounded the league with brother Michael Rabil in 2019.

Paul Rabil, 35, is a Maryland native who led Johns Hopkins to two NCAA National Championships during his illustrious four-year college career. He garnered national attention as one of the only lacrosse players to make a living playing in professional leagues after his college career.

Lacrosse has seen multiple professional and semi-professional leagues pop up and fold. Before the PLL, Major League Lacrosse operated seasons and traveling tournaments from 2001 to 2020. But despite rapid growth in the game at the youth and high school levels, the league went through numerous expansions and contractions. Broadcast rights bounced around FOX, ESPN, and NBCSports. After seeing in-game attendance peak at more than 6,000 fans in 2011, crowd size reached an all-time low in 2018.

Backed by an army of investors with deep pockets, the Rabil brothers absorbed the MLL and prepared to re-launch the PLL post-pandemic. One of the core differences between the new league and legacy models is offering athletes higher wages and — more critically — health insurance. The average MLL salary in 2019 was around just $8,000, while the average PLL salary that same year was $35,000, according to the league.

Those numbers are lightyears away from the big bucks earned by other professional athletes, but the jump reflects Rabil’s campaigning for better wages and benefits, to attract higher talent to the pro level after they wrap up their college careers.

And investors have taken notice. Just Wednesday, the league announced it closed another round of funding, led in part by the Kraft Group.

This season, the focus appears to be on exposure. NBC will own the games all summer, broadcasting across its stations and Peacock apps.

“Creating that hype around the sport is huge, and the PLL has done a really good job of that,” said Cannons goalie Nick Marrocco.

“It’s going to be everywhere, so people are going to be able to see it. What I think they’ve created is a fast-paced game, where they’ve shortened the field and there’s a shot clock. And again, you have the best lacrosse players in the world playing here,” Hogan said.

And don’t forget, Hogan’s former coach is a huge lacrosse fan. Who knows? Maybe he’ll stop by the office to catch a game this weekend.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3yW8EVW