Like many in the City, I was raised around the game of lacrosse, playing from Kindergarten through college, and Memorial Day weekend has always meant two things to me, the beach and the NCAA lacrosse championships. (Needless to say my view on lacrosse is thus more than slightly biased.)
This Saturday between my time at the gym and my time at Brother Jimmy's I was able to watch lacrosse simultaneously with baseball, soccer and hockey for the first time. The Duke Cornell game versus the Champions League, and the Denver Syracuse game against the Rangers Bruins, and whatever the baseball game that I wasn't paying attention to. To me, lacrosse can best be explained as a hybrid of hockey and soccer, with the ball control of basketball. It is a wide open, physical game, wherein points are hard enough to come by that every goal is valuable, but it is not so hard to score that a goal is a rarity. Like soccer it is a game of skill, and like hockey it is a game of physicality, and like basketball the players have the ability to control the ball and run plays.
As professional lacrosse is a paid hobby rather than a profession, lacrosse obviously loses athletes to the big four sports, and soccer. Further, given the general expense of the equipment, the barriers of entry into the sport are quite high, and it has developed a reputation of a rich kids prep school sport, and schools that succeed at lacrosse tend to be very strong academically at both the prep and collegiate level.
Lacrosse has consistently been the fastest growing sport of the past decade. This growth, however, has yet to translate into widespread popularity at the collegiate or professional level; Title Nine being a significant reason why collegiality. (Rumor had it the Florida State Club coach offered a few years back to fund the teams transition to Division I out of pocket, but the school could not raised the funds to pay for the required women's teams to balance out the addition of a men's lacrosse team.) With the right guidance, I feel lacrosse can eventually challenge baseball as America's spring / summer sport. The ready made lacrosse stadiums (football fields) in every city and town in American, give in a significant advantage against other emerging sports. Further, the general athleticism required to play the sports allows it to be an excellent off season complement to fall and winter sports.
Can lacrosse break into the mainstream of professional sports? Also if yes, where would the best opportunities be to invest in lacrosse?
I think it has the potential to make moves, but the image of the sport will need to change first. In most circles, particularly out west where it's not as big yet, it's seen as the sport for upper-class preppies and that plus the image of the lax bros on college campuses probably turns a lot of people off of the sport. I don't think it's fair to stereotype a sport like that, but once it moves past that image, I think there's some potential for it.
Whether or not it can surpass baseball, which is so ingrained in American culture, remains to be seen and I'm not so sure if it will do that (then again, I don't know a ton about the game), but I think it can still be a viable sport in the future that gets it's fair share of followers.
inb4 all the laxbros say it's already mainstream
After playing and coaching, I'm very confident the game will grow at an accelerated pace; however, Title IX is the game's biggest obstacle to growth. It is embarrassing that there are only 63 men's Division I teams. Compare that to the women's side where they have over 100 teams, including major DI schools such as Florida, Vanderbilt, Northwestern, etc. There are far more boys playing lacrosse at the high school level than girls, so such a disparity should not exist.
Since Division I lacrosse is the sport's showcase event, bypassing Title IX is a must. It's great that the game is growing out west, down south, etc. but there aren't any major DI schools in the area matching that growth (excluding Michigan, that one was huge).
As for the pro level, the game has a long, long way to go.
I did not know that but that is actually more than hockey. I believe hockey has 59, lost one a few years back and then added Penn State. Pretty crazy to think about. Also, the fact that the girls have >100 is even more difficult to believe.
That's why they say going D1 in hockey is like going pro in other sports
Lacrosse will only break into the mainstream when major cable networks pick up on it.
Soccer has yet to even become "mainstream" in America, but hopefully that will change next year as NBC's broadcasting most (if not all) of the games in the EPL.
Does it "need" to be mainstream? I kind of think we have a max of professional sports right now. LAX athletes usually go onto normal careers after. Maybe that is a big selling point to parents and kids.
Either way I love LAX.
It'll go mainstream when Brantford Winstonworth gets elected to office
Con Bro Chill deserves some time in the limelight.
http://www.youtube.com/embed/QUBTRAnD-Kc
He's actually a very good player, all goofiness aside.
http://www.youtube.com/embed/WX1TLuHXCd8
Anyway, as someone who grew up playing lax, I think it deserves to be big, as well. It's certainly not an issue of race -- some of the best players in the game are black (Kyle Harrison, Bratton twins, Johnny Christmas, etc). The issue of money is a big hurtle, however. I feel like this can be changed without too much difficulty through a concentrated grassroots effort, though. After all, hockey equipment is pretty expensive and yet it is still popular.
No. Honestly, zero percent chance it ever gets really big. It's just boring to non-LAX players.
I disagree. I never played and barely even knew what LAX was until I got to college. Though I don't watch it often, when I see it on ESPN I will leave the game on. Much more enjoyable then watching soccer
The world's most popular sport can't even get significant attention in the US. Most people actually played soccer as kids and it still there are few who are soccer fans as adults. Most people in most parts of the country don't even really know what lacrosse is.......it has a long way to go before it even becomes widely known, let alone wildly popular.
I don't think anyone's really argued that it ever will become a mainstream sport.
As long as it remains an upper middle class white peoples' sport it'll never be mainstream. The fact is, most Americans have never even seen a lacrosse game. What's funny is, as soon as it reaches the mainstream, all the "lax bros" that are playing D1 now will be pushed down to playing at Susquehanna and Middlebury. Much more athletic urban kids will wipe the floor with the soft prep school bros.
This is just asinine. Where are all the "urban" kids wiping the floor in Hockey, Soccer and Baseball?
http://www.ncaa.org/wps/wcm/connect/public/NCAA/Resources/Latest+News/2…
I personally enjoy lacrosse and hope it stays just as it is. No need for LAX to become a bastion of uneducated fools hoping for a sports payday that rarely comes. Would rather the sport stay competitive for student athletes so people can go onto rewarding professional careers.
You just made my point, where are all the urban kids playing hockey, soccer, and basketball? They're playing basketball and football, that's where. Both of those sports are dominated by minority players. And let's be honest, if lacrosse became a mainstream sport, Duke lacrosse would be full of kids from Raleigh and Jersey City rather than Arlington and LI.
PS - pretty ignorant to call them all uneducated fools
I wouldnt consider most of the top lacrosse players "soft prep school boys" considering they're 6'3, 200lbs of muscle.
Like some have said, lacrosse is a great sport and really has potential to capture an audience from those familes that play soccer, hockey, football, and basketball. But until major cable networks start covering it, and until the sport starts taking itself seriously. (ex. The MLL is a joke, the games are similar to that of watching the harlem globetrotters. No real sense of competition, mostly just showboating. Don't even get me started on the rise of the "lax bro" culture either.)
6'3", 200 lbs doesn't equal elite athlete. In fact, the taller you are the less likely you are to be a true athlete, which is why football and basketball players' enormity is so amazing when combined with their athleticism.
I watched the last NCAA round at Brother Jimmy's in Union Square haha. Hope it becomes more popular, it is an awesome sport to watch on TV in my opinion.
we would have more people interested in lacrosse but we gave all the lacrosse fans these warm fuzzy blankets years ago
Urban kids do play baseball! The problem is accessibility. There's not many baseball diamonds around while there are basketball courts everywhere and it's easy to toss a football around in the street.
Hockey and soccer are borderline mainstream sports. The fact that I have to go to NBC sports network to watch the NHL playoffs shows it's not mainstream.
Back to lacrosse, it'll never be mainstream as long as it's a rich white man's sport. Simple.
Easy to play stick ball as kids in Brooklyn used to do. Tossing a football in the "hood" isn't going to develop world class football skills.
Hockey is a major sport. Soccer, at least in the US, is a developing one. Lacrosse isn't mainstream now because it is largely east coast and competes for collegiate dollars among high grossing college sports such as football and basketball. Those sports also don't care about student athlete education since it isn't about school but as a minor league for the pros. LAX is about student athletes, much like track and other sports people play while actually learning and graduating.
I love the "rich white man" comment as if that is a negative, factual or a reason why it isn't more popular.
Yea, I don't think it will ever become wildly popular. It will never outshine baseball in terms of a spring/summer sport IMO
Given enough time and the right circumstances, LAX could definitely become mainstream. But those are some pretty difficult circumstances. LAX would have to supplant a sport to take some of its best athletes. Since football, basketball, baseball and hockey all pay pretty big bucks, the best athletes in the U.S. focus on those sports. It's difficult to imagine a circumstance where football, basketball, baseball or hockey would be materially supplanted by LAX.
I think the first thing LAX needs is more men's D-I teams. Agreed that Title IX has been a major drag on the sport. I think title IX will inevitably be amended. When that happens, wrestling and LAX will be the beneficiaries. Once LAX moves to the major universities instead of just America's gayest schools--Syracuse, UVA, Duke, Georgetown, etc. being pretty effeminate, gay schools--you'll see wider interest in it from scholarship seeking high school athletes around the nation. When that happens the ball can start rolling.
I'm not entirely sure, however, which sport LAX could cherry pick talent from. I'm thinking hockey and soccer and perhaps some larger, stronger baseball players who can't hit a curveball. You know that today's best LAX players at Duke and UVA wouldn't stand a chance against future players of mainstream LAX. Problem with LAX today is the same problem that soccer has in the U.S.--our inferior athletes play those sports right now. No game will receive maximum interest when its players are inferior athletes. The amending of Title IX is key.
Guys, I'm sorry man, but lacrosse is just kinda boring. Soccer can be boring as shit, but has some really exciting elements that at least occasionally pop up. LAX is just boring to watch.
i played all through high school. Haven't played too much in college other than summer leagues because the club team at my school is a pretty massive time commitment.
i think a large part of why it won't catch on with the mainstream is the fact that it's mad expensive. $100+ gloves, $200+ helmets, sticks, etc. It's not something like basketball or soccer where you only need a ball, or something like baseball where only need a glove/bat. Equipment is expensive even if you pick up stuff used.
I've heard a lot of the banks have club teams. Does anyone play for their firm's club team?
BTW heard there was a pro who played in the MLL while also working at TA Associates?
It's absolutely ridiculous how much the prices of equipment have gone up since the 1990s.
Hockey is even worse
A Summit Partners guy plays for the Cannons... its on their web page somewhere...
it has the potential to be mainstream but a lot needs to change. the equipment is way too expensive to expect everyone to be able to buy it themselves (100-150 for a helmet, at least 120 on a head and shaft, probably gonna have to pay someone to string it, gotta buy pads, cleats etc). if they made it like football where the pads and helmet are provided, more people would play.
it is growing though. i remember playing in a tournament against this new team from roxbury a few years ago. they were all black and while they sucked, they were having a blast
That sort of thing takes time. In most of the traditional hotbeds (Long Island, Baltimore, etc.), youth programs provide pretty much everything except a stick and sometimes gloves (youth sticks are very affordable). I can't imagine a varsity high school program not providing at least helmets.
LAX is one of those sports that are probably fun to play and fairly boring to watch. Which translates to people who play it will talk about it a lot and annoy those who don't play and find watching boring...
This is soccer for me. I enjoyed playing soccer in my youth, but watching soccer I find as exciting as watching paint dry.
Tried to skim through the thread as much as possible on my phone. There's is NO WAY what so ever that lacrosse will ever become a mainstream sport (I'm basing my definition of mainstream off of TV, big stadiums, etc) Lax is FUN as hell to play, but really just awful to watch unless it's the NCAA tourney. The comparisons to soccer are understandable, but fall short here - as soccer is the most popular sport in the world and hundreds of millions of people across the globe DO NOT find it "boring" to watch, whereas Lax is not watched virtually anywhere else in the world and the country it is most prominent in people find it boring to watch. No hate for lax or lax bros tho!
Much of the world also wears speedos on the beach, so the fact that soccer is popular around the world in countries where men wear women's underwear in the pool doesn't mean much to me.
Bumping this because I’m bored and because of the new Paul Rabil backed league
Cupiditate voluptates quae et explicabo aut culpa. Sequi ab vel porro saepe commodi eos perspiciatis. Veniam at et in est aperiam voluptatem et ut. Quasi ducimus quos vitae vel.
Ex distinctio et quo ea. Maiores sit amet maxime repudiandae aut iusto.
Laboriosam sunt qui veniam sint nisi mollitia aut. Nihil ut provident ut ullam ipsa. Dicta quisquam totam dolore. Ex est et ex non. Voluptas quam omnis non consequatur quod dolorum porro eveniet. Molestiae sequi minus praesentium.
Odio error harum odit eos. Omnis eius omnis iste ut et est. Veniam enim vel quia ipsam et. Nam illum ut quia harum. Qui dolorum dolor beatae unde voluptas non placeat tempore.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...
Velit voluptates aut sed consequuntur fugiat perspiciatis. Necessitatibus iure similique fugiat officia sapiente ea. Dolor mollitia necessitatibus eum. Id nihil voluptas animi tempora mollitia ipsa similique doloribus. Aut vero delectus nulla et quis eligendi assumenda recusandae.
Dignissimos unde perspiciatis culpa aut. Libero est rerum est iste quaerat qui maiores nam. Incidunt in enim aliquam aut maiores.
Dolore deserunt ratione tenetur autem rerum voluptatem. Quisquam at omnis labore sed possimus. Repellat velit voluptas suscipit omnis. Error cumque sapiente aut quam sapiente.