Celebrating PLL Day: Six Years of Transforming Professional Lacrosse
10/22/2024 03:24 PM
Celebrating PLL Day: Six Years of Transforming Professional Lacrosse
October 22nd is known as PLL Day which serves as a day of reflection on the ways the Premier Lacrosse League has truly morphed the game of lacrosse into what it is today, only six brief years from its inception. Since its first season, the PLL took the sport right to the utter pinnacle and brought new eyes, professionalism, and innovation to the sport. What began as a bold leap into curing professional lacrosse has become the defining force in how the game is viewed, played, and enjoyed. Today should be a day of praise for everything this league has achieved and moved the needle on across the professional landscape of lacrosse.
We have become so accustomed to what the PLL offers the professional landscape simply because time has passed. With fans now fully acclimated to the PLL and its product on and off of the field, we sometimes forget all the ways the PLL has improved the landscape of professional lacrosse. I wanted to celebrate PLL Day by highlighting some of those things that we have taken for granted over the last six years.
The PLL has opened up a lot of exposure for lacrosse. Up until the PLL was created, media exposure had been thin for the sport to reach many new fans. Thanks to major media deals set up with NBC Sports and ESPN, the PLL brought lacrosse into living rooms. That made it a heck of a lot easier for people to catch games from across the nation or easily online. With added exposure, lacrosse has found itself in a position where it’s able to extend its reach beyond traditional markets and bring in new fans, taking the game closer to the mainstream. This has been one of the standout aspects when it comes to the PLL that has really paved the way for growing the game for newer audiences.
The other major shift the PLL has brought to the sport is in professionalizing the experience for the athlete. Rather than having to juggle multiple jobs, as was often required of professional lacrosse players of the past, the PLL gives out decent salaries, health benefits, and revenue-sharing chances to keep its players satisfied. Though players will still work other jobs, it’s much easier now than it has ever been to invest one’s entire life into the sport of lacrosse, which is what you want to see on the professional scene. This has allowed these athletes to focus fully on their lacrosse careers, enhance performances, and develop overall. Major League Lacrosse set the bar on what it means to be a professional field lacrosse player, but with the PLL has set a new standard on what it means to be treated as full-time professionals with resources to match such support for success.
Another factor that made the PLL different from other professional leagues that came before it is the tour-based model. Rather than being tied into city-based teams, the league brings the games to location markets across the country. This meant the league was able to reach new markets and new fans who otherwise never would have had an opportunity to see any live professional lacrosse games. The model has been instrumental in expanding the sport’s national reach for the fact that fans in non-traditional areas of lacrosse get to see the excitement of a live game. Even as the league looks to move towards a more traditionalist home-and-away weekend setup, the tour model was one of those innovative takes that kept the game open to the world outside those few cities.
In tandem with these structural changes, the PLL had equally managed to make the intrinsic game faster and more exciting due to a succession of pioneering rule changes: shot clock, two-point arc, and smaller team rosters mean the pace of play quickens and therefore becomes more exciting. These changes not only made the game more appealing to the current enthusiasts of lacrosse but also to people who enjoy other fast-paced games like basketball and hockey. It allows players to have a faster, calculated, and interesting game in return.
Other areas in which the PLL has had success are in their absolute focus on digital content for fan engagement. The league has really utilized platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter for content creation in all forms, from highlights and behind-the-scenes footage to stories of athletes that keep fans connected with their favorite players. This digital-first approach has given the PLL its rabidly passionate and highly-engaged fan base, especially among the younger crowds who consume the bulk of their sports content online.
It is hard to exaggerate the role of the PLL over the past six years because, in so many ways, everything about how professional lacrosse is presented to the fans and also to the athletes has changed. By bringing new life to the sport with its embrace of visibility, improving the experience for the players, and innovating the game, it arguably might set it up for more growth and success. Celebrating PLL Day, we pay homage to how far the sport has come and will also be shaped in years to come by this league.
