The Memorial Day Weekend is Prime Time for college lacrosse. National champions are crowned as teams play on national TV before large crowds.
Courtesy: lacrosseplayground.com
On Saturday the Maryland women beat North Carolina to win their 11th national title since 1990. Then, on Monday, Denver beat the Maryland men to become the first men’s team outside of the Eastern Time Zone to win the crown.
And while the primary storyline this weekend was the competition on the field, lurking as a subtext is another important story in college lacrosse. It’s about the game’s future and how to secure it properly.
That topic was taken up recently in an excellent article written by Zack Schonbrun in The New York Times.
The good news, Schonbrun writes, is that more colleges are playing lacrosse than ever before. Nearly 100 schools have added lacrosse to their athletic programs over the last six years, including schools in states where lacrosse isn’t a traditional sport (e.g., Mississippi).
What accounts for growth? Youth participation is robust. Schonbrun says that lacrosse is one of only two sports (gymnastics is the other) to show an increase in national participation over the past five years. And U.S. lacrosse participation has tripled–to over 700k–in the last 15 years.
Courtesy: chelseapiersct.com
But grassroots participation hasn’t translated at higher levels. What’s lacking? Schonbrun cites an interpretation from the executive director of the men’s college lacrosse association. He calls it “the soccer problem.”
What’s that? Kids play soccer as youth, but many don’t continue playing competitively at older ages. And, just as importantly, many former soccer players don’t follow teams, attend games, or do many of the other things (e.g., purchase merchandise) that fans do as adults.
Many thought lacrosse would be different. Youth participation would translate into fan interest and college lacrosse would benefit.
That’s happening, but unevenly, and sometimes painfully. It’s an unwelcome outcome. The obvious challenge is figuring out how to expand the fan base of college lacrosse so that it’s more like football and less like soccer.
That’s going to be a challenge. Take what’s happening in college lacrosse over the iconic Memorial Day Weekend. Schonbrun reports that the attendance at college’s Final Four has declined 7 years in a row (through 2014). Turnstiles spun 40% fewer times at last year’s Final Four as compared to attendance at the Finals … in 2007. Yikes! And last year’s games were played in Baltimore, a hot bed of lacrosse.
It’s not as though U.S. Lacrosse, the sport’s governing body, is standing still. Schonbrun reports that the organization has spent nearly $170 million on promoting the sport since the late ’90s.
The problem may be less about marketing and more about sociocultural dynamics. What’s that mean? There are at least four issues to address.
Courtesy: CBSnews
Even though lacrosse began as a Native American stickball sport, the sport isn’t perceived–like baseball–as “an American sport.” It’s an outlier to what most fans would classify as “major sports” in this country.
Lacrosse isn’t a national sport either–at least not yet. Although it’s played across the country, the stronghold of lacrosse is located in a narrow geographic slice of the continental U.S.—from New England, through Long Island, down through Mid-Atlantic states. History and tradition reside there–as do a good share of intercollegiate lacrosse-playing teams. That’s changing, but change is taking time.
Lacrosse doesn’t always generate the fan enthusiasm associated with some other sports, especially football. There aren’t distinctive and compelling lacrosse equivalents to “Friday Night Lights,” Saturday tailgating, and marching bands.
Lacrosse—much like golf and tennis—is perceived as a sport of the elite, played mostly by white people of “the country club set.” And it’s more likely to be played at private universities and colleges–at places like Tufts, Gettysburg, and Albion. If there’s a poster school for college lacrosse it’s Duke. ‘Nuff said.
None of this dooms lacrosse, but all of it ramps up the challenge.
Courtesy: wsj.com
Lacrosse has a future in the scheme of college sports. The question is: What kind of future? The answer depends on whether it can resolve the paradox of the game–it’s “soccer problem.”
It’s not as though kids aren’t playing the game, which is a big generational issue for sports like golf and tennis. Kids are playing lacrosse. It’s just that high levels of youth participation aren’t paying off in the long term.
So college athletic directors and conference commissioners will need to figure out ways to ramp up fan interest and generate more revenue.
The good news is that they have more than a few positives with which to work. Here are three.
The sport has a favorable cost-structure. Lacrosse has reasonable equipment costs and it can be played using shared (with other sports) facilities. Contrast those attributes to several other college sports, such as baseball and ice hockey.
Lacrosse may benefit significantly if football’s future–as some predict–is compromised by safety issues. A push away from football could be a pull toward lacrosse.
And there’s a lot to like about lacrosse vis-a-vis other sports. Consider how lacrosse compares to a variety of sports competitors (as presented by an ACC lacrosse blogger):
Courtesy: healthfitnessrevolution.com
Not as physical as football, but more of a contact sport than soccer
Has the stick work and checking of hockey
Has the skill and teamwork of soccer, but with a lot more scoring
Requires athleticism, but without the need to be tall (like basketball), to master skating (like hockey), or to be large (like football)
Is played by both genders (unlike football)
Does not require expensive facilities (like hockey)
Is a fast sport (like basketball)
Bottom line: there are a lot of plusses for lacrosse. But the reality context remains the same: the need to figure out how to translate those positives into more fan support for the college game.
The future of college lacrosse depends on answers.
