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Best known to some as the sport the teen wolves play in Teen Wolf, lacrosse is not (yet) considered among the giants of professional team sports. But it’s much closer today than it was six years ago.
The Premier Lacrosse League (PLL) was founded by brothers Paul and Mike Rabil in 2019 as an upgrade to Major League Lacrosse (MLL), which had long been criticized for low player salaries and inconsistent media exposure. “Our goal was to fix professional lacrosse,” Paul, a former legendary midfielder at Johns Hopkins and perhaps the sport’s most recognizable name, told Morning Brew.
“Innovation has always been our engine.”
The early returns have been generally positive: ESPN was so happy with its media deal that it bought a minority stake in the league, and PLL reports that viewership and ticket revenue are climbing from their modest beginnings. The MLL no longer exists—the PLL absorbed what was left of it in 2020.
Still...most players don’t make a living on their PLL salaries alone. Many have full-time jobs or supplement their PLL income by coaching and running camps and clinics. A future in which “lacrosse player” is a lucrative career path wouldn’t have seemed possible a decade ago, but now, you don’t have to strain super hard to see the potential.
Looking ahead: The Brothers Rabil and the PLL have been instrumental in securing lacrosse’s return to the Olympics competitively for the first time in 120 years at the 2028 Games in LA. But a major question looms about whether the IOC will allow the Haudenosaunee people from present-day New York and parts of Canada—who created the first version of lacrosse almost 1,000 years ago—to compete under their own flag.—AE
- With the backing of investors like Alibaba co-founder Joe Tsai, the PLL made a handful of bold moves:Player equity: Every player has an ownership stake in the league—a model adopted by a number of upstart leagues (like Unrivaled).
- Touring model: The league plays all of its games in one city each weekend (think: the WWE), though plans eventually call for moving to a traditional home-and-away schedule.
- Broadcast experimentation: The PLL mics up its players (and refs) and has them analyze plays on the sideline in a “Breakdown Booth” right after they happen.
The early returns have been generally positive: ESPN was so happy with its media deal that it bought a minority stake in the league, and PLL reports that viewership and ticket revenue are climbing from their modest beginnings. The MLL no longer exists—the PLL absorbed what was left of it in 2020.
Still...most players don’t make a living on their PLL salaries alone. Many have full-time jobs or supplement their PLL income by coaching and running camps and clinics. A future in which “lacrosse player” is a lucrative career path wouldn’t have seemed possible a decade ago, but now, you don’t have to strain super hard to see the potential.
Looking ahead: The Brothers Rabil and the PLL have been instrumental in securing lacrosse’s return to the Olympics competitively for the first time in 120 years at the 2028 Games in LA. But a major question looms about whether the IOC will allow the Haudenosaunee people from present-day New York and parts of Canada—who created the first version of lacrosse almost 1,000 years ago—to compete under their own flag.—AE
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