The Goal is Fan Interest ...

Great piece in the Sunday Boston Globe as the paper branched out to get a viewpoint on the future of Lacrosse in New England. The Boston Blazers announced late last week that they will play home games at the TD Banknorth Garden. Here is a story that ran alongside the NCAA Final Four coverage with the event a huge success in Foxborough's Gillette Stadium:



The goal here is fan interest
Local pro teams see opportunity
By Kevin Paul Dupont, Globe Staff | May 25, 2008

Lacrosse is booming, and with the NCAA men's championships being held in Foxborough this weekend, the two local professional teams, the Blazers and Cannons, hope they can ride the wave of increased fan interest typically generated by the college showcase event.

"It's kind of like soccer was in the '70s," said Doug Reffue, president of the Blazers, who will begin their inaugural indoor season at TD Banknorth Garden in January 2009. "It began as a clubbish thing, and then it just exploded. I think the game is ready now to hit the accelerator."

The Cannons, who play the traditional outdoor game, began play in 2001, and after staging home games for three years in Lowell and then playing three more at Boston University's Nickerson Field, last season they moved to Harvard Stadium.

According to Mark Kastrud, the Cannons' vice president and general manager, the pro game historically has been a better draw than the colleges, the huge crowds of NCAA championship weekend notwithstanding. The Cannons last year drew an average crowd of some 8,500, and if they maintain what has been an average 11 percent growth rate in attendance since inception, they would surpass 9,000 this year.

"Regular-season college lacrosse games are not that well-attended," noted Kastrud. "The clubs here this weekend - Duke, Virginia, Johns Hopkins, Syracuse - they might get 4,000-6,000 to a game. Navy will get similar numbers. But the rest of the schools are usually in the 1,500-2,000 neighborhood."

Some eyebrows were initially raised among the college game's cognoscenti when Foxborough was raised as a possible site for this weekend's championships. The so-called purists wanted to keep it closer to Maryland, where the sport has flourished for decades. For some, even the recent move to play the championships in Philadelphia, where the Division 1 games averaged nearly 46,000 spectators in 2005 and '06, was a geographical stretch.

"Last year in Baltimore, when it was advertised it was coming to Foxborough, a lot of the Baltimore guys were making fun of it, saying it was a joke," recalled Jack Piatelli, the former Springfield College All-American who is the color commentator during Cannons broadcasts. "From what I'm hearing, the crowd in Foxborough could be better than last year [a record of 52,004]."

The NCAA already has committed to bringing the Final Four back to Gillette Stadium next year.

What better, figures Kastrud, than three straight days of media attention and fan interest in the Hub, where the Red Sox, Celtics, Patriots, and Bruins make it difficult for new sports ventures to gain traction.

"In the business I'm in, the growth of the game, on all levels, keeps the lights on - so to have the NCAAs here, I'm all for it," he said.

The Blazers, coached by ex-Bowdoin star attackman Tom Ryan, will play their home games on Saturdays at the Garden, ideally piggybacked on the back end of Bruins matinees.

Indoor (or box) lacrosse, with six men a side (goalies included), is played on a turf rolled over the ice surface, with the hockey boards remaining in place as the field's boundaries. Much like the Cannons, the Blazers will attempt to woo a large family market, but also try to cater to the college crowd and young professionals. Cannons tickets are $10 and $20. The Blazers will price Garden seats at $9-$50.

If the kids who stock college rosters and youth leagues keep up their interest in the sport, officials for both the Blazers and Cannons believe, eventually they'll become the bedrock of a dedicated, ticket-buying fan base. It's the same model professional soccer has followed, with mixed results thus far in the US.

"Soccer is a great sport," said Dave Urick, who has been Georgetown's men's lacrosse coach for nearly 20 years. "Throughout the world, people are passionate about the sport. But I think in the US we're looking for more scoring.

"This weekend in Foxborough, people won't see a chess match out there. Double-digit scoring is going to be the rule, not the exception. And with this sport, once you're hooked, there's no letting go."