Earlier this week Major League Lacrosse announced a new playoff format but the National Lacrosse League might have one too.David Gross has been the commissioner of MLL since 2003 and under him the league has grown to a sport seen on national television. The league is expanding and new things are on the horizon, including a new playoff format.
“This is something that we’ve been discussing for a number of years.” Gross explained. “We want to give the top two seeds the ability to earn home field advantage for a playoff game. It becomes a great reward for the team and their fans. With the change we can now move our Championship Game to Saturday evening, which will make things more convenient for our fans.
“We couldn’t have been more impressed with the action on the field.” said Gross. “We had three amazing games over the weekend. Winning the Steinfeld Trophy has become so incredibly important to the players and teams. The level that they are able to play at always creates the wow factor.”
One concern throughout the players and fans of the sport has been the potential of NLL season running through MLL. Their proposed playoff schedule has the season ending in late May where MLL could be five games in. If this is the case, several players will be forced to choose a league.
The difference is the NLL is less than 30% American where that is the primary demographic of MLL players. If anything, the NLL could lose more of their prime target audience with the loss of these Americans.
Meanwhile, MLL is still working on their 2014 schedule that they say will open the season on April 26th. Gross says that the league can’t be worried about what the NLL plans.
“The NLL needs to operate in what they believe is in their best business interest and they believe this change makes sense for them. We can’t be worried about want anyone else is doing. We just need to focus on building the MLL.”
MLL might expand to another “test market” for championship weekend or the all star game as the league grows. As far as where those may be? Gross says, “We’ll look to announce this by the end of September.”
