Players and teams in the NLL have been victims of scheduling for years due to the league’s popularity being less than other big name sports (football, basketball, baseball). Spectators are more aware of it this year, especially after the Mammoth had a huge weekend of travel and only four hours of sleep.
On the weekend of January 10-12:
The Colorado Mammoth had a Friday game in Calgary and then a Saturday game in Edmonton. The Philadelphia Wings were in Rochester on Saturday and Philly on Sunday. The Bandits played in Buffalo Friday and Philadelphia Sunday.
That is only one weekend, and it seems there are teams traveling exorbitant amounts every weekend. Those teams also appear to be repeat offenders, in the sense the same teams are forced to travel a lot.
There are many aspects that go into this current “problem,” not that it is a problem but a road bump to work over in promoting and growing the league.
- As the league grows, and as it is based in the geographically large country of Canada, teams are very spread apart. Vancouver, Denver, Calgary, Toronto, Philadelphia, etc. There are some teams in between those mentioned, but distant travel over two or three days weekly is tiresome, nonetheless.
- NLL is less popular than NFL, MLB, and NBA. Many teams share sports facilities and parking lots with those other leagues. If the other leagues have events scheduled, the NLL must work around them. Rocco Granato told me an example of the Wings having to play on a Saturday afternoon during a busy weekend in Philadelphia: NHL Flyers (Thursday night), NBA Sixers (Friday night), NHL Flyers (Saturday night). The NHL and NBA got higher priority from the complex/event center.
- The NLL plays their games on weekends. In order to keep the season progressing, teams are forced to travel and play multiple games a weekend.
Granted, not all of this is the NLL administration’s fault, as one can see above. However, there are many downsides to all the travel:
- Tends to be repetitive teams (Stealth, Mammoth, Wings, Swarm)
- Long distances
- Away games on Sundays in a league of players with Monday-Friday full time jobs
- Travel and games on the same day (ever get out of a car after a long ride? Or off a plane? Hard to walk, let alone loosen up and play a full game.
- Lack of sleep. Most people look forward to weekends as a time to catch up/rest. Lacrosse players get the opposite.
What can be done about it all?
- Make Sunday games earlier. By having a 1 pm or noon game, that, at the least, allows the players to get home at a decent hour (compared to what they’re doing now).
- Do NBA/MLB style seasons where games are played in a series and one series is over a weekend. Example: Wings vs Swarm, two two-game series in the season; one series in Minnesota (both games there one weekend) and one series in Philly (both games there another weekend). This prevents teams like Philadelphia playing at home on Saturday and traveling to/from another city Sunday. Only one team will travel per game that weekend.
- Double headers: two games, one day. (would have to play a series)
- No series-games, but same teams in same town every weekend. If Wings play Swarm twice in a season, make it in the same weekend at the same facility.
Until new scheduling is investigated or lacrosse becomes bigger than traditional sport leagues, our favorite athletes will have to pay the price. And trust me, they’re the bigger men for it.
(NFL gives their players half a week in the “away” city to adjust to time zones and practice. They also have two coaches for every position. Talk about babying.)
(I still enjoy NFL football!)
Do you have ideas for an NLL Column post? Or answers to the scheduling woes? Comment below or email to ianilwt12@gmail.com
