Players on the Georgia Swarm playing roster have salaries based on experience and performance.
The franchise usually gives one-year contracts that rise from year to year. Top players can negotiate a longer and more lucrative contract.
The NLL has a salary cap but the Swarm can provide top-ups from a discretionary bonus pool. Read on for the details.
This article was updated when the current Swarm roster was completed.
How We Calculate Salaries
NLL franchises don’t publish player salaries. However, some details across the league were released during the 2018/19 negotiations between the NLL and the players association.
The salary ranges (based on experience) were reported in 2018. Since then, the new agreement resulted in a 25% increase phased over four to five years.
Our calculations have applied this as a 4-5% increase per year to date.
We know that clubs have a $30K bonus pool that can take individual players over the maximum salary range.
The Swarm doesn’t have to pay out the full amount but they must distribute at least $16K each season.
How Much Do Players Earn At Georgia Swarm?
Rookies at Georgia Swarm receive a base contract of US$13K. They make from $15K to $21K in their second year.
A veteran player earns a minimum of $19K. This rises every year to a maximum salary of $37K.
The average salary across the Swarm’s active roster is $25K.
Apart from the average, the above numbers are rounded to the nearest one thousand dollars. We have the raw numbers later.
Monthly wages
The figures we’ve listed may seem low for hard-working athletes. But bear in mind that the NLL season is about six months long.
I’ve put the pro-rata monthly equivalent in the table below. These numbers aren’t rounded.
| Status | Annual (US$) | Monthly (US$) |
| Rookies | 12,408 | 2,068 |
| Second-year minimum | 14,824 | 2,471 |
| Second-year maximum | 20,215 | 3,369 |
| Veteran minimum | 18,433 | 3,072 |
| Veteran maximum | 36,626 | 6,104 |
Franchise Tag Exception
That average salary doesn’t include the extra income that can be awarded to one franchise tag per season.
The club can give a one-year contract of $46K to one player who is prevented from switching to another team.
However, players who are over 34 can reject the tag. Mike Poulin did so in the summer of 2019. This meant that he became a free agent and could move on.
But the goaltender didn’t leave the Swarm! It’s possible that he wanted the certainty of a three-year contract on the usual ceiling of $37K. Poulin announced his retirement in July 2022.
The Swarm also tried to award a franchise tag to Dan Coates in 2021. Coates also exercised his option to reject it.
But unlike Poulin, Coates took advantage of his free agency to move to the Knighthawks.
Who Are The Top Earners At The Swarm?
You can usually use the end-of-season player awards to figure out who is the most valuable player for a club.
Only one Swarm player picked up a gong, and that was for the best sportsmanship. I doubt that a sportsmanship award is going to bring extra value to contract negotiations.
But in this case, the player was Lyle Thompson.
He was a standout player for the Swarm in a poor season for the team. He is also widely considered to be one of the best players in the game.
Thompson was drafted in 2015 so has had a rising salary for over seven years. This will put him at the veteran maximum of $37K.
We’d be surprised if the club didn’t dip into the bonus pool to exceed the maximum by more than a few thousand dollars in his negotiations.
But he’s unlikely to get the entire pool! We expect the players who share captaincy duties to be rewarded.
Jordan Macintosh and Bryan Cole are captains in the 2022/23 season.
We expect that players are given additional income from the bonus pool when they accept the captaincy role.
Which Swarm Players Are Paid The Least?
The minimum contract across the league is just over $12,500. We rounded it up to $13K in our earlier summary.
This is the entry-level salary for draft picks.
Ryan Lanchbury was picked in the 2021 Entry Draft but deferred for a season. His first playing season is on a rookie contract.
Will Cecile is also a rookie but he signed a two-year deal in July 2022. His second year will see a raise of up to eight thousand dollars (although more likely about $4K).
But rookies aren’t the lowest paid players.
The Swarm added two players to the practice squad at the start of the 2022/23 season. These guys earn about one to two thousand dollars per season.
Playing In The PLL
Some players finish their season in the NLL and then play outdoors in the Premier Lacrosse League.
Lyle Thompson was the first pick in the PLL’s entry draft in 2021.
If you’re interested in how much additional income that brings, check out our review of player salaries at Cannons Lacrosse Club. Shayne Jackson also played for Cannons.
Jordan MacIntosh also extended his lacrosse income by switching leagues. We have more details in our look at player salaries at Chrome Lacrosse Club.
Employment Outside The Lacrosse World
NLL players are employed by their franchise for about six months of the year.
They also don’t train full-time during the season. The standard schedule is to travel for training on Thursday evening or Friday morning.
That allows Swarm players to work outside of the sport. Let’s look at a few to get a flavor of what they do.
I’ve focused on some of the older guys who are most likely to have senior positions in professional roles.
Jordan MacIntosh is a VP of sales at a software company in Boston.
Ryan MacSpadyen is an account manager for a health diagnostic firm in Toronto.
How Do Georgia Swarm Afford Player Wages?
You may be wondering if gate receipts are enough to cover player wages now and in the future.
Part of the challenge for NLL teams is that the new Premier Lacrosse League has raised the bar on payment and benefits.
Fans understandably get worried about whether the franchise owners can withstand financial pressures in uncertain times.
Check out our review of the father-and-son duo who own the Georgia Swarm. We assess the depth of their pockets.
