{"id":6,"date":"2022-06-01T18:43:13","date_gmt":"2022-06-01T18:43:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/greatsportsdome.com\/?p=6"},"modified":"2023-06-24T11:23:57","modified_gmt":"2023-06-24T11:23:57","slug":"how-popular-is-lacrosse-in-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/greatsportsdome.com\/how-popular-is-lacrosse-in-america\/","title":{"rendered":"How Popular Is Lacrosse In The USA? (All The Facts)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Lacrosse is one of the more popular sports in the USA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s true that the playing numbers and TV audience are much lower than for the big five sports of football, baseball, basketball, hockey, and soccer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, Lacrosse has a professional league, and multiple college tournaments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This article compares rugby\u2019s popularity with other sports in several different categories:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>Number of professional lacrosse clubs<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>General participation (people who play at any level)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Match attendances at professional lacrosse matches<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Television audiences<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Popularity of lacrosse in schools<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_62 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-grey ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title \" >Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 eztoc-toggle-hide-by-default' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/greatsportsdome.com\/how-popular-is-lacrosse-in-america\/#Number_Of_Professional_Lacrosse_Teams_In_The_US\" title=\"Number Of Professional Lacrosse Teams In The U.S.\">Number Of Professional Lacrosse Teams In The U.S.<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/greatsportsdome.com\/how-popular-is-lacrosse-in-america\/#Number_Of_People_Who_Go_To_Lacrosse_Matches_In_The_US\" title=\"Number Of People Who Go To Lacrosse Matches In The U.S.\">Number Of People Who Go To Lacrosse Matches In The U.S.<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/greatsportsdome.com\/how-popular-is-lacrosse-in-america\/#How_Many_People_Play_Lacrosse_In_The_US\" title=\"How Many People Play Lacrosse In The U.S.?\">How Many People Play Lacrosse In The U.S.?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/greatsportsdome.com\/how-popular-is-lacrosse-in-america\/#Popularity_As_Shown_By_TV_Viewership\" title=\"Popularity As Shown By TV Viewership\">Popularity As Shown By TV Viewership<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/greatsportsdome.com\/how-popular-is-lacrosse-in-america\/#How_Popular_Is_Lacrosse_In_High_Schools\" title=\"How Popular Is Lacrosse In High Schools?\">How Popular Is Lacrosse In High Schools?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-6\" href=\"https:\/\/greatsportsdome.com\/how-popular-is-lacrosse-in-america\/#How_Popular_Is_Lacrosse_In_Google_Searches\" title=\"How Popular Is Lacrosse In Google Searches?\">How Popular Is Lacrosse In Google Searches?<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Number_Of_Professional_Lacrosse_Teams_In_The_US\"><\/span>Number Of Professional Lacrosse Teams In The U.S.<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>There are eight professional outdoor lacrosse teams in the U.S. that play in the Premier Lacrosse League (PLL).<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>About Six U.S. box lacrosse teams play with Canadian teams in the semi-professional indoors National Lacrosse League (NLL).<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There was an older tournament called Major League Lacrosse that merged with the PLL in December 2020. One team transferred into the PLL to increase the numbers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Where are the PLL teams based?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The PLL isn\u2019t based around home and away venues. Instead, it\u2019s a tour-based league. All the teams travel to a city each weekend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here is a map of the locations across the country in 2022:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"794\" height=\"374\" src=\"https:\/\/greatsportsdome.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/premier_lacrosse_league_map_us.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-8\" srcset=\"https:\/\/greatsportsdome.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/premier_lacrosse_league_map_us.jpg 794w, https:\/\/greatsportsdome.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/premier_lacrosse_league_map_us-300x141.jpg 300w, https:\/\/greatsportsdome.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/premier_lacrosse_league_map_us-768x362.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 794px) 100vw, 794px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>This table lists the locations of the PLL teams:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table is-style-stripes\"><table><tbody><tr><td><strong>2022<\/strong><\/td><td><strong>City<\/strong><\/td><td><strong>State<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><tr><td>June<\/td><td>Albany<\/td><td>New York<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>June<\/td><td>Charlotte<\/td><td>North Carolina<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>June<\/td><td>Long Island<\/td><td>New York<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>June<\/td><td>Baltimore<\/td><td>Maryland<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>July<\/td><td>Minneapolis<\/td><td>Minneapolis<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>July<\/td><td>Boston<\/td><td>Massachussets<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>July<\/td><td>Fairfield<\/td><td>Connecticut<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>July<\/td><td>Dallas<\/td><td>Texas<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>August<\/td><td>Denver<\/td><td>Colorado<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>August<\/td><td>Salt Lake City<\/td><td>Utah<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>August<\/td><td>Seattle<\/td><td>Washington<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>September<\/td><td>Boston<\/td><td>Massachussets<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>September<\/td><td>Washington<\/td><td>D.C.<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>September<\/td><td>Philadelphia<\/td><td>Pennsylvania<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Where are the NLL teams based?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The National Lacrosse League is very much an East Coast affair. This map shows the locations in the U.S.:<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"436\" height=\"330\" src=\"https:\/\/greatsportsdome.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/national_lacross_league_map_east_coast_us.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-9\" srcset=\"https:\/\/greatsportsdome.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/national_lacross_league_map_east_coast_us.jpg 436w, https:\/\/greatsportsdome.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/national_lacross_league_map_east_coast_us-300x227.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 436px) 100vw, 436px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Number_Of_People_Who_Go_To_Lacrosse_Matches_In_The_US\"><\/span>Number Of People Who Go To Lacrosse Matches In The U.S.<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Because of world events impacting 2020 and 2021, I\u2019ll go back to the 2019 season to look at attendances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The average attendance at the match weekends of the Premier Lacrosse League was 12,480 people in 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The average attendance at matches at the National Lacrosse League <a href=\"https:\/\/www.buffalosportspage.com\/nll-attendance-starts-slowly\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">was 8,035 in 2019<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">NCAA (College)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The biggest attendances at college level&nbsp; are at semi-finals and finals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 2019, the final had an attendance of <a href=\"http:\/\/fs.ncaa.org\/Docs\/stats\/m_lacrosse_champs_finals_records\/2020\/Attendance.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">31,528 in Philadelphia<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The average attendance for earlier round D1 matches was a little short of one thousand people in that season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"How_Many_People_Play_Lacrosse_In_The_US\"><\/span>How Many People Play Lacrosse In The U.S.?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Let\u2019s look at the number of players across the professional and college leagues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Premier Lacrosse League has 26-player rosters. With eight teams in the U.S., that makes 208 players in the PLL.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The number of college students playing lacrosse has increased significantly in the last decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncsasports.org\/articles-1\/college-lacrosse\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">split of male and female participants<\/a> in the NCAA:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>14,000+ male players<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>12,000 female players<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Popularity_As_Shown_By_TV_Viewership\"><\/span>Popularity As Shown By TV Viewership<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>How much TV viewers watched the final or championship match? And what about the average audiences across all televised matches?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the 2020 PLL, Chaos took on Whipsnakes in the championship game. NBC reported that they got 340,000 viewers for this match.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The PLL was covered across NBC and NBCSN in 2020. The average viewership per match was 153,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What about the NLL?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s hard to get figures for the NLL. This is partly because their coverage was spread across different digital streaming media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The league has recently signed an agreement with ESPN, which should make the coverage easier to find.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How does lacrosse compare with other sports?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Let\u2019s take a look at figures for some other sports from a similar period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table is-style-stripes\"><table><tbody><tr><td>ESPN\u2019s Monday Night Football (Week 7)<\/td><td>3.7 million<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>College Football (Tennessee vs Alabama)<\/td><td>4.7 million &nbsp;<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>MLB average across 2019<\/td><td>4.75 million<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>NBA average in open week of 2019<\/td><td>1.8 million<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"How_Popular_Is_Lacrosse_In_High_Schools\"><\/span>How Popular Is Lacrosse In High Schools?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Over 213 thousand high school boys and girls played lacrosse <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statista.com\/statistics\/267959\/participation-in-us-high-school-lacrosse\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">in the 2018\/19 school year<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These are the numbers over a three year period:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>2016\/17: 205K+ students<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>2017\/18: 210K+ students<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>2019\/20: 213K+ students<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"How_Popular_Is_Lacrosse_In_Google_Searches\"><\/span>How Popular Is Lacrosse In Google Searches?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Google provides a display of how search terms are trending over time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This graph shows how \u201cLacrosse\u201d has trended from the summer of 2018 to the spring of 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The lacrosse trend is the blue line. Don\u2019t pay much attention to the numbers on the X-axis, those represent an internal Google metric (as opposed to searches).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Where it gets interesting is comparing lacrosse to two other \u201cniche\u201d sports in the United States: lacrosse and rugby.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"252\" src=\"https:\/\/greatsportsdome.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Google-Trends.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-10\" srcset=\"https:\/\/greatsportsdome.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Google-Trends.jpg 640w, https:\/\/greatsportsdome.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Google-Trends-300x118.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>Lacrosse and volleyball have different peaks throughout the year. Lacrosse peaks in the first half of the year, while volleyball has its heyday in the second half.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By the way, that massive spike for volleyball in August 2021 was due to the Tokyo Olympics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These are the main takeaways:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>Lacrosse is less popular than volleyball in general<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>There are some months in the year where lacrosse overtakes volleyball in Google searches e.g. March to May<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Lacrosse is more popular than rugby, except during the Summer Olympics<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lacrosse is one of the more popular sports in the USA. It&#8217;s true that the playing numbers and TV audience are much lower than for the big five sports of football, baseball, basketball, hockey, and soccer. However, Lacrosse has a professional league, and multiple college tournaments. This article compares rugby\u2019s popularity with other sports in &#8230; <a title=\"How Popular Is Lacrosse In The USA? (All The Facts)\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/greatsportsdome.com\/how-popular-is-lacrosse-in-america\/\" aria-label=\"More on How Popular Is Lacrosse In The USA? (All The Facts)\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatsportsdome.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatsportsdome.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatsportsdome.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatsportsdome.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatsportsdome.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/greatsportsdome.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":800,"href":"https:\/\/greatsportsdome.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6\/revisions\/800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatsportsdome.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatsportsdome.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatsportsdome.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}