Now we’re getting in to the more obscure sports that get much less attention from the media and the fans, but are no less deserving of it. Unfortunately it’s just a reality that 4 major sports is about all the audience can support, and so it’s really an uphill battle for the rest. Many of them reach niche audiences, such as racing and boxing (wrestling as it exists professionally in the US is NOT a sport).
Lacrosse is something of a newcomer on the professional scene with the NLL still a fairly young organization. While the sport itself isn’t exactly new, its rise in popularity most certainly is. Lacrosse has had something of a renaissance this past decade or decade and a half. It’s still far from being as popular as the other major sports, but it is certainly one that you could consider an up and comer.
As a result of the sports lack of popularity, it is actually one of the more balanced sports at the professional level. The players in the sport don’t even get paid enough to play it as a full time job, and most of them all work other jobs outside of the arena. For a professional sport this is virtually unheard of, but you have to admit that the lack of huge payrolls actually keeps things pretty even.
Unfortunately this also leaves the sport ripe for domination from the first club that can afford to, and decides to pay the big bucks for the top players. While payrolls have kept the sport balanced so far, it wouldn’t be hard for a team to crush the rest by outspending if the means became available. I imagine if the sport should take off at some point then this might be more likely. Since the sport gets very little publicity and air time though, such an event is still likely quite a ways off.
They player dynamic in the game is also quite similar to Hockey, although in Lacrosse the goalie is a bit less vital. Don’t get me wrong, the goalie is still very important, but it’s no secret that it’s tougher to be between the pipes in Lacrosse than it is in Hockey, so this puts a bit more value in the rest of the players instead of such an extreme focus on the goalie, like in Hockey.
The sport also suffers at the professional level from a lack of teams so far. It’s easier to balance a playing field with the right rules in place when there’s a large crop of teams, but it’s much easier for a team to break away from the pack when the pack is small, since the likelihood of a strong competitor is less in such a situation. What Lacrosse really needs more than anything is more professional teams, and more exposure to develop a better fanbase. So long as they’re able to prevent salaries and the business side of the sport from running out of control, then the sport could only benefit from such growth.
© 2010, Keonyn. All rights reserved.
Tags: Monday Musings, Sports
