Premier Lacrosse League's continued growth depends on revenue
Brothers Mike and Paul Rabil, co-founders of the PLL. Credit: Bloomberg/KT Kanazawich
With television ratings and revenue up, the addition of new sponsors and lacrosse set to become an Olympic sport in Los Angeles in 2028, the Premier Lacrosse League is trending upward.
And as the 7-year-old professional outdoor league considers its next steps, one of its goals is to elevate revenues and player salaries to the point that all players can become full-time and no longer need to hold non-lacrosse jobs.
Paul Rabil, the PLL’s co-founder and president, hopes that can become reality within the next three years.
“I look at the goalposts of LA 2028, and, you know, I’m an ambitious dude,’’ Rabil, who entered the Pro Lacrosse Hall of Fame this year, told Newsday in an interview this past week. “I was ambitious on the field and I’m ambitious in the business world. And it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to happen, but you have to set those markers up to get there.’’
Player salaries are going to have to go way up to make that happen, though. The league does not disclose salaries, but it’s been widely reported that the minimum salary is $25,000. And in an interview with CNBC just before the start of this season, Rabil said some players make more than $100,000.
Rabil and his brother Mike, who co-founded the league in 2018, are quick to note that players get stock in the PLL and get health insurance, which is something the league’s predecessor, Major League Lacrosse, did not offer. Players also can earn extra income from sponsorships and endorsement deals and through personal appearances at various functions.
But it’s not the NBA. Only a few players are making six-figure salaries and many have full-time jobs outside of lacrosse. Some are coaches or teachers. Some have desk jobs from which they have the flexibility to take Fridays off in the summer.
Both Rabils said that as league revenues have risen, player salaries have gone up. And league revenues definitely have risen. TV ratings for the 2024 championship game were up 9% over 2023, and Paul Rabil told CNBC that attendance since the league’s first season in 2019 is up 13%, ticket revenue is up 149% and sponsorship dollars are up 100%.
The league has created luxury suites at venues and big-name sponsors such as Lexus and US Bank have joined the league this year. Last month, in announcing that ESPN had agreed to a five-year extension of its broadcast/streaming deal with the league, the PLL also announced that the network had agreed to buy an equity share in the league reported to be 3%.
“ESPN has been making an investment in lacrosse for the last 20-plus years, what they’ve done in college, what they’re doing in the women’s game and now what they’re doing with us,’’ Mike Rabil said. “We try to really say, ‘Hey, how do you guys also get benefit from partnering with us? . . . We also want you to benefit in the upside of the league and what we build.’ ’’
To Paul Rabil, television always has been the key to the league’s growth. TV coverage brings “validation, and credibility, and promotion,’’ he said.
“A sports league has to have a great media partner,’’ he said. “Otherwise, you don’t get appropriate distribution and you can’t service your fans and build new audience. That’s one of the reasons why Major League Lacrosse struggled in the prior 20 years.’’
That explains why the PLL chooses to play some weekends in smaller venues. The stadium at Fairfield University, where it played on the weekend of July 18-19, has a capacity of 3,500, whereas Hofstra’s Shuart Stadium, which the league did not visit this year, has a capacity of 13,000. But at Fairfield, the league sold out a Friday doubleheader along with Saturday afternoon and Saturday night single games, and a packed stadium there makes for a better image on television than a half-full stadium at Hofstra.
As far as potential expansion, the league has eight teams, which all travel to a single venue every weekend during the summer and play two doubleheaders. The key to expanding would be moving away from the current touring model and having teams — which were all assigned to individual regions and markets before last season — play home and away games.
“If we shift to a home-and-away model, that unlocks the ability to expand from eight to 10 to 12 to 14 to 16 teams,’’ Paul Rabil said. “And we’ve begun drawing up what that would look like.’’
The PLL operates as a single-entity structure in which all the teams are owned by the league. Expanding, Mike Rabil said, would necessitate seeking new owners.
“We still could probably maintain a single-entity model, similar to [Formula 1 auto racing],’’ he said. “but bringing in owners who have great sports operating experience, who have infrastructure to the extent it makes sense, that’s something that we’re starting to entertain conversations around.’’
Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
