This year's NCAA men’s lacrosse championship weekend attendance of 79,595 was “the lowest for the Final Four since 2002, the last time the event wasn’t held in an NFL stadium,” according to John Jiloty of INSIDE LACROSSE. The downward trend is “definitely alarming for a sport that has seen dramatic increases in participation over the last five years.” The attendance for this year's event at Gillette Stadium was "nearly 20,000 fans off last year’s total" and more than 40,000 from the event's high of 123,225 in '07. Lacrosse fans were “talking about the potential of selling out an NFL venue five years ago, and now it’s a more likely possibility that the event moves to a smaller stadium” after the event returns to Philadelphia in '13 and Baltimore in '14. NCAA Associate Dir of Championships & Alliances Jeff Jarnecke said that “no one thing drove this year’s lower crowd totals” but that they will “be looking at the entire event (venue size, geography, ticket prices, timing, marketing) later this year or early in 2013 when bids are accepted” for the ’15 and ’16 championship weekends. Jarnecke said that among the potential changes that have been discussed, “the most dramatic may be moving the Final Four a week later into June and playing the Quarterfinals on Memorial Day weekend.” Jiloty noted the Final Four has rotated between Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore and Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia over the last 10 years. Each of those stadiums seats around 70,000 and Jarnecke said that a venue with 40,000-50,000 seats “may be more ideal for championship weekend.” He also said that “going back to a campus facility is a possibility as well.” Factors of down attendance this year include rising ticket prices, “the lack of any DI team within 300 miles of Foxboro … the absence of traditional big draws like Syracuse and Johns Hopkins and the location outside the traditional mid-Atlantic hotbeds” (INSIDELACROSSE.com, 5/28).
