Sandy Brown is just the second commissioner in the history of MLL, having taken over from David Gross. Getty Images

Ahead of its championship game this weekend, first-year Major League Lacrosse Commissioner Sandy Brown plans to present a three-year plan to team owners aimed at improving business metrics and the overall standing of the outdoor league.

Brown took over the job in February after a stint with One World Sports, replacing 14-year Commissioner David Gross. Brown has spent the first season both on a listening tour as well as drawing up plans to improve the game-day experience and build a more robust digital presence, among other key initiatives.

The 18-year-old MLL competes not only against the indoor National Lacrosse League, but also against the college game. MLL averaged 5,000 to 6,000 fans this season, while NLL averaged around 10,000 fans a game.

Brown said that with an improved effort in hiring, creativity, marketing investment and other business decisions, the league can become more relevant.

“The league’s been around for 18 years; we have a very strong foundation and these [new initiatives] are all things that all of our owners are in lockstep on in terms of trying to implement,” Brown said. “We realize where the opportunity is and where the upside is, showing just how well we do with this core 9-20 demographic. We’re going to make a very strong effort to go after that and go after it hard.”

To realize those aims, Brown said the league needs to take more of a Minor League Baseball-type approach toward the game-day experience and raise its efforts in the digital realm. That includes creating more short-form “snackable” content, long-form lifestyle content about MLL players and content around MLL teams’ offseason activities.

As far as game distribution, some MLL teams have deals with regional sports networks, while games also appear on ESPN2 and ESPN+ and the Lax Sports Network, which is owned by two of the MLL’s team owners. Brown wants to maintain a presence on linear TV in addition to growing in digital.

“I just don’t think heretofore that enough thought and concerted effort to address this audience has been there in the past,” Brown said. “But the owners are very much in sync in doing that now.”

A long-term play is to get teams into better stadium situations. Brown would like to eventually see teams in their own 8,000- to 10,000-seat facilities.

“The league has been steady for many years, and everyone from owners to players and sponsors all want to see it go to the next level,” Brown said. “That’s what we’re doing.”