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Leagues and Governing Bodies

MLL folds three teams as part of restructure

Major League Lacrosse will contract from nine to six teams for its upcoming season.

Folding before MLL begins its 19th season May 31 are the Charlotte Hounds, Florida Launch and Ohio Machine. The reconfiguration comes under MLL’s first new commissioner in 14 years, former Univision Sports President Sandy Brown, who was brought on last February.

The three contracted teams, along with the surviving Dallas Rattlers franchise, are owned by billionaire New Balance founder Jim Davis, the league’s primary financial backer since 2003. MLL, which launched with six teams in 2001, has been a nine-team league for the past three seasons; it’s never had more than 10 franchises at one time.

Folding three of Davis’ teams leaves the league with a one-team-per-owner structure. None of the teams is permanently shut down, according to the league, which controls the franchises. The league said that after renovations to Charlotte’s Memorial Stadium, the Hounds hope to return in 2021 under new ownership.

Former Univision Sports exec Sandy Brown has been commissioner of Major League Lacrosse since February 2018.getty images

As part of the new look, MLL also brought its media rights in-house. A new media deal is a top priority, as is adding more franchises, Brown said.

“We’ve cleaned up a lot of things and now we have a clear path for expansion,” Brown said, citing Minnesota, Texas, Colorado, California and the Pacific Northwest as markets with potential, since those areas have seen strong grassroots lacrosse growth. He described the price for an MLL franchise as “in the low seven figures” and the minimum-level venue as a Class AAA baseball stadium.

MLL average attendance reached a high of 6,417 in 2011 but has declined each year since, bottoming out at 3,619 last year.

The contraction comes as the league faces new competition. Paul Rabil, MLL’s all-time leading scorer, is launching the Premier Lacrosse League in June. The PLL has a TV deal with NBC, higher player salaries and a fair amount of talent that it raided from MLL. PLL investors include sports heavyweights CAA, The Raine Group and Alibaba’s Joseph Tsai.

In response, MLL raised its salary cap 51 percent and moved its season start from mid-April to late May.

Contraction notwithstanding, Brown said MLL has not made a cash call. “We don’t have any capitalization issues at all,” he said. “We have money in the bank.”

Asked about competition from the PLL, Brown said, “Do I think it’s a big enough fish pond for all of these leagues? No, I don’t.”

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