It was shortly after 12:30 p.m. when Paul Rabil, founder of the Premier Lacrosse League, awarded the Maybelline Women’s Lacrosse League championship trophy to the Boston Guard after winning the grand final of the WLL Championship Series.
During the ceremony, he uttered a sentence. “I can’t wait to tell you what is going to happen next.”
Part of the conversations in the halls of the St. James facility in Springfield, Va. in the last week was about what was next for professional women’s lacrosse. Would there be another Sixes series? Will there be a 10-on-10 league like UWLX or Athletes Unlimited? Is it slated to be 12-on-12 like the WPLL?
And, most important, when will it start?
Announcements about a new league are in the future, I’m sure. But by the power invested in me as one of the few people to have witnessed pro women’s lacrosse from its 2016 start up until today, we’re giving you, the reader, what we think is a reasoned plan for the WLL for a full startup.
So, what are we planning on here? I think we’re eventually going to see eight teams, just like in the Premier Lacrosse League. I think it will be 10-v-10, and will be a roaming feast of games — doubleheaders on Saturday and Sunday in areas of the country where girls’ and women’s lacrosse is keenly followed and where there are some good-sized stadia for fans.
I don’t see attempts at filling tackle football stadiums starting in Year 1, but instead going for mid-sized soccer and lacrosse-specific stadiums.
The eight markets where I think WLL could, and should, go are as follows:
Boston
New York
Philadelphia
Baltimore
Chicago
Colorado
California
Florida
I think the eight teams should also reflect the sites of weekend competition. It might be glib to try to fill large stadiums with WLL crowds, but what has to happen is to hit a sweet spot, somewhere towards the smaller end of the newer “niche” stadiums which are being built around the country for field hockey, lacrosse, and soccer.
There are a lot of great facilities that seat less than 4,000 and would need more added seating in order to be able to host larger crowds. It is therefore a hard ask to figure out eight good facilities, but we think we have some good locales for our eight teams:
Boston: Nickerson Field. This historic stadium has been downsized in the last quarter-century and now holds around 10,000. I think this beats out Harvard and Boston College for the best available facility for a nascent women’s league.
New York: James Shuart Stadium, Hempstead. This 12,000-seater has been a great host for NCAA men’s regional lacrosse games over the years, and is right near the Hempstead LIRR station.
Philadelphia: Tomlinson-Fillippo Field at Farrell Stadium, West Chester. The host of the 1989 Final Four, this stadium seats around 7,500.
Baltimore: Homewood Field. There are a lot of places which could have a WLL side, but Homewood is the ancestral home for the game in the United States. And it’s just the right size, seating about 8,500.
Chicago: SeatGeek Stadium, Bridgeview. The soccer-specific stadium now has only one soccer team calling it home, with the Chicago Fire playing the majority of its games at Soldier field. It has 20,000 seats.
Colorado: Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, Commerce City. While we’d love to have Barton Stadium at Denver University be the host, its capacity is only 2,000.
California: BMO Stadium, Los Angeles. This park, home of LAFC in Major League Soccer, has a capacity of about 22,000, and we had to pick this one because we know there will be a lot of work being done in the area of Dignity Health Sports Park because of the 2028 Olympics.
Florida: Inter&Co Stadium, Orlando. It is in the larger echelon of stadiums in our thought experiment, and it might be difficult to get games in during a summer schedule because of the subtropical weather. But it will draw fans.
Now, part of a new outdoor league is going to be the identities of the eight teams. We’ve considered the history of lacrosse, both men’s and women’s, to bestow nicknames names on the eight teams. Here’s the product we’re proposing to go on the field:
Boston Guard: This inspired nickname will forever be in the lore of women’s lacrosse as the first winner of the MWLL Championship Series.
New York Fight: Sure, having a team named Long Island Sound would be a great throwback to the UWLX days, but the New York Fight was a great name out of the WPLL. And, like the MWLL’s New York Charging, the Fight had the same shade of light blue in the 2018 season.
Philadelphia Force: One of the names of the original four UWLX sides, the team won the third league title in 2018.
Baltimore Ride: I think this was the greatest name of any of the pro women’s sides in the UWLX, given the fact that the nickname is a lacrosse-specific tactic for a pressing midfield defense.
Chicago Machine: This was an MLL nickname, but when you know the women’s lacrosse history of the area, you understand the machine-like precision of the Northwestern women’s program as it holds eight NCAA titles.
Colorado Command: The use of the WPLL’s New England moniker from the old league is a natural to make an alliterave team identity.
California Palms: Not only was this a great name within the Maybelline Women’s Lacrosse League, but a great team identity with the multicolored numbers. It would work no matter where the Palms play.
Florida Launch: One of the great nicknames and identities of Major League Lacrosse, this name would reflect the space industry.
How do you think a new women’s pro outdoor league will look?