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<p>Is this a serious post? I live in the NE where lax is very popular. But it does not even scrape soccer…</p>
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Sorry I mistyped; I meant the reverse.</p>
<p>Lax is the fastest growing youth sport in the US measured by participation and it is not even close … I’d guess the number of high school lax teams will catch and pass hockey within a generation … my guess is a lot of colleges will be adding lacrosse and dropping other sports over the next few years following the interests of their students.</p>
<p>3togo, Basketball and Hockey teams have rosters of 15 or so players. Soccer has rosters of 23 players. Lacrosse has rosters of 35+ players. Hockey is a costly sport to maintain. Naturally, there are going to be more Lacrosse players than Hockey players. However, it terms of importance, Lacrosse will not match any of the top 5 sports, not now and not in the future. Football and Basketball are far and away the top two sports, Baseball is a distant third while Hockey fouth. Soccer is a distant fifth.I have lived in the US on and off since 1986. I have lived a 3 years in the Northeast, 3 years in the Mid-Atlantic and 8 years in the Midwest. I am very familiar with the culture on a national level and do not have, as some suggested, a lack of unhderstanding in this matter. </p>
<p>Many are pointing out that Lacrosse is growing in popularity. Well, guess what folks, so is college Hockey. The Big 10 is going to have its own Hockey league as of 2013 and the Big East, Big 12 and Pac 10 are all thinking of starting their own programs. In a decade or so, you could see a national network of Hockey programs. Of course, that is all speculation, but then again, so is the notion that Lacrosse will become the third most popular sport in the US.</p>
<p>If we do go D1, we’re gonna get steamrolled the first season but ehh whatever maybe in the years after that recruiting and stuff can pick up and we can be competitive!</p>
<p>Alexandre … certainly respect your opinion … but don’t agree … time will tell whose opinion proves to be correct. If I’m still alive in 25 years I’m buying at any collegetown joint in thaca if you’re correct!</p>
<p>One other current data point … at least in Boston there are already more televised college lax games on ESPNU (and ESPN2, etc) than there are college soccer or baseball and I would guess pretty even to college hoackey … college hockey, which is HUGE here, does have incredible local TV coverage while lax has no precense on local TV (with UMass being the only local D1 progam of note). I know you think watching lax is boring but in my experience those who know the game (whose numbers are growing greatly) tend to prefer watching lax to watching baseball or soccer.</p>
<p>PS - I LOVE college hockey … I think it is the best in person sporting event to watch by far … I think lax will draw ahead not because it is a superior experience but because it will become a national sport while hockey will remain regional.</p>
<p>Bottom line … we all win if another sport lots of folks will support and cheer for is added to the mix at our schools … although it likely will be tough for some traditional sports like wrestling, track & field, fencing, etc that might be cut to make room for lax.</p>
<p>I didn’t even know what Lacrosse was until I came to college. It’s not played or talked about at all in Chicago. Sport for rich trustfund kids apparently ha ha.</p>
<p>"Seems like a sport that you play when you get cut from every other sport lol. "
That would be soccer.</p>
<p>Alexandre (and anyone else who thinks the lacrosse they’ve seen is boring) if you ever come back to Michigan on a trip or such, I encourage you to watch a Brother Rice lacrosse game. Mix the emotions of high school sports with a high level of talent, and there’s a game to SEE. I don’t think it gets much bigger than the state championship in Michigan, if BR has a competitive opponent.</p>
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You obviously never played the sport or you wouldn’t make that comment. It is very difficult to make a top D1 team in soccer unless you played at a very high level in club.</p>
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them is fighting words</p>
<p>One other data point. Laxpower.com has a computer generated ranking of all US high school teams … in 2005 this covered 2290 boys teams … in 2010 it covered 3095 boys teams … that is 715 new teams in 5 years; about a 31% growth in 5 years. Having said that at 3000 teams and 30,000 high schools boys lax has only made it into about 10% of the high schools … lax is growing fast but it has a LONG way to become a major player.</p>
<p>Lacrosse seems to be a fringe sport in America for the same reason hockey is a fringe sport here: only rich white kids on the east coast play it. If the sport ever wants to get big like Baseball, Basketball, and Football (and I doubt this will ever happen), it needs to attract more demographics from more regions (and countries).</p>
<p>Yakyu, Hockey has an international following. It is a major sport in Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Russia and Sweden. Iyt also has a presence in Austria, Norway, Poland and Switzerland. It is in fact a more international sport than Baseball or Football, both of which are primarily US sports. Lacrosse has a presence in the US and Canada only, but it is not considered a major sport.</p>
<p>3togo, I would estimate than over 50% of high schools in the US have Tennis teams, while fewer than 5% of high school teams have Golf and Hockey teams. That’s because the cost associated with Golf is very high and because Hockey is a very difficult sport, so the masses will not be able to participate in those sports. However, on a national level, Golf and Hockey are far more important sports than Tennis. </p>
<p>Until I see Lacrosse players gain the sort of star-status (and earning potential) that Hockey and Soccer players do, one cannot logically claim that Lacrosse is an important sport. As a team sport, it does not come close to being a top 5 sport in the US. If you include individual spots, such as Golf and Tennis, Lacross is not close to making the top 7 sports. Just because thousands of schools and tens of thousands of kids play the game in High school does not make it an important sport. It can only become considered a major sport when its athletes are revered by society and make millions of dollars annually. Until then, it will not gain the commercial support required, nor will it attract the most talented athletes.</p>
<p>Well Alexander I thought we were talking about college sports. To follow on your thought … worldwide soccer is HUGE; widely played both proferssionally and as amateurs; and pros can make a ton … however in the US pro soccer is slowly making it to the tail end of the list of major sports … college soccer has tons of teams however with very low attendence and little TV presence and virtually no name recognition for the players despite huge numbers of players and teams at the youth and high school level. It seems to me we are defining “major sport” very differently … at the world wide level I agree with virtually everything you said … in this thread I am focussed on what I believe are major college sports in the US … and when college lax has as many teams, as many players, possibly better attendence, and possibly better TV precense than college soccer then I’d say lax has arrived as a college sport (same argument will likely be made with baseball also) … even if it is still dwarfed worldwide especially at the professional level.</p>
<p>a little more data … NCAA D1 attendence … teams with the highest average attendence according to the NCAA</p>
<p>…soccer…lax</p>
<h1>1…5873…5832</h1>
<h1>5…2940…2930</h1>
<h1>10…2094…2084</h1>
<h1>15…1628…1527</h1>
<h1>20…1287…1034</h1>
<hr>
<h1>teams…326…61</h1>
<p>So the top 20 of 326 teams from soccer are basically a match for the top 20 teams among only 61 in lax (in other words the lax team 1/3 of the way done the attendence list matches the attendence of the soccer team about 1/16th of the way down the list) … seems to me college lax already on par as a spectator sport with college soccer … and it hasn’t even arrived at most of the large BCS level schools yet (and it will).</p>
<p>YMMV but all evidence I see says lax is coming on strong and while it will not catch football or bball at the college level it will be in the group right behind.</p>
<p>Still a ways to go to catch up with NCAA hockey and baseball. But, don’t get me wrong LAX is growing probably the most rapidly (no question about that to me at the high school level)</p>
<p>Hockey average game attendance 2010:</p>
<h1>1 Wisconsin - 15,481</h1>
<h1>10 Mich St - 4,966</h1>
<h1>20 Miami (OH) - 3,111</h1>
<p>Baseball average game attendance 2010:</p>
<h1>1 LSU - 10,673</h1>
<h1>10 Wichita St U - 3,643</h1>
<h1>20 Miami (FL) - 3,097</h1>
<p>^ agreed … earlier I mentioned I think college hockey is GREAT … only limited because it is and will remain a regional sport … however where there are teams it is a GREAT spector event. I actually looked up the baseball attendence and was surprised it was double the soccer/lax levels … it will be interesting to see what happens over the next 20 years or so … clearly I believe lax will continue to grow in popularity and I also think, unfortunatley, that baseball will decline some as the percentage of hardcore baseball fans decreases … the families going to college games are headed by adults my age who grew up with baseball, football, basketball, and hockey and who for the most part have been brought into soccer and lax by their kids … when those kids are parents it will be interesting to see if attendence patterns change.</p>
<p>3togo, I do not agree that Hovkey is regional or that its popularity has limited growth potential? Hockey has a huge following in the Northeast, the Midwest and the Great Plains and has a significant following in Florida, California and Oregon. In other words, in each of the 20 most populated states, Hockey has a presence. Lacrosse, on the other hand, has one huge limitation; it is not commercially viable. Such sports do not have much of a future in the US. </p>
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<li><p>Charge $20/game, and attendance at Lacrosse games drops dramatically. Not so with Hockey.</p></li>
<li><p>Talented athletes, knowing that Lacrosse is not as lucrative a sport as Basketball, Football, Baseball, Hockey, Soccer, Golf or Tennis are just not going to pursue it as intently.</p></li>
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<p>Like I said, not commercially viable.</p>