The Premier Lacrosse League announced Tuesday the host cities and regions that each of its eight clubs will be assigned moving forward, the latest transition in the league’s history since its inception in October 2018.
The new assignments are as follows:
Utah Archers
New York Atlas
Boston Cannons
Carolina Chaos
Denver Outlaws
California Redwoods
Philadelphia Waterdogs
Maryland Whipsnakes
The choices were made after evaluating existing fan data, market performance, broadcast viewership and fan voting. Host venues will be announced at a later date. The announcement also came with the introduction of Eastern and Western Conferences, with Utah, Denver, California and Carolina comprising the West and New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Maryland comprising the East.
The most notable assignment is the rebranding of Chrome Lacrosse Club as the Denver Outlaws — long one of the most popular and successful Major League Lacrosse franchises. When the PLL merged with MLL, the PLL made it clear that it held the rights to MLL teams and branding. And with the re-emergence of both the Outlaws and Boston Cannons, the league is capitalizing on those properties.
Denver led MLL in average attendance in 12 of 14 seasons from 2006-19, bolstered by a Fourth of July fireworks game that annually drew more than 25,000 fans and peaked with 31,644 in 2015.
On the whole, the Denver area is ripe with lacrosse interest.
The National Lacrosse League’s Colorado Mammoth, a team that drew nearly 10,000 fans per game last year, has led the league in attendance four times. In 2008, the Mammoth’s average Pepsi Center attendance of 12,991 was higher than that of the NHL’s Colorado Avalanche and the NBA’s Denver Nuggets.