I just saw a cool article this morning on why everyone watches march madness college basketball. It's because they have had 16 different winners in the last 25 years compared to just 5 in women's lacrosse. Women's college basketball is also referenced saying they are going backwards. They had 13 winners in 25 years but the last 10 have been bad for the sport with just a few winners. Other sports needs to spread the wealth around so popularity increases.
Lacrosse is a mere infant compared to BAsketball in terms of popularity and growing the game. Lax is where W basketball was 20-22 years ago when title IX kicked in. Big schools with big funding are adding teams, and in time the sport will enjoy that parity. Rule changes such as the shot clock will add excitement to the game and bring more fans.
If they really want to grow the game they better go the way of soccer at the younger ages. Smaller fields, less players, which forces more touches (YES Forced)need to keep average players involved at the younger ages. Too many kids are leaving the sport at young ages because bad youth coaches condone 2 girls scoring all 20 goals in a 20-8 game. Lacrosse has a bad rap at the young levels with coaches giving up on kids way too early. Cant catch in 3rd grade? got to go. Not playing travel in Kindergarten going to MD on the weekends? Got to go
I would still argue that by 6th grade 75% of those soccer kids quit. A lot of kids try a lot of sports but at some point you need some god given athletic ability.
