Originally Posted by Anonymous
Interesting announcement yesterday with "age verification" coming for NLF teams and NLF Tournaments through USA Lacrosse. Article: https://www.insidelacrosse.com/arti...ce-partnership-on-age-verification/61589

Looks like the first class to be impacted will be the 2029's and it does not apply to kids once they get into high school.

1. Will HOCO follow these rules and implement change as well?
2. Do you see most teams aligning to this? I believe only Crabs and Madlax are official teams / affiliates of the NLF.
3. Which 2029 Elite team would be impacted the most? Not sure who has the most holdbacks and would lose players.

Although all these NLF teams are now coming out saying they support this and wanted this the entire time (other than CRABS probably), my understanding is that this was a money $$$ based decision. Event managers know that if this was going to happen, whomever got their "Age verification" process up and running first could have a pipeline for millions of $$$ annually coming in. From what I heard 3STEP lacrosse was close to having a big announcement coming and True Lacrosse was also in the process of working on something. By coming out first, USA Lacrosse and NLF partnerships (whatever that looks like....I'm sure NLF is getting a BIG CUT)....they get a jump and could possibly be the technology leaders in this.

You are definitely right that money is a big part of this. Both in revenues for the age verification process AND in reducing liability. US Lacrosse hasn't announced it yet but concussions are WAY up in the sport puting it on par with wrestling and football. By not addressing the obvious safety issues associated with biological 13 year olds hitting 11 year olds, the sport is exposed to excessive liability.

I believe all of the reputable A and AA level tournaments will adopt age verification in some form.