2006 MDIA National Championship - location

[JW]

Any word on where the 2006 National Championship will be located. I remember that the bidding cities were Blaine, Minnesota; St. Louis, Missouri; and Frisco, Texas (Frisco north of Dallas. ).

[Sonny]

As stated in the other thread (just below - "Championship Venue") - it will be Dallas (Frisco, I assume) or Minnesota (Blaine). Expect an annoucement shortly.

P.S. Please discuss the MDIA Championships in the appropriate "Championship Chat" Forum.

[the lax]

I hoping for Texas. One of the biggest regular seasons games (Highland Park v. Episcopal Dallas) in 2005 drew over two thousand fans. Lacrosse is erupting in the Lone Star state far more than minnesota.

[Sonny]

Lacrosse is erupting in the Lone Star state far more than minnesota.

That is certainly debatable. If the event is moved to Frisco (outside Dallas), I don't think our event will draw fan support from far-away Texas cities like Houston, San Antonio, or Austin (especially Tuesday thru Friday). Regardless of where we play the event, fan support will be luke-warm. We are going to ALWAYS have a tough time attract any amount of fans for the early rounds.

[the lax]

Austin has the best chance being the closest but I still think you are going to see more fans. LAcrosse is alot bigger in Texas than Minnesota. Reference 4 high school teams in the top 85 in the country vs Minnesota's state champs coming in at 153. Also, Team Texas finished 3rd at Champ Camp this summer. Better levels of high school lacrosse at the national level mean more and more kids are playing and at a younger age which hopefully will translate to more fans taking an interest in the club tournament, a league many Texans consider with the programs at Tech A&M and and UT.

[CATLAX MAN]

I would tend to think that Sonny is right on this one. All those things you mention do not necessarily translate in larger attendance at the MDIA tourney. Even when we were back in St. Louis, there was relatively little local interest, even though lacrosse is pretty popular in the St. Louis area. The bulk of the attendees at the MDIA tourney are going to be the players & families of those competing. Now if the event were being held in San Diego. . . . . .

[Bentiss]

I have to agree with Sonny & CATLAX...

It would take damn near a miracle for lacrosse to really catch on as "popular" in this country. It doesn't have the tradition of football or baseball, and more recently basketball or hockey. Those "Big 4" sports are here to stay for a long time...This USL MDIA Tournament will not make or break the sport's interest in Texas, let alone nationally. The only people to attend will still only be, as CATLAX said, players and families of players...

I turn to soccer as an example...It was often touted as the next big thing here in the states. Where has it gone? Nowhere! Although the talent and competition has risen nationally, the interest has pretty much been steady. The same goes for lacrosse no matter what happens. No matter how many sweet goals/saves SPORTSCENTER shows, no matter how often ESPN shows a game. The bottom line is that it is a very difficult sport as is the case with soccer (my original example). Kids want to learn the sports, but grow increasingly frustrated with their lack of ability to "catch on". Due to lacrosse's and soccer's lack of national tradition, and the sports' great difficulty, children will become frustrated with what they thought to originally be easy and cool, and move to where the masses are...Participation at an early age may and probably will increase, but as long as football, baseball, and basketball are around, those are the sports that children will stick with as they get older.

I love lacrosse, don't get me wrong. I also love soccer...But the fact remains that holding a tournament with the comparatively thin talent of the MDIA to Division I, II, etc. in one area compared to another will ultimately not affect the sport as a whole. MY vote, therefore, goes to Blaine...

[TexOle]

Dallas would be a great host. I do think the night life there might be a little lacking compared to Minnesota, but it is not terrible. Maybe my biggest concern with holding it in Dallas is the pace at which the sport is growing. The sport is growing at a rapid pace in Minnesota. I think keeping it in Minnesota encourages that growth. I also think that Minnesota deserves one more chance to show it can host this event. Also Frisco is a way from Dallas. I grew up in the Lake Highlands area, and I always thought Plano was out there. Frisco makes Plano seem close. I also remember when there was nothing out there, and that was 4 years ago. It is a growing area, but it is a ways away from Dallas. Also do we really want to hold the tournament in a city that was aaccused of using a racial slur for a high school mascot? If you are from the Dallas area then you understand the controversy, and if not then too bad.

[NT19]

Im from Frisco so my opinion may be a bit biased. But, Frisco has been growing tremendously in the past few years. It is now the home of the AA Frisco Roughriders (baseball) and the Junior A Texas Tornado (hockey) and now FC Dallas (soccer). Frisco High School's mascot came under a lot of fire around 2002. The mascot was never meant to hurt anyone. Also, what does the mascot of the local high school have to do with a lacrosse tournament? Just my thoughts

[TexOle]

I thought someone might get a kick out of the mascot reference. Wasn't that the mascot for like 100 years? I remember going out to Frisco like 15 years ago. It is probably the fastest growing part of Dallas. I am still skeptical about playing there right now.

[Pinball]

Lacrosse is alot bigger in Texas than Minnesota.

Schools with Boys Lacrosse teams located in the North Texas Region
22

Schools with Boys Lacrosse teams located in the metropolitan area of Minneapolis/St. Paul

48

Teams in north texas with a sophomore or freshman team
3

Teams in the metropolitan area of Minneapolis/St. Paul with fresh or soph teams.
21

i got all my info from THSLL site and MBSLA website

Maybe the Dallas area is a lot bigger then Minneapolis/St. Paul, but it appears the lacrosse community is much smaller by looking at the amount of high school teams.

We have a NLL team with highlights nightly on local news and live broadcast on local cable (FSN North).

Yes it was miserable here, the weather sucked, i didnt want to even watch cause it was so miserable.

It was fishing opener which is huge in minnesota, so that pulled a few fans away.

Dallas stole our hockey team back in the day, please don't let them steal our championship. Norm Green Sucks

[bste_lax]

in north texas with a sophomore or freshman team
3

Teams in the metropolitan area of Minneapolis/St. Paul with fresh or soph teams.
21

Are those 21 freshmen/sophomore teams your Junior Varsity teams? As those 3 listed for Dallas would be on top of a Varisty team and a Junior Varsity team. My high school had two JV teams with one of them being basically the freshmen/sophomore team.

And for TexOle, you haven't been out to Frisco recently. A lot has changed in the last 3-4 years. Also, you really thought Plano was "out there"?! But that whole area out by the Park and the mall is nice and I think it could be a decent spot for the tourney. Probably should give Blaine one more chance but we shall see.

[John Paul]

Interesting watching how message board threads can push a rumor along. The Frisco complex has not been considered for the championships. It was not part of the Dallas bid. We visited Dallas last week, and the host committee showed us two separate venues - one city rec center (multiple fields) for the preliminary rounds and a high school football stadium for the semis and finals. All in the Plano / Highland Park area.

USL, along with the MDIA and WDIA, will make a final decision between Minneapolis and Dallas in the next week or two (after Thanksgiving). There are very clear pluses and minuses to each location, and quite a few factors that would not be clear to the average participant or spectator.

Lastly, can we all please stop calling it Blaine? We never called St. Louis Fenton and we're not calling Dallas Plano. From a marketing standpoint alone, we need to refer to the Minnesota location as Minneapolis.

[the lax]

Tell the truth Matt Benson. Great work.

Laxpower: Minnesota has 47 varsity teams
Texas has 64 varsity teams

Minnesota state champs were ranked 153rd nationally
Texas state champs were ranked 42nd nationally

The second best team from Texas was ranked 81st
The second best team from Minnesota was ranked 304th

D1 recruits from last season
Minnesota: 2, to Stony Brook and Air Force
Texas: 9, to Bellarmine, Hofstra, Penn State, Ohio State, Denver, Penn,
Villanova, Lafayette

While the argument for which state produces better lacrosse players between NY and MD will rage for a while, this case is open and shut. Better lacrosse in a growing area will produce more fans.
Don't forget, most Texas schools start very early in August. They will be out by the time the tournament begins.

[tamu33]

Lacrosse is alot bigger in Texas than Minnesota.

Schools with Boys Lacrosse teams located in the North Texas Region
22

Schools with Boys Lacrosse teams located in the metropolitan area of Minneapolis/St. Paul

48

Teams in north texas with a sophomore or freshman team
3

Teams in the metropolitan area of Minneapolis/St. Paul with fresh or soph teams.
21

i got all my info from THSLL site and MBSLA website

Maybe the Dallas area is a lot bigger then Minneapolis/St. Paul, but it appears the lacrosse community is much smaller by looking at the amount of high school teams.

Man I don't know where on the THSLL site you got your numbers but they are way off. There are over 23 varsity and 20 jv (*what I consider fr and so teams) teams in the north texas region. As for attendance during the week for championship games. Of course middle of the day games are going to draw less crowds due to folks working but, when I coached youth teams at the potential site this past summer, we had over 250 5-7grade kids come out each wednesday for 8 weeks at 530 to 800pm. And we had close to 150 spectators for each round of games. The crowd base is strong, it is just a matter of scheduling a few marquee games later in the afternoon so that kids can get their working parents to take them out there.
Plus, our region has already made prospecting calls to the big schools' alumni chapters to generate an interest. Schools such as Michigan, Colorado, CSU, FSU, and Oregon have big alumni chapters in dallas and would come support their teams and possible sponsor dinners/ events.