Tournament Suggestions Requested

[Daniel Morris]

Salem State last year single handily set back the Div B tournament by a couple years in my opinion. The fact that they said that they didn't have the money to afford to go to Dallas is a huge deal. This looked horrendous on Div B nationally.

For the record, it wasn't money that prevented Salem State from attending the tournament. Their school administration felt that with finals on the horizon and the team coming out of nowhere to win in their first season of play, they didn't know enough about the team or the league to authorize the trip.

Division B is still 12 teams this year, but they will have a day of rest on Thursday for advancing teams. As tournament director, I was in charge of the schedule this year, and I know for a fact if we increased the Division B to 16 teams, we would either have to add a day to the schedule or eliminate consolation games. There just isn't enough daylight to run the amount of games we would need to get done with our current staff and field options.

[cjwilhelmi]

Salem State last year single handily set back the Div B tournament by a couple years in my opinion. The fact that they said that they didn't have the money to afford to go to Dallas is a huge deal. This looked horrendous on Div B nationally.

For the record, it wasn't money that prevented Salem State from attending the tournament. Their school administration felt that with finals on the horizon and the team coming out of nowhere to win in their first season of play, they didn't know enough about the team or the league to authorize the trip.

Division B is still 12 teams this year, but they will have a day of rest on Thursday for advancing teams. As tournament director, I was in charge of the schedule this year, and I know for a fact if we increased the Division B to 16 teams, we would either have to add a day to the schedule or eliminate consolation games. There just isn't enough daylight to run the amount of games we would need to get done with our current staff and field options.

Regardless it still looked really bad for Div B.

[OAKS]

Here's a suggestion if nobody's said it: Vendor Fair.

Maybe between the B and A finals or something, but something smaller and less costly for vendors than the USL Convention / coaches convention / ncaa national championships, but enough to help defray some costs of the tourney.

[Beta]

If there's no chili cookoff Im going to cause some trouble...and by "cause some trouble", I surely mean "sit around complaining that there 'should be a chili cookoff'".

[John Paul]

Can't do a vendor fair OAKS. LaxWorld has exclusive vendor rights at the tournament.

[Duffy34]

This is a stretch and i dont think most people will like this idea but why not try and contact the NCAA and have the finals later during the championship weekend that the NCAA's have. I know it would cost some to travel and and all and the wait may not be good but i come from the east and have many friends who play top D1 and they ask me about the MCLA all the time. Maybe even if it happened one year, I think that would create a lot of publicity for the league and also show a lot of people that the MCLA is not "the beer league" that some people think it is...any thoughts?

there are some great suggestions in this thread but I think if we want a big crowd and publicity it needs to be moved to a traditional "hot bed" like NY, MD, VA, etc...

[John Paul]

The NCAA has no interest in adding the MCLA tournament to their event. If we wanted to do it somewhere nearby, we could always do that, but the NCAA would not promote our event in any way. The other roadblocks to that idea include facilities (there are very few facilities nationally that can handle our event in one spot) and scheduling (the NCAA weekend is already loaded up with 5 games).

NJCAA (junior college varsity) has inquired with the NCAA in the past. No dice. The NCAA would be much quicker to include them rather than us, but no interest.

I do agree that it could be benificial to do more to get our top teams East to play (I say top teams meaning the ones that aren't beer league-ish, there are still plenty that are).

[Duffy34]

What about just the final game for divison A? I know that it couldnt be in the Stadium where the NCAA's are but in years past the D2 games used to be on a side field that weekend, what about something like that off site? Also the MCLA should do a First four thing like the NCAA had this year with 'Cuse, UVA, Hopkins, and Princeton which drew about 50,000 fans. Why not at the beggingin of the year send teams like Mich, CU, CSU, BYU (those are just examples off my head, not defenites, just teams usually in the top tier of the league) to the east coast for a four or six team tournament. that would for sure draw a crowd and get some publicity. i really like what the MCLA has done recently but i do think it could really boost the leagues reputation and publicity do to something on the east coast. lets face it, there really arent a ton of lax fans in dallas or minnesota. i remember last year during nationals the women at the hotel my team stayed at in dallas had never even heard of lacrosse and the final game between CU and CSU had basically just parents there and some other teams that decided to stay and watch.

[Campbell]

What about just the final game for divison A? I know that it couldnt be in the Stadium where the NCAA's are but in years past the D2 games used to be on a side field that weekend, what about something like that off site? Also the MCLA should do a First four thing like the NCAA had this year with 'Cuse, UVA, Hopkins, and Princeton which drew about 50,000 fans. Why not at the beggingin of the year send teams like Mich, CU, CSU, BYU (those are just examples off my head, not defenites, just teams usually in the top tier of the league) to the east coast for a four or six team tournament. that would for sure draw a crowd and get some publicity. i really like what the MCLA has done recently but i do think it could really boost the leagues reputation and publicity do to something on the east coast. lets face it, there really arent a ton of lax fans in dallas or minnesota. i remember last year during nationals the women at the hotel my team stayed at in dallas had never even heard of lacrosse and the final game between CU and CSU had basically just parents there and some other teams that decided to stay and watch.

I think the MCLA games should stay out west. Regardless of a large crowd at the final game, part of the goal should be growing the sport in the areas where MCLA teams play. That means more PR and advertising to get the fans out, but the MCLA always seemed to me to be the league that provides quality lacrosse where it hasn't been dominant. The only advantage, aside from revenue, to playing back east would be exposing kids to the MCLA and the options they have for playing competitive lacrosse outside of the east coast.

[John Paul]

Good ideas Duffy, but all of those take a lot of money. For us to move a final four or our final games to a different site than the earlier rounds would take a huge investment in resources, both financial and personal. We are stretched thin planning one event in one place. Planning two back-to-back in different places would be overwhelming for us right now. Plus, we have always said that if we are ever going to have a separate final four type of event we would need to subsidize the teams that are going. Since we have two divisions, that would mean paying the travel costs for 8 teams - easily a $300,000+ budget item. No way we can do that yet.

I'm also not convinced our event would get much interest during the NCAA weekend. I think we would be completely overshadowed and mostly ignored. I agree with Campbell that our national tournament should stay in the areas of the country where we are strongest. We represent college lacrosse in "the rest of the country."

Same issue with a First Four style of event. That event happens because the teams that go are paid to do it. Their costs are covered. We can't afford to do that, and I don't know of sponsors who would be willing to front the kind of money it would take for our level of the game.

[horn17]

John-

If we could find a large enough sponsor to pay for something like that (First 4)...would the league be open to it?

[John Paul]

The league would stay out of it. An event like that would be between the event and the teams invited. More power to anyone who could pull it off.

[unclaxman23]

i think that we should set dallas up like they set up the us open in golf. have a youth day on like monday then have a large bbq/social get together. Maybe have a subway there also. If you have pretty good food and activities (fastest shot, scoop and shoot. also have a prize give away. I am sure that breakaway will sponsor a stick for first place and like a hat for second. Charge like 3 bucks for each event and i think that you be surprised in the amount of money that comes in. The idea i have for between the a and b championship is this; have a fastest shot for the a players (each team sends one guy) during the b game and visa verca.
just my 2 cents

[CATLAX MAN]

Didn't they try to do this last year with Kyle Harrison and the turnout was minimal?

[Sonny]

Didn't they try to do this last year with Kyle Harrison and the turnout was minimal?

The Boys Youth Clinic with Kyle on Championship Saturday had minimal turnout. The Girls Youth Clinic with Jen Adams on the same day had zero turnout.