It is considered by many to be just a summer time recreational sport that has no commercial value for the North American sports fan.
For years, lacrosse has been popular in small pockets of the Canadian provinces and the northeastern U.S.
Listed as Canada's national summer time sport, lacrosse is looking to make an impact in the sport culture of the U.S. where there is much more commercial potential if they can make an impact on the corporate and sporting society of our southern neighbours.
Lacrosse employs many of the same offensive and defensive strategies during the course of the 60 minute contest.
The athletes must be able to take and give hits with the same voracity and bone-crunching magnitude that a football player delivers. They must have great cat-like agility along with hand-eye coordination to catch a ball zipping along at 100 miles per hour and quickly relay it to a player just as fast.
The U.S. has long considered baseball as their favourite pastime, but according to TV ratings and attendance of the 30 stadiums, North American football, more specifically the National Football League (NFL), has moved Major League Baseball (MLB) out of the number one ranking for a number of years now.
Proof is in the weekly TV ratings of the NFL games and the amazing broadcast numbers that the Super Bowl draws in every year.
Since the announcement that the National Hockey League (NHL) was locking out the players by commissioner Gary Bettman and the Board of Governors, the National Lacrosse League (NLL) has an opportunity to be put front and centre just behind the National Basketball Association (NBA) during the winter months.
http://www.brockpress.com/news/2005/03/ ... 4656.shtml
