Major League Lacrosse - History

History

The MLL was founded by Jake Steinfeld, Dave Morrow and Tim Robertson in 1998, and began regular season play in June 2001. Steinfeld is well known for creating the Body By Jake line of exercise equipment and videos. Morrow is a former All-American lacrosse player and the president of Warrior Sports.

The league was originally divided into the American Division — Boston, Bridgeport (moved to Philadelphia in 2004) and Long Island — and the National Division — Baltimore (moved to Washington after the 2006 season and to Annapolis after the 2008 season), New Jersey, and Rochester — from 2001 until 2005. The MLL played a 14-game regular season its first two years; in 2003, the schedule was cut to 12 games. The league's playoff format has the top teams in each division advancing to the New Balance MLL Championship Weekend, with two wild card playoff spots going to the teams with the best remaining records regardless of division.

MLL announced on March 9, 2005, that the league would expand to Los Angeles for the 2006 season, and that the team would play its home games at The Home Depot Center. AEG, Inc. was confirmed as the franchise's owner/operator. On July 2, 2005, MLL officials revealed that Denver, Colorado would also be home to an expansion franchise, with a team playing at Invesco Field at Mile High. The league subsequently added teams in the Chicago, Illinois and San Francisco, California markets, creating a western conference for these teams. MLL Western Conference play began with the 2006 season.

In an effort to test markets as potential expansion/relocation candidates, the Philadelphia Barrage franchise played all of its 2008 "home" matches in other cities; Cary, North Carolina, Hillsboro, Oregon, Irving, Texas, St. Louis and Virginia Beach. In addition the Barrage's "home game" against Boston was played in Boston.

At the end of the 2008 season four teams (Los Angeles, New Jersey, Philadelphia, and San Francisco) folded due to financial problems thus forcing the MLL to form one conference. At the start of the 2009 season, the Toronto Nationals were added to the MLL after they bought the rights to the Rochester Rattlers. The Toronto team thus gained the staff of the Rochester team as well as the players, but the Rochester name and the team colors were left in Rochester for the possibility of a future team. On November 23, 2010, Inside Lacrosse.com reported that the Chicago Machine franchise would be moving to Rochester, New York. The team played the entire 2009 season as a traveling team testing expansion markets for the league. The new Rochester franchise will play at Sahlen's Stadium, the same stadium the Rochester Rattlers used at the end of their tenure in Rochester before relocating to Toronto, Ontario.

On December 9, 2010, Commissioner David Gross announced that in February 2011, there would be two expansion teams created for the 2012 MLL Season. Also there would be two more expansion teams for 2013. The long term goal is to have 16 teams by 2019. There were nineteen sites identified as potential markets including Chicago, Philadelphia, and San Francisco.

On January 21, 2011, League Commissioner David Gross announced that Charlotte, North Carolina and Columbus, Ohio had been approved to host expansion teams to begin play in the 2012 MLL season, a season in which the commissioner also said the league would be adding two more games to the schedule, where eight teams will play fourteen games.

The list of 19 markets identified by Gross in December (not including North Carolina and Ohio where the 2012 teams are set to go) include, in alphabetical order: Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Indianapolis, Miami, Minneapolis, Nashville (Tenn.), Orange County (Calif.), Orlando (Fla.), Pittsburgh, Salt Lake City and Virginia Beach (Va.). The league has also examined the possibility of a team in either Portland, Ore., or Seattle. Chicago, Philadelphia and San Francisco, home of former MLL franchises Machine, Barrage and Dragons, respectively, are also on the list.