Premier Lacrosse League’s Move To ESPN Could Help It Target A Lacrosse-Hungry Audience

Premier Lacrosse League co-founder and president Paul Rabil believes that moving his league’s games to ESPN and its family of networks and streaming service not only will provide it with great exposure, but with something that is important in television.

That is, a strong lead-in for its 47-game season.

That season begins June 4 and will air exclusively across ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPN+, with all 47 games available to stream on ESPN+. The PLL and ESPN announced the partnership Wednesday.

The PLL needed a new broadcast home after the NBC Sports Network ceased to exist at the end of 2021. In ESPN, the league has a broadcast partner that is in the midst of a schedule of more than 250 college lacrosse games. That will culminate with the national semifinals and final on May 28 and 30, respectively, on ESPN2.

Those tournament games, in particular, will enable the PLL to benefit from ESPN promoting its coverage of the upcoming professional outdoor season to fans, both casual and hardcore, seeking more lacrosse after the Division 1 season concludes on Memorial Day. The PLL will have its opening faceoff five days later.

As Rabil noted, college lacrosse will be an excellent “lead-in property.”

He added that “ESPN has done extensive coverage of (college lacrosse) for several decades. That was one of the reasons we were so attracted to the partnership.”

“They’re a mainstay in lacrosse with college lacrosse,” Rabil said in a one-on-one phone interview, “international games and the NLL (National Lacrosse League) across their platform. It’s not only going to drive a deeper, more passionate fan base, but with our linear inventory on ABC, ESPN and ESPN2, we have an opportunity to go after non-lacrosse fans, what we call ‘net-new’ fans.”

He said another positive is that “I think they’ve done social media better than any other network. They have 20 million followers on both ESPN and SportsCenter (accounts) on both Instagram and Twitter and that’s an unlimited inventory touchpoint where you can tap into their marketing machine and benefit.”

For the very serious fan, there is the opportunity to stream each game on the network’s pay streaming service, ESPN+.

Rabil said the league’s research has determined that the average PLL fan has three streaming services per household.

“Our audience follows the PLL and goes where the PLL goes,” he said.

It is unclear at this point on which network the championship game will air.

“This new agreement will maximize exposure for the league and sport as a whole, with a number of events on linear television and all games being available direct to consumer,” chairman, ESPN and sports content Jimmy Pitaro said in a statement. “Paul and Mike Rabil are incredible leaders and innovators in the sport and we are all looking forward to continued growth for the PLL.”

“Year-over-year PLL viewership has shown consistent growth, setting record numbers for pro lacrosse across broadcast and streaming platforms,” Mike Rabil, co-founder and CEO of the PLL said in a statement. “We’re excited to work together with ESPN to bring even more eyeballs to the sport of lacrosse.”