“Body by Jake” entrepreneur Jake Steinfeld is banking on the growth of lacrosse with his announcement Thursday of westward expansion of Major League Lacrosse, including a Denver franchise owned and operated by Broncos owner Pat Bowlen.
The unnamed team will play at Invesco Field at Mile High, beginning in May 2006. Philip Anschutz will own a Los Angeles-based franchise, and two other teams will be selected from contenders in San Francisco, San Diego, Chicago and Dallas.
Steinfeld, the founder and CEO of the five-year-old, six-team outdoor field league, determined the time was ripe to move West based on large numbers of young participants and lacrosse equipment sales, including data collected by partner Dave Morrow, the CEO of Warrior Lacrosse.
“It’s amazing,” Steinfeld said. “In 2000, when I started the MLL, if I walked around with a lacrosse stick through a neighborhood, they’d call the police.”
Steinfeld said he believes Western-based players will eventually be better than those from traditional hotbeds, such as Long Island, New York and Baltimore.
Denver was an easy choice for expansion, given the success of the National Lacrosse League’s Colorado Mammoth, which plays indoor box lacrosse and averaged 17,035 in attendance, second to Toronto’s 17,123.
“We saw how exceptional Stan’s done with the indoor game,” Steinfeld said of Mammoth owner Stan Kroenke. “And Denver’s a great market: sports- minded, knowledgeable and fit people who like to be outdoors.”
Bowlen was Steinfeld’s first choice for owner.
“There was never a doubt. The group I wanted to do business with was Pat’s group,” Steinfeld said.
Bowlen was unavailable for comment. According to Broncos vice president of public relations Jim Saccomano, “Pat is very excited about it.”
Joe Ellis, vice president of business operations, and Mac Freeman, vice president of Bowlen’s Stadium Management Corp., are key management players.
The success standard in the MLL, which has teams in Baltimore, Boston, Long Island, New Jersey, Philadelphia and Rochester, is only 5,000 fans per game.
“We’re not going to be pushed by the media. We’re taking it slow,” Steinfeld said.
Conservative finances are part of that speed, including team salary caps of $190,000 – for the entire team.
Locals can preview the MLL at 7 p.m. on Saturday at Invesco when the league’s so-called “Old School” all-stars – those who began their MLL career in its inaugural 2001 season – take on the “Young Gun” all-stars, those who joined the MLL from 2002-05.
Tickets are available by calling 303-830-8497 or through Ticketmaster.
Gary Gait, the recently retired Mammoth star who was hired June 21 as the Mammoth coach, leads the Old School players as player-coach of the Baltimore Bayhawks.
The Young Gun team features NLL rookie of the year Ryan Boyle, former Virginia star A.J. Shannon and Conor Gill, the 2004 MLL most valuable player.