Commerce City – Scanning the new stadium bowl at Prairie Gateway on Wednesday, Jim Jennings envisioned a lacrosse game. The National Lacrosse League commissioner supports adding a summer field lacrosse pro league to the NLL’s current winter indoor pro lacrosse offering. Ultimately, the owners will decide within 30 to 60 days.
“I personally think it makes a lot of business sense, from a sponsorship, television and player standpoint,” said Jennings, who viewed the site with Colorado Mammoth general manager Steve Govett and coach Gary Gait.
The established field league, Major League Lacrosse, does not draw well. But founder Jake Steinfeld has built a league budgeted to draw an average of only 5,000 fans per game. In contrast, the NLL averages 10,236, led by the Mammoth’s 17,123 and Toronto’s 17,035.
Poor attendance in the MLL does not give Jennings pause, however.
“They have a single entity owner, you know Jake, whereas our ownership is more traditional NHL, NBA owners,” he said. “With the owners we have in the league now I think we’ll draw much better. But even with that said, we’re setting very modest goals.”
Jennings’ business model calls for 3,000 to 5,000 per game in the early years. In Denver, Philadelphia and the Bay Area, NLL Outdoor would go head-to-head against the MLL, whose local entry is owned by Broncos owner Pat Bowlen.
“We’ll just have to work through that and see where we end up,” Jennings said. “We think competing here in Denver with a stadium like this (Prairie Gateway) would be much more palatable than playing in Invesco Field.”
“While we understand KSE (Kroenke Sports Enterprises) is disappointed they weren’t awarded the MLL team, it’s hard to see how two teams in this market make sense,” said Mac Freeman, Invesco Field vice president of stadium operations.