The seven men's lacrosse programs most poised to have a bump in home attendance.......
The Fighting Irish have been in the hunt for years and now have won it all. Winning the championship has gotten the notice of Fighting Irish Nation. The Irish championship performance in Philadelphia brought thousands of Notre Dame fans that might not have been lacrosse fans first. The games were electric and surely new lacrosse fans and interest were generated. Nore Dame is preseason #1. Another great team is waiting. It also helps that Marcus Freeman, the football coach, appears to be a fan and on occasion makes an appearance or has even brought the football team to eyeball a game for a quarter or so. There are only two reasons the Irish could fall short of an attendance bump….1) Underperforming early in the season and 2) the ever-present possibility of miserable weather. The Irish only play one home game in relatively warmer April. Snow might be in South Bend forecast for Notre Dame’s games against Georgetown, Maryland, and Michigan. In 2023, Notre Dame was #6 in total attendance and #4 in average attendance.
The Blue Devils attendance generally lags their on-field performance. There is no better year than 2024 for promoting Duke Lacrosse. Even at preseason #2, the Duke program may feel disrespected with the firepower coming back to play in Durham. This includes Brendan O’Neill, Tewaaraton Trophy winner and Team USA World Games MVP. Canadian super star and NLL #1 pick Dyson Williams returns. Nasso, the faceoff man returns. Why is this team not preseason number 1? Has a team ever returned a roster with the accolades of Duke? Duke has no excuse to not get people in the seats for this team.
Ok, I’ll make some excuses for the Blue Devils. The schedule is fluffy for a team of this caliber. See Hopkins 2024 schedule. Only one preseason top ten team is coming to Durham. There will be a lot of blowouts and backups. Spring in Durham isn't as nice as Southern California.
Here are three meaurable attendance goals for Duke. Don’t let Virginia double your home attendance again. Scrap for an attendance of 4000 for the April 13 home game against Virginia. Help UNC get 4000 for its home game against you on April 27. Lure people off the golf course and make lacrosse an event in relatively balmy Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill. In 2023, Duke was #11 in total attendance and #13 in average attendance. (last in the ACC)
After last year’s Final Four, the Nittany Lions look to become consistently good on the field. PSU is preseason #4 after finishing last year in the Final Four, so experts think it will happen again. The prognosis for a fan bump is mostly based on a projected good team and the great (home) crowd that showed up for the Nittany Lions at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia. Penn State feels like a program that could be a perennial power with loads of potential, yet also like a younger immature power conference inland brother to Virginia that may never get its act together. Penn State might join Notre Dame as the next new program to win it all or they might lose to the worst team on their schedule. Who knows?
The home field fan bump won’t be too much, as Panzer Stadium is built for a house cat, not a roaring lion. (Capacity 1,430) Syracuse could overfill Panzer for a scrimmage. A Big Ten schedule is going to provide a slate of big games and other quality home games including Villanova, Yale and Cornell. The weather in the Nittany Mountains can be rugged and set back attendance.
There is year round lacrosse fan cultivation work to do in State College, Luring PSU sports enthusiasts as well as regular families from doing spring yard work and into supporting the lacrosse program is a challenge. Getting two percent of a football crowd would warrant an expansion of Panzer Stadium. The aforementioned Virginia program has locals bypassing yard work to cheer the cavaliers.
Penn State lacrosse appears to have more fans who make games in Philadelphia, than State College. Villanova is on the schedule, but why not add Penn (the Quakers) so at least one game in the City of Brotherly Love is guaranteed every year. In 2023, Penn State was #21 in both total and average attendance.
Hopkins goal cues the band...
Kids today may not know that the Blue Jays have won the second most National Championships in college lacrosse history because the last one was in 2007 and the Blue Jays have been a borderline playoff team post 2008. There have been few realistic title expectations since. In fact, Hopkins has had to toggle with Loyola for the best team in Baltimore. At preseason #6, Hopkins should be the best in charm city and a Final Four isn’t a ridiculous hope. Fans in Baltimore might like to see a top tier team again. The schedule may be the nation's hardest. There hasn’t been one in a while. Hopkins can improve on their 2023 #4 total attendance and #7 average attendance.
(I love that Hopkins brings a pep band and I have even seen cheerleaders at Homewood before. It might not be fair, but sometimes when someone does more you ask them to do even more. The request is to increase the size of the pep band. Invite more amumni musicians and student musicians from nearby Baltimore Polytechnic High School. The BPI kids have talent and even played at the Peach Bowl parade. Build on a good thing.)
Big Red attendance in the 70's
Last year’s Cornell team was good, but attendance couldn’t keep up. Pre-season #7 Cornell has a iconic old stadium at Schoellkopf Field and a beautiful lake town setting, but of course has a challenging weather environment. Syracuse is coming to Ithaca on Tuesday night April 2 at 7pm. (Too bad it is not on a weekend night) That reason alone should cause season attendance to go up. Harvard and Brown are coming after the snow has melted. Cornell has a game on Long Island with Notre Dame that should have a great crowd. It’s too cold to swim in the Finger Lakes or go to Vineyards. Cornell should hand out hats, gloves, and hot chocolate and get people to their beautiful stadium. In 2023, Cornell’s attendance was #22 in total and average.
It was great seeing an energetic Army crowd at the Final Four in Philadelphia. The 2024 team is preseason #8. However, the single biggest indicator of increased 2024 attendance is that Navy comes to Mitchie Stadium in April. The rivalry game last year in Annapolis drew 7014, which was the number one regular season lacrosse game for attendance. Army, can you match the Mids attendance for this game from last year? To reach an attendance bump, the cadets need a great crowd for this game. Otherwise, the home schedule is frontloaded in the cold weather and the marquis opponents are on the road. I wish Army would add Air Force to the schedule and make it a big deal. (Same with Navy) In 2023, Army was number 18 in total attendance and 16th in average attendance.
To round it out, let’s add the spherical fruit. One reason I am expecting a bump is no program is hitting my social media like SU. I am getting more incoming analysis and news from Orange sites than all other programs combined. Maybe this is one of the reasons Syracuse is #1 in attendance year after year. The Orange communication platforms and online communities are producing almost football and basketball level passion and analytics. People care about Syracuse lacrosse. How do you have an attendance jump when you already easily clear the field. The answer is the best team Syracuse has had in a while. The Orange also do not back down. They play good out of conference teams, and they play other upstate programs. The goals for this year are lofty. Can SU get 6000 for three separate games?
In case I am gushing too much about the Cuse, do they have cheerleaders, dance teams, and a band at games? Where is Albany on the schedule? In 2023, Syracuse was #1 in total and average attendance by far. If the Orange are a top 15 team on the field, SU is a prohibitive favorite to lead the NCAA in attendance again, maybe by an even wider margin.
This is the time for administrators to be putting their lacrosse marketing machine into high gear. Outreach and enhancing the game atmosphere will help the sport grow and take steps toward being economically impactful. As a reminder, the lacrosse championship game averaged 757,000 TV viewers and had over 30,000 in attendance or the Championship game. The NCAA men’s soccer championship had less than 5000 fans attend by comparison.
Cheerleaders and Dance teams are generally missing at NCAA mens lacrosse games. Here they are at a National Lacrosse League game. (I have seen a dance team at Loyola.)
Fans and people in University communities should be learning what to expect for the upcoming lacrosse season. To my chagrin, few programs are lining up pep bands, cheerleading squads, dance teams as they would for mid major basketball programs. Game invites for little league teams or communities that might be new to the sport can be added to the outreach. Student sections love free tee shirts and pizza. Food trucks or other enticements can be arranged. It is not too late!
(Please let me know in the comments if you are aware of programs that have dance, cheerleaders, or bands at lacrosse games.)
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