Pro Lacrosse - Attendance

Over the years, I finally figured something out. Lacrosse people are not necessarily great lacrosse fans. Now, before you get too excited about that comment, look at the numbers. Growing up in Ontario, playing the game of lacrosse, let’s face it, we did not play in front of big crowds. In Junior, the crowds were not great. In Major, they were not much better. Don’t take this the wrong way. I did play in packed arenas, in Peterborough, Owen Sound, Brooklin and so on. But when we are talking packed, I am talking, 1000 to 4000 people. Hardly enough to build a pro franchise on. And these guys were the best box players in the world. Even today, you can go to Brampton, and Peterborough all summer and see the best in the game right now, but the crowds are relatively small. WHY?? That is my first question. If you knew that Sindey Crosby and Alex Ovechkin were playing “summer Hockey” in Brampton, would you go and watch? Would the arenas be packed? I am thinking yes.

The crowds across the NLL  http://www.nll.com/ have been decent through the last number of years. Certain cities seem to do better, Toronto, Buffalo and Philadelphia, to name a few. However, some cities have just not been able to make it. They have franchises come and franchises go. Attendance seemed to peak in early part of this decade. Here are some examples.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_National_Lacrosse_League_records 
Why?  Why can we not get lacrosse to continue the growth part? 
 What I am asking is (for example) - Why is the Air Canada Centre not sold out every single game? If our game is so good, then where are the people? Attendance in 2010 for the Toronto Rock was over 11,000 only once. There seems to be a decline in interest, and I really want to get to the bottom of this and figure it out. All lot of my friends that are lacrosse players and fans have not renewed their season tickets over the last few years. Why? Too expensive, I would say no. I think ticket prices are very fair. So why are we not going? When you go to watch the Toronto Rock, do you enjoy it? Could it be better? What is it? Note - NLL Championship Game 2011.... 14,488....great crowd./but almost 5000 under a sellout in a market surrounded by lacrosse and a city starved for a champion. No sellout. Why?


My personal opinion? Next Blog.
Feel free to add comments.

Pro Lacrosse - In the beginning.

PRO LACROSSE –  Part 1/ What are your thoughts about the pro game today?

Pro lacrosse is not new. There have been many attempts over the years to take the game I love to the Professional Level. There was a league in 1974-1975, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Lacrosse_League_(1974%E2%80%931975 )I was a bit too young to play in, and 3 of the 6 teams went bankrupt in the second year, and the league folded.

Canada had its own “pro” league in 1991, there were four teams, I was lucky enough to ride the coat tails of a lot of Peterborough Lakers, played for the Guelph Power and we won the league that year. We were paid $100/game, for about half the year, when we were told by the team that they had no money. We were given the option to play the season out (we were in first place). We played it out, what the heck, we loved the game. Only a one year league. No fans. No money.

In 1985 there was a Canada/USA Super series, which was an eight game series played at different locations in the U.S.  including the Philadelphia Spectrum, and also one game in Canada (Peterborough). I played in this series and it was definitely a highlight of my career. We played to packed arenas, and this series was a pre-curser for The Major Indoor Lacrosse League and The National Lacrosse League. There was a buzz that lacrosse had finally arrived, and that crowds would continue to grow.
Could lacrosse continue to rise, more cities, packed arenas, has the sport I love finally made it?
The game was not sold to lacrosse fans. It was not really even sold as a lacrosse game. It was presold by the organizers as a gladiatorial event. It was sold using a tractor pull mentality. The markets were saturated by advertisements showing nothing but big hits and fights, and the commentator was screaming, and the music was playing......and it appealed to a “new” audience. The big transition in the pro game in my opinion was the year of the Super Series (1985) Why? Because of an old business philosophy. Get a new customer, someone who has not seen the game, and let the product sell itself. It worked, and pro lacrosse has been on a decent ride ever since. However, there are still problems. Every year franchises fold. Every year, crowds remain average, or are shrinking slightly. Again, don’t get me wrong, I think the N.L.L. is a very solid, well run league, with some very solid franchises that deserve a lot of credit. My problem is, I want more. As a player, and a fan, i want to go see the Toronto Rock in front of 19,000 enthusiastic fans. I want bigger crowds, everywhere, league wide. How can this happen, with all the trials and tribulations in that this fantastic game has been through. 
Next - Attendance.

Why Pass It On?

Why pass it on? It is better to give than to receive. I am sure you have heard that saying before. How true is it? http://www.sharpbrains.com/blog/2006/12/23/tis-better-to-give-than-to-receive/

Think about it for a minute. What gives you the best feeling? Only you can answer this. 

I can tell you this for sure. When I was a kid, I took the GO train down to Toronto with my buddies. We would go shopping at the TD shopping centre for Christmas presents. I would have my own money that I earned from my paper route, and I would have my parents, 4 brothers and my sister to buy for. We spent the day down there, I would get it all done, get home, get it wrapped, and under the tree.

 I always loved Christmas. I loved getting presents, sometimes I would get up so early that “Santa” had not even finished his drink.....ahem....I mean had not even come down the chimney yet.....and as excited as I was to get “stuff”, I could hardly wait to see everybody open my gifts. I wanted to see their face, I wanted everybody to be happy, I wanted them to know, (aside from all the fighting) that I actually cared, and this was an easy way to show them. In retrospect, my gifts were never that great, but at the time, I thought they were, and that made me feel good about myself. It made my family happy, but it made me happier. It turns out, giving is better then receiving. It is the right thing to do. 

There is a funny thing that happens when you get older. You learn things. You get wiser (usually).  I cannot speak for everyone, but for me, I need to thank certain people in my life. I need to show people that I am grateful for what i have. And grateful I am. I wake up every day, and think, wow, i am so lucky. And I need to pass it on. This website is about sports, but it is about so much more.

I challenge all of you to think about what you are grateful for, and take some time to thank those people that made it possible. Think of ways that you can Pass It On. 

Saying Thankyou.

How often do you say thank you? What about 10 year olds today? How often do they say thank you?
Some things have changed over the last 40 years...but some have not. For example, When I was 10 my grandparents sometimes would give us money in a card as a gift. That still happens today. When I was 10 I would be "persuaded" by my Mom to send a thank you note. I usually grumbled, but I did it. And eventually I understood it. If I would go to a party, I was expected to send a thank you note. One time when I was 10, I went to Andy Arntfield's house. My Mom reminded me to send along a thank you note. Funny thing is, Andy's Mom was the same as my Mom, so she would keep the notes. I had lunch with Andy a while back, and he brought the note with him. I couldn't believe it. 43 years later, and he still had the note. Here it is, note the Captain Crunch letterhead.

There was no spell check back then, and spagetti  spagghetti spaghetti was a tough word.
This is the age where i started to learn what gratitude meant. I don't think I understood it, but the foundation was there, and I have my Mom and Dad to thank for that.
Thank you for reading.

Social Networking

You know my first time I realized the problem of "social networking"?
My son was 16 or 17....he had a girl over to the house to watch a movie. I was in the room at the start, and as the movie began, to my total shock and disbelief, they began to text.  "TO WHO? I thought.
You are on a date!! Why and who are you texting....I watched them both, they glanced at the movie...they glanced at each other, and they continued to glance at their phones!! OMG   WTF   I was confused. Why do you want to talk to someone else...you are on a date....sigh, I was (and still am) confused.

I know what social networking is (I think). No...actually I don't. Let's face it, social networking is something different to every age group. And that is,  in fact, the problem. When I was 10...it was simple. I had two choices if I wanted to "interact" with my friends. Dial their phone number and talk to them, or walk to their house and say hi. That was "social networking"
We would go to the park and "hang out" - I guess that is what 10 year olds do today... but they do it on facebook. They actually hang out on Facebook. That is so difficult for my brain to comprehend. How do you hang out, with a group..when you are actually by yourself. Weird. Strange. Awkward.
This topic has been beaten to death. It is not new....but, i am going to mention it again. Here is my frustration.

• No matter what I say....think...discuss...etc. Kids today not only will disagree with me....they will actually (and this really hurts) they don't really even care. What!!!?? That's right. They don't care.
• I am not sure of the "cut off age" do you? In other words...what is the age that gets it.....and what is the age that does not? What is that number? I know this for sure. I am 53. I get it. My youngest daughter is 14, she does not get it. What is the median age? I really want to know this. Here is the thing. I know this for sure. People behind a keyboard are braver than people face to face. People say things over the Internet, that they otherwise would never say. (me for example, ha.)...but we all know it....if you say something to someone over the Internet, it might me misconstrued...if you say something to someone face to face....it is usually very clear. Am I right?
• face to face is the hardest, most rewarding, most difficult, most fulfilling conversation you will ever have. I know this to be true. Some of you know this to be true. Those of you that don't know this....i feel bad, because I don't know how to make you understand.

If you have comments on this blog, I would love to here them. Really. Any age.

Next - Say Thank you.

My Siblings

What can i say here. This subject could fill volumes. We could of had our own McMillan Chicken Soup for the Whatever Series. Pretty well every book written by the Chicken Soup Guy www.chickensoup.com was an episode at our house. When I look back, it is nothing but good memories, but when I look at separate incidents it is a little different. It was actually a pretty cool way that we used to run things. 6 kids.  It was simple. The oldest brother got to beat up all the younger brothers. It was his right being the oldest and all. Next in line. He got to beat up all below him and so on. It was quite simple all the way down. It did start to get a little complicated around me. Here is the problem, the only two below me were my sister, and the whole "hitting girls" thing took that power away. (although there was the "accidental" push down the stairs incident, which I continue to deny to this day. My story is she slipped).
Anyway, I was fourth in line, and my parents go and have a girl of all things. That was not fair, I had nobody to pound out. My older brothers all had somebody to pound out. I had nobody. Not of course until little brother Steven showed up, my life had finally turned around, I just needed him to get a little bit older, and than I was was clear to pound him out. It was showtime. Keep in mind that although I was not allowed to pound out Laura, there were ways of tormenting her, and I came up with some beauties. For instance I changed her name to Larry. That bugged her a lot. I would also (this is a beauty) - I would knock on her bedroom door and say Laura...I ...love.....youuuu. She hated that more than anything. There was nothing more gross than your brother yelling out "I love you" for everybody to here. It was sweet music to my ears as she would run to Mom screaming and crying MOMMMMMMM!!! Michael said he loves me again, Make him stop.  - I was evil.
I waited until Steven got old enough. My revenge on my older brothers would be bittersweet. Once he was old enough it could begin. I would wait for my opportunities to pound him out. It was great. Finally, all the pounding outs I had taken could be passed on. ***oversight*** One thing I did not figure on though was this. My oldest brothers , the ones that were laying a pounding on me all these years, now decided to get a conscience, and so they would like to protect little Steven. So it was quite simple. I would pound Steven out, than I would get pounded out. This sucked. And then to add insult to injury something happened that nobody saw coming.  Something that put the whole "pounding out" equilibrium out of sync. One day I was watching TV, not long after a successful pounding out of Steven, I was just laying on the floor, elbow on the floor, head on my hand, flicking channels with my toes....... quite relaxed actually and then he appeared. It was premeditated. (5 minutes earlier)........Steven took the time to go up to his room. He went into his closet and took out only one of his black 'Sunday go to meeting shoes' and put it on his right foot. He walked down into the room where I was in my state of relaxation. I lay there and I think he looked at my head as though it was a football on a tee, ready for kickoff at an Argo game. And then it happened. One swift kick with his one black shoe, a direct blow to my head. Retribution was his. He had turned the whole brotherly hierarchy upside down. The pounding outs of Steven seemed to slow down a bit after that......and of course today, Tippy (as we like to call him) is one of my best friends. There might be a lesson in there somewhere, I'll let you decide that.
Next - Social Networking?