Near the end of the Premier Lacrosse League quarterfinals at Gillette Stadium on Labor Day, the massive scoreboard highlighted the PLL’s “Dude of the Day” in the crowd.
The happy fan accepted a slick blue Atlas shirt, but he wanted the camera and the stadium’s enormous new Jumbotron focused on the Cannons shirt he was wearing.
That awkward interaction during a break in a game between the Cannons and Atlas showed the biggest priority in the next evolution for professional lacrosse, because the happiness of winning the shirt was muted because the clothing represented “the wrong team” to the fan.
That’s been a problem that the PLL has had since its very beginning. Fans could identify with the lacrosse, but they had no home team to root for.