Once again this weekend, and really for the last few weeks, the great game of lacrosse grabbed its share of headlines, with Syracuse winning the Division I men's title in Foxboro, Mass, Northwestern taking the women's title in Towson, Maryland, and even the NLL Buffalo Bandits taking the indoor title with a last second 14-13 win over Portland earlier this month. On top of that, the ESPN-backed outdoor Major League Lacrosse season just kicked off, with all the intensity of coverage that “The Worldwide Leader In Sports” can help with. This pas.weekend produced great pieces in the Providence Journal and the Boston Globe about the growth of the sport on the grassroots side and the hope of lucrative professional efforts for indoor and outdoor lacrosse in New England, while a host of media outlets took the time to cover both championships, highlighted by a great SI.com piecebrain cancer survivor Jaclyn Murphy and the way the Wildcats have helped her. From St. Catherines Ontario to Roanoke, Virginia, solid support for lacrosse as a sport came forth, all signaling a potential bright future. However as we have all seen in many sports on the edge, confusion in the marketplace and a lack of consistent branding, pricing and promotion can hurt even the best of efforts. In order for lacrosse to succeed in the mainstream, the sport should look at the recent merger in open wheel racing and figure out how the outdoor ML.(with its ESPN piece) and the indoo. NLL can work together to jointly marke.and promote the sport, especially in the same markets. Now do the NFL and the AFL, and MLS and MISL need to work togethe.? Probably not, as the NFL and MLS are more established. But they do work together on certain iniatives, and when you have such alphabet soup in certain sports, finding ways to use economies of scale to reach the masses is important. Without that joint effort, it will be very hard, even with a strong grassroots following, for the sport of lacrosse to really break through.“All publicity is good publicity” theme, there were numerous stories out of the French Open about fringe American player Ashley Harkleroad telling the press after her match that she will be in August Playboy, and what it does for her as a “brand.. The answer is probably not much on the negative, a.her limited on court success to date is what would have gotten her mainstream coverage…will it help get her some buzz going into the US Open and other tourney.? Absolutely, so in that way it is good for tennis. Does it help the perception of female athlete.? Probably not. Still it got the sport more mainstream coverag.in a slow period and in these days of 24/7 news cycles and shock coverage, Playboy is probably much more mild than ever before…also on the women's sports side, great piece in Sunday's New York Times on the continued issue of goalkeeper Hope Solo and her continued issues with her team following her outspoken comments about the play of Brianna Scurry last year…the most interesting element again revolves around “what if a guy said it” and the lack of problems “he” would have…once again another issue in the perception of the male vs. the female athlete that is worth a read…also on the women's side, Katie Thomas had an interesting piece on the growing number of schools adding women's wrestling to their Title IX plan…lastly, today's Wall Street Journal has a great break on Microsoft's venture into American sports, as the jersey sponsor for the MLS Seattle Sounders a year before they start play…another in the latest series of branding moves on the American jersey, once thought of as virgin sponsor territory but one getting more lucrative with each MLS and WNBA deal..?
