As a New York Sports writer and a fellow Long Islander, I think it’s only right to cover the fastest growing sport in America, Lacrosse.

Over the past decade lacrosse has taken tremendous strides in popularity at the youth, collegiate, and pro levels. Ten years ago most people didn’t know the sport existed until they went to college. Now, Lacrosse has 391 NCAA programs across the 3 divisions, international tournaments, 2 growing pro leagues (NLL and PLL), and a new Olympic format for 2026. It’s safe to say that the sport is growing and much of its success is due to PLL (Premier Lacrosse League), which only had its inaugural season in 2019.

Before the PLL there was the MLL (Major League Lacrosse). Without getting into too many details about it, the MLL was a crap product. High School games garnered more of a turnout, and the league was constantly forced to fold and relocate teams. In order to counter this the PLL adopted a tour based model for their teams. This allowed for the teams to be showcased in different cities, as well as the entire sport to be promoted in cities where it did not have a big following. Now after four seasons of the touring model, the PLL is finally ready to give their clubs proper homes.

During the 2023 Allstar game, CEO and founder Paul Rabil announced which cities would be finalist for getting their own PLL team (pictured below).

These are my predictions of where the current 8 teams are going to land and prosper:

California Redwoods

This breaks my heart to say but my current favorite team is heading for the opposite side of the country. Now this one is pretty obvious, Redwood trees are located in California. If you don’t put them in Cali then you have a Utah Jazz or an LA Lakers situation on your hands. Now I know a lot of people are predicting that they would be the Pacific Northwest Redwoods, but I don’t see-how you just leave out the SoCal market. Plus California Redwoods just rolls off the tongue a lot better.

Baltimore Whipsnakes

Next to Long Island, Maryland is the second biggest hotbed for lacrosse in the United States. Obviously they are going to get a team, the question is how are they going to brand it. If you want to take a page out of the Tampa Bay book, putting this team in D.C. would cover the entire “DMV” area (D.C., Maryland, and Virginia). However I am 90% positive that this team is going to be playing at John’s Hopkins’s stadium. The PLL always gets one of it’s best turnouts there and at the end of the day you just can’t put a D.C. team in Baltimore.

Great Lakes Waterdogs

So Pardon my Take and Barstool Sports are owner’s of the Waterdogs LC and have been getting progressively more involved with the PLL. With Bartstool’s new HQ opening up in Chicago, it would be smart to locate the team their as well. The Great Lakes branding fits with the aquatic theme of the Waterdogs and can cover more of a population, not just Chicago.

Carolina Chrome

Now I really thought that the Chrome would be landing in Vegas. This is because the NLL just put a team there and the owner of that team is an investor in the PLL. However, it’s good to see that Vegas was not a finalist because Charlotte deserves a team. Charlotte F.C’s stadium is a perfect venue for the PLL and the city itself is such a fun place. The popularity of lacrosse across the Carolinas has also grown a lot over the past couple of years. This can be due to the number of Yankees that migrate there or even the success of some of the college teams that play there such as Duke, UNC, and High Point. They should take a page out of the Panther’s playbook and call themselves the Carolina Chrome to cover both North and South Carolina.

Texas Atlas

Believe it or not, lacrosse in Texas has made a big push. More and more recruits at the college level are coming out of the Lone-Star state. Texas also just got its first ever box lacrosse team this year. The Panther City Lacrosse Club will now be the first NLL team to play in Texas, settling in Fort Worth.

Rocky Mountain Archers

This just sounds awesome. Lacrosse for a while has been trying to make that solid push out west and Denver has always been the city to represent it out there. The Denver Outlaws were one of the more solid MLL franchise that did not fall victim to relocation. Furthermore the Colorado Mammoth (NLL team), has a very loyal fanbase that absolutely shows out for their games. You also cant tell the story of lacrosse without talking about the University of Denver. They were the fist team to take that trophy off the east coast, winning it all in 2014.

Boston Cannons

This one is pretty straight forward. The Boston Cannons were a staple of the MLL and it was the team that founder and CEO Paul Rabil played on for much of his professional career. They have a lot of history in Boston, as well as a fan base in Boston. I do not believe the PLL will relocate them.

Albany Chaos/New York Lizards

So this is where I hit a wall making this list. I was confident in all of the predictions I made up to this point. That was until I realized that I completely left out New York/Long Island.

Now if the Chaos got shoved in New York that would kind of suck. For the past 4 seasons the Chaos’s home has been Albany. This is due to the fact that the original core of that team, for the most part, were SUNY Albany alumni. It seems like most of the upstate NY fanbase also considered the Chaos to be their fanbase as well. You can not have a lacrosse league however without including a team in the place where the sport is the most popular. It would be like not having an NFL team in Texas.

In an interview with ESPN analyst Paul Carcaterra, Rabil stated that the current 8 teams that are here now might not be the same 8 teams in the future and that with the MLL merger there are “different names that resonate with different markets that are more important to us.” He then in a Youtube video posted on May 27th, stated that he did not love the name Chaos, and that it was “always the trickiest brand for him.” This leads me to believe that if the Chaos LC is going to be scrapped to bring back the New York Lizards. This Lizards were arguably most popular MLL franchise. Largely due to the fact that they played on Long Island in Hofstra’s Stadium.

Scumbags LC?

Now I know the Philly lacrosse fans are freaking out that they were left off the list. Philly does deserve a team because it is a true lacrosse hotbed. However, the PLL probably won’t prioritize a franchise there just yet. I think for now they will keep playing the championship game there so that they have a neutral site that can still bring in a large crowd for their most important game.

Don’t agree with me? Be sure to comment down below your own predictions for the PLL home cities.