HELPFUL RECAP AND REVIEW — I went to a Premier Lacrosse League game and captured the experience, fan engagement, activations, partnership, game presentation, and more. Scroll through to get a look at the fan zone and game day (in San Diego). Here are some top-level observations and insights:
🥍 A lot of touring teams (and teams in general) do fan zones and this one was particularly well-conceived. Backed by a QR code-led scavenger hunt, among other QR code CTAs, and fun, well thought-out partner activations, this was good for kids, experienced lax players and noobs, and to develop the brand, league, and further capture and cultivate fans.
🟢 This was only open to admitted fans, but I could also see them allowing any fans to come in (with pre-registrations if space is limited). With annual tour stops, the publicly-open fan zone could be a good way for fans to tell their extended network to come out.
🥍 Pretty much all the activations involved getting lacrosse sticks in hands, exposing the game. Though the vast majority of fans (I mean, probably 75% if not higher) appeared to have at least family or group member with experience playing lacrosse. The games were simple enough for a novice like me to give it a go with a stick and ball multiple times, one of the few times in my life I’ve had the opportunity to do so!
🟢 Despite the high concentration of experienced players, I was still surprised to not see local organizations onsite that could provide the answer to ‘How do I get started’ for an interested parent and child, such as a local youth lacrosse league, clinic, or camp (they do have a lot of resources on their website). There were a good amount of youth players and teams in attendance (and a youth team got recognized before the game on the field). Relatedly, the PLL could do better to engage noobs like me, such as explaining penalties when a power player is awarded, describing what’s being challenged in a review (I had to ask fans next to me), and doing more with stats with fans in general (face-offs, ground balls, power plays, even the two-point shots unique to PLL, etc.)
🥍 The PLL had plenty of data capture opportunities and much of their promotion was less about finding new fans than about getting fans to join PLL Nation, their premium membership platform (more details in the deck). They had the aforementioned QR codes posted with various CTAs, they handed out cards with QR codes for enter-to-win opportunities, and signage + in-game CTAs to scan a QR code to enter to win — solely open to PLL Nation members.
🟢 PLL Nation membership is similar to other team/league memberships — season tickets (but with their single annual stops that’s less of an incentive) along with merch discounts, the exclusive contests and sweepstakes, and exclusive content. It’s a good opportunity to identify and activate their biggest fans and something a lot of leagues and teams — with a surfeit of remote fans — are doing or exploring to monetize their fan base at a global level
🥍 The demographic was very very young. Most sports outside the big four leagues tend to skew younger, but the PLL even more so than others I’ve checked out seemed to be like 60% of the attendance was kids (mostly boys) in the 6-14 age range. The diversity was lacking a bit (an issue lacrosse in general and the PLL are aiming to improve), but the density of young kids excited to see pro lacrosse and looking up to these players is a great sign
🟢 The thing about young boys — it’s hard to get them to sit still too long. Not in a bad way, but from what I could tell there were a lot of kids in and out of their seats throughout the game (and the games move fast with lots of scoring!). The game presentation is often limited by the venues where the PLL plays, but there could be room for improvement here — just more opportunities for young kids to scream (literally, the WNBA and NWSL games I’ve been to do a good job of that). They did have a flex cam and some in-game contests and a t-shirt toss, but there could be more video board games (hat shuffles, et al.) and PA-led cheers.
🥍 The PLL does a good job of carving out revenue opportunities at their games. You’ll see in the photos below the way they create premium in a way agnostic to the venues and offer various upgraded experiences fans can purchase while at the game. They also had a nice traveling pop-up merch tent with diverse offerings (more so than you see at most merch kiosks at sporting events)
🟢 They also had a nice display showcasing the team jerseys (and team brands in general) around the merch tent as they aim to continue to drive forth the team branding. (Go California Redwoods!) The player-specific posters, jerseys, and bobbleheads also help promote their star players. I could also see a mini pop-up ode to the sport and the PLL, a mini pop-up museum or Hall of Fame of sorts, honoring the sport’s native origins and the upstart league’s history (and the Rabil brothers who founded it)
🥍 The game experience overall felt ‘big league’ — they had instant replays, in-game animations, and even custom songs for each PLL team (Like, for real, a California Redwoods song?!? This should be even more feasible in the age of gen AI )
🟢 Perhaps limited by the venue (and alluded to earlier), there seemed to be a dearth of stats available to fans in-stadium. Little things like shots, let alone more advanced stats like caused turnovers, ground balls, face-off percentage, two-point attempts, etc.) and no promotion of their PLL Fantasy game that I caught. Getting fans more engrossed in the stats will only help with engagement and more ways to gamify the event opens up the opportunities for those juicy partnerships with sports gaming companies
I could go all day on this stuff, but hopefully if you skimmed through all of that you learned something! It was a great day out and, as you can see in the slideshow below, full of great engagement, fun, and value for fans and partners. The Premier Lacrosse League is a remarkable story and they continue to grow as a league and brand, and in turn lift up the sport of lacrosse with it. They had a great All-Star weekend on ESPN/ABC this past weekend and lots more gamed to play this summer. (The WLL, too, though there was surprisingly limited mention of them onsite). Cheers to the PLL!
