Can the new Women’s Lacrosse League find a foothold?

The Women’s Lacrosse League is set to begin its inaugural summer season, and after previous women’s professional lacrosse leagues struggled to find a foothold in the North American sports landscape, the league’s founders are optimistic they’ve figured out the formula this time.

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The WLL gets underway Saturday, when the Boston Guard face the New York Charging at 5:30 p.m. at Centreville Bank Stadium in Pawtucket, R.I. It’s the first stop on the barnstorming tour of the WLL, a subsidiary of the men’s Premier Lacrosse League, which was founded in 2019.

“We’re trying to make our mark,” Guard coach Laurie DeLuca said. “People want to see women do well, and there’s a market for it.”

PLL cofounders Mike and Paul Rabil built partnerships through the PLL with previous women’s leagues, including the WPLL and Athletes Unlimited.

But when those organizations folded, they saw an opportunity to try something new.

“It’s always been a core part of our thesis to develop both the men’s and the women’s league,” said Paul Rabil. “But as operators that raised venture capital, we needed to work first in partnership with women’s professional lacrosse. And then, in parallel, make sure that we could build a sustainable model on the men’s side.”

The creation of the WLL was announced in late 2024, and the league’s four teams — Boston, New York, California Palms, and Maryland Charm — played their first eight-game round-robin Championship Series in February 2025, which Boston won.

New York won the Championship Series in February of this year, and this will mark the first full summer season of women’s professional lacrosse in the United States since Athletes Unlimited Lacrosse ceased operations in 2024.

“I don’t think there’s a world where women professional lacrosse players don’t have an opportunity to play,” Paul Rabil said. “That’s not a world that I want to live in.”

The timing of this inaugural season was intentional as the lacrosse world looks ahead to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, which Paul Rabil called “probably the most important moment in the sport’s history.” Women’s lacrosse will make its Olympic debut, and the men’s game will return for the first time since 1908.

Paul Rabil anticipates the 2028 Games will have a similar effect on the WLL as the 2026 Milan Games had on the PWHL, which received a significant post-Olympics boost — including a 190 percent year-over-year increase in online merchandise sales.

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“A league like ours can stand to benefit from those new eyeballs,” Paul Rabil said.

This year’s tours for the WLL and PLL include stops in Rhode Island, Baltimore, Charlotte, N.C., Long Island, San Diego, Annapolis, Md., Chicago, Fairfield, Conn., Boston, and Philadelphia.

The WLL’s stop in Boston on Aug. 8 features the Guard vs. Palms at Harvard Stadium.

That the WLL and PLL tours run side by side is no coincidence. The two are inherently linked and operate in tandem to keep costs low and simplify the fan experience. It helps ensure that the lacrosse audience isn’t cannibalizing itself — meaning fans don’t have to choose between watching one game over another — and encourages fans of the women’s games to attend the men’s, and vice versa.

Paul Rabil expects that the touring model won’t be permanent, but for now it’s useful to build a national audience and maximize sponsorship opportunities and television deals (the PLL’s media rights deal with ESPN runs through 2030).

“We still have that startup mind-set … part of which is problem solving,” he said. “Professional lacrosse has had various problems that are yet to be solved, and we’re still trying to sort through many of them.”

In building the WLL, Paul Rabil consulted players to ensure the league meets their needs and expectations. He brought on Charlotte North, Lizzie Colson, Izzy Scane, Ally Mastroianni, and Alex Aust Holman as the WLL’s first five signings, and the players were offered equity in the business as compensation for their involvement in building the league.

In addition to their salaries and healthcare benefits, players in the WLL and PLL receive stock options on a per-game basis.

Boston’s roster includes North, a graduate of Boston College, where she won a national championship and two Tewaaraton Awards. The roster features nine players from BC — including current seniors Shea Baker and Shea Dolce, whose season ended Sunday — and one from UMass, Amy Moreau.

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“It’s going to make for a dynamic lineup,” DeLuca said.