{"id":371,"date":"2026-05-15T07:33:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T07:33:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=371"},"modified":"2026-05-15T07:33:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T07:33:21","slug":"can-the-new-womens-lacrosse-league-find-a-foothold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=371","title":{"rendered":"Can the new Women\u2019s Lacrosse League find a foothold?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Women\u2019s Lacrosse League is set to begin its inaugural summer season, and after previous women\u2019s professional lacrosse leagues struggled to find a foothold in the North American sports landscape, the league\u2019s founders are optimistic they\u2019ve figured out the formula this time. <\/span><\/p>\n

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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\u2019s the first stop on the barnstorming tour of the WLL, a subsidiary of the men\u2019s Premier Lacrosse League, which was founded in 2019.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re trying to make our mark,\u201d Guard coach Laurie DeLuca said. \u201cPeople want to see women do well, and there\u2019s a market for it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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PLL cofounders Mike and Paul Rabil built partnerships through the PLL with previous women\u2019s leagues, including the WPLL and Athletes Unlimited. <\/span><\/p>\n

But when those organizations folded, they saw an opportunity to try something new.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always been a core part of our thesis to develop both the men\u2019s and the women\u2019s league,\u201d said Paul Rabil. \u201cBut as operators that raised venture capital, we needed to work first in partnership with women\u2019s professional lacrosse. And then, in parallel, make sure that we could build a sustainable model on the men\u2019s side.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

The creation of the WLL was announced in late 2024, and the league\u2019s four teams \u2014 Boston, New York, California Palms, and Maryland Charm \u2014 played their first eight-game round-robin Championship Series in February 2025, which Boston won.<\/span><\/p>\n

New York won the Championship Series in February of this year, and this will mark the first full summer season of women\u2019s professional lacrosse in the United States since Athletes Unlimited Lacrosse ceased operations in 2024.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s a world where women professional lacrosse players don\u2019t have an opportunity to play,\u201d Paul Rabil said. \u201cThat\u2019s not a world that I want to live in.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The timing of this inaugural season was intentional as the lacrosse world looks ahead to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, which Paul Rabil called \u201cprobably the most important moment in the sport\u2019s history.\u201d Women\u2019s lacrosse will make its Olympic debut, and the men\u2019s game will return for the first time since 1908.<\/span><\/p>\n

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 \u2014 including a 190 percent year-over-year increase in online merchandise sales. <\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cA league like ours can stand to benefit from those new eyeballs,\u201d Paul Rabil said. <\/span><\/p>\n

This year\u2019s 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. <\/span><\/p>\n

The WLL\u2019s stop in Boston on Aug. 8 features the Guard vs. Palms at Harvard Stadium. <\/span><\/p>\n

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\u2019t cannibalizing itself \u2014 meaning fans don\u2019t have to choose between watching one game over another \u2014 and encourages fans of the women\u2019s games to attend the men\u2019s, and vice versa.<\/span><\/p>\n

Paul Rabil expects that the touring model won\u2019t be permanent, but for now it\u2019s useful to build a national audience and maximize sponsorship opportunities and television deals (the PLL\u2019s media rights deal with ESPN runs through 2030).<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe still have that startup mind-set \u2026 part of which is problem solving,\u201d he said. \u201cProfessional lacrosse has had various problems that are yet to be solved, and we\u2019re still trying to sort through many of them.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u2019s first five signings, and the players were offered equity in the business as compensation for their involvement in building the league. <\/span><\/p>\n

In addition to their salaries and healthcare benefits, players in the WLL and PLL receive stock options on a per-game basis.<\/span><\/p>\n

Boston\u2019s 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 \u2014 including current seniors Shea Baker and Shea Dolce, whose season ended Sunday \u2014 and one from UMass, Amy Moreau.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s going to make for a dynamic lineup,\u201d DeLuca said. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Boston Guard are part of a four-team league that begins play this weekend in Rhode Island as part of a summer-long barnstorming tour.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":370,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"yoast_head":"\nCan the new Women\u2019s Lacrosse League find a foothold? - Boston Relocation Insider<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=371\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Can the new Women\u2019s Lacrosse League find a foothold? - Boston Relocation Insider\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Boston Guard are part of a four-team league that begins play this weekend in Rhode Island as part of a summer-long barnstorming tour.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=371\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Boston Relocation Insider\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-15T07:33:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/?p=371#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/?p=371\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/c08a982d5d5e7124cea9158df226037e\"},\"headline\":\"Can the new Women\u2019s Lacrosse League find a foothold?\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-15T07:33:21+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/?p=371\"},\"wordCount\":826,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/?p=371#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/dd5b13fc55000fbd583bc80c6ceb7ff6.avif\",\"articleSection\":[\"Sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/?p=371#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/?p=371\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/?p=371\",\"name\":\"Can the new Women\u2019s Lacrosse League find a foothold? 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