After three years with NBC and Peacock, the PLL announced Wednesday morning that they would be signing a four-year contract with ESPN. Upcoming games this summer will be shown on ABC, ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN+. The announcement sounds rewarding, but many other professional lacrosse leagues have partnered with ESPN just for few games to be shown on major ESPN-owned networks. That leads to a major question about, what could be, an amazing deal. Will ESPN actually show PLL games on their main networks? Or will every game just be shoved into the archives of ESPN+?

While it sounds ridiculous, I think the answer to that question has already been discovered. In the summer of 2020, the MLL announced an enticing partnership with the major sports network. However, just three of eighteen games were featured on ESPN2, with the rest being on ESPN+, an additional network that charges $6.99 per month (USALaxMagazine.com). It seems like, despite the major announcements and added publicity, many of the games will not be shown on national television.

As a lacrosse fan, I am still all for the decision. Moving to ESPN+ is not bad, as it is a relatively affordable network that already contains live coverage of many professional sports leagues, including the MLS, La Liga, Bundesliga, MLB and NHL. If ESPN does a better job of ensuring that the PLL finds room to air their games on national television, then this is a huge stepping stone to the future for professional lacrosse. On the other hand, if all of the games are pushed back to ESPN+, this partnership does nothing more than the PLL/NBC partnership that featured games on Peacock.

All in all, the PLL will certainly see additional revenue, viewership and success. In the long run, however, it is tough to see if their partnership with ESPN will lead to a major surge of success, like CEO Mike Rabil aims for.