Always expected this to happen, have to imagine the process was sped up by Covid-19. The MLL did not have a good end to their season, having to cancel their semi-finals and I wonder how their 2021 season would have looked, if it happened at all.
Exciting that their will be one "super league", but still beleive the MLL deserved better - they were around for 20 years, and that is no small feat. If you look up the number of professional sports league that were created and folded in the same time frame, its pretty remarkable that Major League Lacrosse had the staying power it did. 20 years ago there was no where for top field players to play - I still remember the day I learned about the League forming with a flyer that included Casey Powell. I know the league kind of became a running joke for a number of issues, and it never turned lacrosse into the fifth major sport, but there were some remarkable moments given to us by the league. Some of the best lacrosse games I witnessed were MLL games.
Understand the criticism facing the PLL and their model of a traveling circus, but the MLL tried the city based approach, and that had plenty of its own issues. It had basically two stable franchises in its history (Denver and Boston, the only two teams to make money or break even) and Boston moved venues multiple times over the years, from Lowell, to Boston U, to Harvard, back to Boston U and then ultimately to Quincy. Not a lot of stability. And of course you can look at any number of the other teams and all took multiple destinations or name changes. Long Island tried playing on New York proper, Baltimore became Chesapeake, the Barrage moved from Bridgeport to Philly, became multi time champs, and still had to fold because interest wasn't there. I certainly don't like the traveling model, but can understand why they would be hesitant to make commitments to set markets. And so many kids these days (their main target audience) don't care home town teams as much, and follow teams much more based on the players they like.
Wish there were more MLL teams being moved into the PLL, I feel nostalgic for teams like the Lizards, Bayhawks and Outlaws which put out some really great lacrosse teams. Obviously the PLL is much better organized, and promoted but I hope they don't forget that the MLL laid the ground work for them. Just taking one team (for now) feels more like a takeover, and not much of a merger. Don't want to grow too fast, so I think bringing all six teams into the fold would be a bad idea, but still feels they could do better than one. There are going to be a lot of good players not playing pro lacrosse (especially considering the group of rookies entering the league). Going forward, I can't imagine all eight teams will play in a weekend (four lacrosse games in one venue seems like too much lacrosse for most people to watch), or maybe they will travel to multiple cities each week, and split things up. Lots of questions remain.
Lastly, lots more Syracuse alums in the MLL vs the PLL, off the top of my head, Brendan Bomberry, Nick Mariano, Randy Staats, Tommy Palasek, Nicky Solomon, Nick Mellen and Brad Voigt vs John Galloway, Sergio Salcido, JoJo Marasco and Joel White in the PLL. Hopefully we get more Orange players in the PLL going forward.