Major League Lacrosse (MLL), the premier professional outdoor lacrosse league, will begin its seventh season of play in 2007 when the Washington Bayhawks host the Boston Cannons at George Mason Stadium on May 12, 2007 at 7:00 p.m. ET. The two teams made a pair of high profile trades this spring with six players, including A Mikey Powell, A Conor Gill and G Chris Garrity all lining up against former teammates for the first time.
“I always look forward to the MLL opener and with the history between the Cannons and Bayhawks I think this game will be extra special,” said Gross. “What our fans will enjoy the most about 2007 is our enhanced partnership with ESPN. This year we will bring you lacrosse as you have never seen it before with all games in high definition (HD), helmet cams, telestrators and having up to four players a game wearing microphones. It will give our fans the feeling of being on the field and in the action.”
In the first deal between Boston and Washington Powell and M/FO Ben Defelice were dealt for Gill and D Ryan Curtis. Just last week the Cannons sent Garrity to the Bayhawks in exchange for GK Greg Havalchak and two draft picks. Two different cities, two different teams but a lot of familiarity between them as all five players are expected to be on the field Saturday night.
The following weekend six of the other eight teams in the league will open their seasons while Long Island and Rochester will wait until Memorial Day Weekend. Prior to this season, the earliest MLL start came on May 20 during both the 2005 and 2006 campaigns.
Along with the new TV technology the MLL is preparing other technological innovations for the 2007 season. MLL fans will get to see the video streaming of all 60 regular season games by logging onto www.laxunited.com. In 2006 MLL partnered with Head2Head Sports to create the first fantasy lacrosse game for fans. In 2007 not only will you be able to play in the fantasy league but shortly after the conclusion of MLL games fans will be text messaged with how they finished in the standings.
The 2007 All Star game will return to Boston for a second consecutive year and for the first time ever the All Star format will pit the Eastern Conference versus the Western Conference. The reason for the return was simple, MLL had a Nickerson Field-record crowd of 9,234 and the event was a stunning success from the game to the Bud Light Skills competition.
In 2007 teams will once again play a 12-game schedule, which will include games against each of the nine opponents. The playoff format will have the top teams in each division advancing to the New Balance MLL Championship Weekend while the two teams with the best records regardless of division will be the Championship Weekend’s two wildcard entries. Last year the wild card teams went down to the last weekend and required a tiebreaker to decide which team was the last one in.
