In August 2020, after the COVID-19 pandemic shredded sports leagues’ best laid plans into confetti, the Premier Lacrosse League huddled up in Herriman. A season that would typically span months was shrunk down to little more than two weeks. Games were played at the Real Salt Lake Training Facility without a person in the stands.
That didn’t stop fans from climbing atop their trucks, though, or gathering on rooftops overlooking the fields to get a glimpse of the games. And that kind of dedication got PLL co-founder, CEO and former standout player Mike Rabil thinking: Utah might just be a good home for a team.
Four years later, he’ll get to see it.
The PLL is set to become the next professional sports league to enter Utah. The league announced Tuesday that the state will be home to the Archers, the reigning champion of the eight-team league.
“We saw that there were really early signs of it being a rabid fan base,” Rabil said. “So in the last few years when we’ve gone there, a lot of the inputs have been ticket sales, broadcast viewership, strong venue partnerships and local marketing support.”
(Ty Davis) Members of the Archers of the Premiere Lacrosse League celebrate during a game in Herriman. Utah will become the permanent home for the Archers, the PLL announced Tuesday.
Since its inception in 2019, the PLL has kept the teams untethered to a particular city or location. Instead, all the teams would travel to a common site for a jamboree. In May, however, the league announced that all teams would be assigned to home cities beginning with the 2024 season.
The PLL selected the final sites for its teams based on ticketing performance, customer data, venue availability and a fan vote.
“This move will unlock deeper, more connected relationships between our fans, teams and players,” Mike’s brother Paul Rabil, the league’s president and other co-founder, said in a press release at the time. “Continuing to build a global presence around lacrosse and driving our mission forward will remain core to our approach. We’re giving the PLL local love and global awareness.”
The PLL owns all of its teams. Still, Rabil said Utah Jazz and Real Salt Lake owner Ryan Smith, RSL president John Kimball and JetBlue founder David Neeleman have been “friends and helpers” of the league. Smith has gone on record saying Utah could support another pro sports franchise. Neeleman, meanwhile, was instrumental in helping the University of Utah’s lacrosse team move up to Division I and attended the first PLL game in 2017, according to Rabil.
Though Utah will be home to the Archers, the team will only play in the state twice during the regular season — and both games will be during the same weekend. The PLL plans to keep its touring format, meaning each weekend seven of the eight teams will play at one team’s home field. That home team will play back-to-back games over the weekend. Two times during the season, the teams will play at a neutral site.
Rabil said the touring format has been good for the league because it has allowed the PLL to find new pockets of interest in lacrosse, just as it did in Utah. In addition to the bubble, the PLL made stops at Zion Bank Stadium in both the past two seasons.
Members of the Archers, in orange, compete in a Premiere Lacrosse League game in Herriman in September 2022. Utah will become the permanent home for the Archers, the PLL announced Tuesday.
“If we didn’t have a tour model, we wouldn’t have discovered that Utah is the burgeoning lacrosse market,” he said. PLL will continue to use that model in hopes of growing its fanbase, but there is a “path forward of offering more home games in the future.”
In addition to giving the teams home cities, they have been divided into two conferences for 2024. Also the Western Conference with the Archers will be the Carolina Chaos, Denver Outlaws and California Redwoods. The New York Atlas, Boston Cannons, Philadelphia Waterdogs, and Maryland Whipsnakes will make up the Eastern Conference. The All-Star game, usually played in July, will divide players along conference lines.
The league does not plan to announce team venues until it releases the 2024 schedule on Jan. 1. During the 2020 bubble tournament, games occurred at Zions Bank Stadium in Herriman. That venue would make sense for the Archers.
“Any time the PLL has visited Utah, the crowds have been amazing and people are passionate about the sport of lacrosse,” said Marcus Holman, former assistant lacrosse coach at the University of Utah. “I think they’re going to be one of the best fan bases in the country.”
Holman, a former member of the Archers who now plays for the Cannons, said playing in the bubble showed players across the league what Salt Lake City had to offer — from the Wasatch Mountains to the short trip to Park City.
“I think the bubble, if anything, just kind of showed players in the league that Utah is a beautiful place and is capable of holding up a pro team,” Holman said.
Reigning league MVP Tom Schreiber is likely to return to the Archers as well as midfielder Grant Ament and goalie Brett Dobson. They are coached by Chris Bates with Brian Kavanagh and Tony Rush.
The Utah Archers will make their debut Feb. 14-19 when they compete in the PLL Championship Series in Washington, D.C. The Championship Series is a mini-tournament featuring the four best teams from the previous season in a six-on-six format. League play will begin in June.
Jeff Robbins, the president and CEO of the Utah Sports Commission, said Utah is getting a major piece of a growing sport in the Archers. He noted that lacrosse has been added to the program for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. It will also feature six-on-six play.
“Lacrosse is growing rapidly not only in Utah but also nationally and is well positioned for future growth globally with the recent announcement of its inclusion in the 2028 Olympic Summer Games in Los Angeles,” Robinson said in a news release. “The Premier Lacrosse League has been a key part of the sport’s rapid expansion. Having the Utah Archers call our state their home will bring some of the greatest players in the world to the State of Sport.”
The Rabil brothers, both former players, started the PLL with the intent of giving pro lacrosse players livable salaries, health benefits and league equity. Shortly afterward, they started the PLL Assists. The 501c3 is charged, in part, in creating access to the sport of lacrosse.
The league’s presence could bolster a sport that’s already experiencing a surge in Utah. The Utah High School Activities Association sanctioned lacrosse in 2020 and earlier this year the Utes earned their first berth to the NCAA championship tournament — just two years after jumping up to D-I. Rabil said the PLL also plans to work with Bob Caldwell of Intermountain Lacrosse to foster more growth at the youth levels.
The PLL is generally considered the most elite of the outdoor lacrosse leagues. Still, it works its schedule around both the NCAA and National League Lacrosse seasons so its athletes can play or coach in those organizations.
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