Well, this sucks.
Major League Lacrosse, the premier professional outdoor lacrosse league, has secured its three remaining expansion cities to join Los Angeles for the start of the 2006 season, according to MLL Founder Jake Steinfeld. Major League Lacrosse will expand to include teams in Chicago, Denver and San Francisco in addition to Los Angeles, which joined the league on March 9, 2005.
L.A., Chicago, Denver and San Fran are the picks to bring the five-year-old MLL westward and grow from six teams to ten. The scuttlebutt was that Dallas was a leading contender. It certainly would have made sense, as the sport is booming in the area and across the state. Plus, the new stadium built in suburban Frisco for Major League Soccer’s FC Dallas seemed a perfect facility for the sport.
The league plans to add two more western teams for the 2008 season, and the leading cities are Dallas and San Diego. Or so the obviously unreliable rumor mill says. Should the professional level of the sport finally arrive in the Lone Star state, count me in on season tickets. ‘Til then, I’ll just spend the next two seasons stewing bitterly.