NCAA title games head to pro venues by Don Muret, Volume 8, Issue 42. critiqued by Abbie Hoover

NCAA Men's lacrosse is the fastest growing sport to watch. Attendance at championship games has become so large that they are now being played at Pro venues instead of college stadiums. The last year D1, D2, and D3 championships were played at college stadium was 2002 in Rutgers Stadium. The attendance was 19,706. This past year the championships were held in Lincoln Financial Stadium in Philly. The D1 game between John Hopkins and Duke had 44,920 spectators, and a total of 177,574 spectators over the 3 day event. This was a NCAA record for attendance.

The event was also a source of revenue for Univ. of PA and the Phil. Eagles. These groups and the Phil. Sporst Congress won the bid and will host the play-off games for 2 years in a row. Ticket prices go for $25-60 and according to the Eagles senior vice president of business operations the lower bowl's 39,000 seats are already sold out.

Theses play-off games are a good source of revenue, and are now being very competitive to host. In 2007 the games will be held in Baltimore at the M&T Stadium, 2008 in Gillette Stadium (New England Patriots) and bids are already coming in for the 2009 season. At the fast growing rate of attendance, it is speculated that attendance could surpass NCAA basketball and football.

I'm glad lacrosse is growing in popularity, I've been playing since high school, and I was even at the Championships back in 2000. However I'm torn on whether I think it's good to have all of these Pro venues bidding to be host. I enjoyed going to see the championships with my dad, but I also remember how cheap it was. I just hope these venues don't get too money hungry and start making prices Ridiculously high.