For years lacrosse had the reputation of being that game played at ivy league colleges by rich kids on converted football fields. The average American had little interest in the game and any kind of successful professional lacrosse league was absolutely out of the question. But just like the croissant, the game of soccer, and the English language, Americans found a way to morph lacrosse into something that looked more compact and easier to sell. In other words it looked more American. Even though the game was invented in North America by the natives, the average American of today still felt it necessary to keep beating the game with a hammer until in became something that was easier to digest. Today you have the ever growing popularity of indoor lacrosse.

Lacrosse is very popular in Canada and lacrosse is also a top collegiate game in the United States. But it wasn’t until the creation of indoor lacrosse that it became something that could be sold to the American public. I am from Buffalo, NY and indoor lacrosse is very popular here. Our professional indoor lacrosse team is 3 time world champions and their games sell out in our local professional hockey arena on a regular basis. I suppose I sound bitter that lacrosse is so popular because of what had to be done to it to make it popular but, in reality, I find it interesting that this formula hasn’t been used more successfully by other sports. Indoor soccer has been around for years but the professional indoor soccer teams go bankrupt just as fast as they are created. But lacrosse is growing as an indoor sport and becoming more and more popular every year. Even indoor tennis is finding more of a market than indoor soccer. I guess it is just curious that Americans have tried and tried to beat soccer into a form that we can get into but, in the end, soccer just doesn’t fit into our American culture. I wonder if that is an indication of how soccer will always be treated in the United States?

Lacrosse is a fun game to watch as an indoor sport. I have tried watching the outdoor version and, while lacrosse does seem to move a little more than soccer does, the indoor version of lacrosse is much easier to watch than the outdoor version. Never having played the game I don’t know which is more fun to play but, from a fan’s perspective, I can tell you that watching lacrosse players beating on each other with their sticks and nets in the confines of a boarded rink is much more fun to watch than the same sport played on a huge open field.

So it seems that lacrosse has benefited from the move indoors. The National Lacrosse League has been growing steadily for years in terms of new teams and fan attendance and it doesn’t seem to be stopping any time soon. So while the lacrosse purists may be lamenting the twisted version of their game that seems to be growing in popularity, the casual sports fan seems to be making indoor lacrosse a growing sport in the United States. Now if only indoor soccer can figure out what they are doing wrong then everyone would be happy.