By Steve Adamek; The Newark Herald News, October 28th, 1987
EAST RUTHERFORD — Let’s play the skeptic.
Suppose you had 15 bucks and nothing better to do than spend it on yourself.
You could take a date to a movie and even splurge on some popcorn.
You could head out to a quasi-decent restaurant and treat yourself to dinner or take out that date of yours and scarf down some greaseburgers.
You could lay a bet down on a football game or flush the $15 down the toilet — both of which are one and the same thing.
You could haul on over to the Meadowlands Arena and watch the Devils or the Nets.
Or, the Saints. The New Jersey Saints. You could head on over to the Meadowlands Arena come January and February and watch the New Jersey Saints play professional indoor lacrosse.
Yep, 15 bucks, 13 if you want to sit upstairs. For indoor lacrosse.
A peculiar notion
A rather peculiar notion, it seems, and even moreso for those investors whose scratch is backing such a venture.
Yet, the folks whose scratch is backing the Major Indoor Lacrosse League i believe 5,000-6,000 people per night ; will plunk down 13-15 bucks for four Saints’ home games at the Meadowlands. They’re also betting as many, if not more, will plunk down their money in Baltimore, Philadelphia and Washington.
They are betting, as sports promoters always do, that theirs is the “sport of the 21st century.” As for this century, they’d just be happy to make a buck or for now, there is an indoor lacrosse team at the Meadowlands, the Saints, those three others and a league that enters its second year.
Last year, the second attempt to get an indoor lacrosse league off the ground — the first, a decade ago, joined the USFL, NASL, WFL and all the other defunct leagues in that great place in the sky—called itself the Eagle Pro Box Lacrosse League. The name tripped off the tongue like Gerald Ford stepping off an airplane.
Major Indoor Lacrosse League (MILL) gives it a neat little acronym, but will it play in Peoria? Or, at least, East Rutherford?
Offering fast-paced game
“People (in this area) are sports-oriented,” said league president Chris Fritz. “They want their sports to be action-packed. I think we can deliver a game that’s probably the most fast- paced indoor game there can be.”
In other words, players score. Last year, an average of 28 goals per game were scored in the 12 league games. That’s right, 12 games. Total. This is not a league that’s foisting an 80-game schedule on its public to wring as many bucks as it can out of that public.
This year, the number goes to 16, eight per team, four home and four away, all in a two-month period, plus a two-game playoff season. Neat and clean.
And, last year’s figures show, somewhat attractive. The league recorded an average attendance of 8,304 for its first season, including playoffs. At the Meadowlands, an average of 6,691 showed up for three games, although some of those, a Meadowlands official admitted, were complimentary admissions. We’re not talking a run on tickets here, but we’re not talking games played in private, either.
We’re talking a league that knows its limitations. The mid-Atlantic coast is the one and only lacrosse hotbed in this country, hence the location of its franchises.
