Banking On an Emerging Sport

The guy from Body by Jake was on the phone -- again.

Jake Steinfeld had started an outdoor lacrosse league and was trying to sell the idea of a Los Angeles franchise to AEG, owners of Staples Center, the Home Depot Center, the Kings and the Galaxy, among other sports-related holdings.

A company that big certainly wouldn’t have any interest in a minor sport such as lacrosse, would it?

That question has been answered: The AEG-owned Los Angeles Riptide made its home debut Saturday at the Home Depot Center, where it lost, 16-13, to the Rochester Rattlers in a Major League Lacrosse game that attracted 6,024 fans.

The game and the team are the result of Steinfeld’s persistence -- he said he called AEG’s offices weekly for four years. AEG’s willingness to plunge into professional lacrosse for a $1-million price tag is a calculated gamble that signals the fledgling sport may be on the brink of a boom.

“We see it as one of the great emerging sports,” said Shawn Hunter, president of AEG Sports. “Emerging sports make good business sense.”

When Steinfeld finally started making inroads with AEG, it was Hunter who was charged with researching the viability of bringing professional lacrosse to Los Angeles.

He and his team uncovered some startling results. What was once looked upon as a sport reserved for exclusive East Coast colleges was now among the fastest-growing sports in the country, with colleges and high schools adding it to their athletic programs at a furious pace.

This year, it became sanctioned by the California Interscholastic Federation, which governs high school sports in California.

Youth programs and clubs were popping up nationwide, including in the Los Angeles area. The Los Angeles Lacrosse League -- a youth league modeled after AYSO -- grew so large that several teams broke off and formed private clubs.

The final selling point came last year, when AEG staged two college games at the Home Depot Center. Nearly 10,000 fans showed up to watch Syracuse vs. Georgetown and North Carolina vs. Notre Dame.

“We like finding new sports and ultimately being in a position of growing them over a period of time,” said AEG President Tim Leiweke. “We’d rather build something than buy something from somebody.”

There are 10 teams in the league. Six teams -- all on the East Coast -- began play in 2000. Los Angeles, San Francisco, Denver and Chicago were added this year. Plans are to add two more teams in 2008.

Denver’s home debut May 22 attracted a record 13,167 fans; average attendance for the league through two games has been 3,785 and in 2005 it was 4,241. The Outlaws are owned by Pat Bowlen, who also owns the Denver Broncos, and with such high-profile players as Bowlen and AEG, MLL is getting noticed.

Still, any new sport is a risk. Steinfeld agrees but is banking that the curiosity factor will help bring out new fans, who will then be captivated by a fast-paced, hard-hitting sport.

“In the East, they’ve been playing this for years and years,” he said. “But in the West, it’s new, it’s fresh. It’s considered an extreme sport here. I think that because of that, the West will lead the explosion of this sport.”

The risk is there for AEG as well. The company has no illusions that the Riptide and MLL will surpass baseball, football or basketball in popularity, but it still could be a worthy investment. Because the league is responsible for coach and player salaries, AEG’s risk is lessened. And all players recently signed three-year contracts -- with no free agency.

But the league already has major sponsors aboard, including Anheuser Busch, New Balance, Gatorade, Tommy Hilfiger and Starbucks. And ESPN2 shows a game every Saturday.

“We have not put any kind of timeline on this,” Hunter said. “What we want to do first is make sure we put out a great product. Long-term, I think it has the potential to be what soccer is on the West Coast.”

The company has taken risks before.When AEG launched the Tour of California bicycle race earlier this year, for example, no one thought it would succeed. The seven-stage race drew 1.3 million fans. AEG also has been involved with the successful X Games and AVP pro beach volleyball.

“This for us is very similar to the risk we took with the Tour of California and some of the other one-off events we’ve done,” Leiweke said of lacrosse. “Many of our events are very out of the ordinary, but for us it’s mostly about vision.”

So far, the team says it has sold about 1,000 season tickets for the six home games, cross-marketing the team to Kings and Galaxy fans. The plan is to incorporate a festival atmosphere at each game, with live music and lacrosse-related sponsors and merchandisers setting up booths around the stadium.

“It’ll be more of a celebration of lacrosse than just a game,” Leiweke said. “And I think that’s what we’re going to have to do to make sure that it stands out. It is more about the cult and the growth of the sport within the marketplace.”

And, Steinfeld said, with AEG involved, even a fringe sport like lacrosse with a budding, but still small, following can succeed in the Los Angeles market.

“They are the monsters of California at least in my mind when it comes to sports business,” he said. “I feel confident in knowing that a sport like lacrosse in a town like Los Angeles will get the play it deserves business-wise.”