I'm a hockey fan and I dislike Lacrosse.
You're also one guy, one guy that i wouldn't exactly call a conventional thinker either.lol. No shame in that i respect that you have a perspective that's you're own. The reality is there won't be a 100% retention rate and there doesn't have to be, Lacrosse isn't going to become a major sport any time soon but it could be another solid option. I've taked to enough guys on hockey teams i've been on about the Rush and we all agree that we'd watch it but we never think about it, if it was on TSN guys would be thinking about it a lot more often. Not all Boxing fans like the UFC but i can tell you without question it wasn't just the creation of new fans following Spike TV's Ultimate Fighter but the conversion of boxing fans that allowed the UFC to become a well known entity in sports.
I love soccer which is a related coaching/flow game complete with D strategy, counter, fast strike etc. I actually find more similarity with hockey/soccer.
Soccer's too slow for me and the lack of competitive one on one battles makes it far less like hockey than Lacrosse imo. Lacrosse is without question the most similar game to hockey, box lacrosse's roots are strongly attached to hockey. Both are played with sticks, same amount of players, same size rink, checking, ect... Soccer doesn't have the battles that define Lacrosse and Hockey.
Lacrosse has similar origins to hockey but the game isn't really that similar in flow and concept. Much easier in Lacrosse for instance to control the ball and in that sense the flow more resembles Basketball wherein both sports have a shot clock because otherwise a club could have the ball indefinitely.
I agree the flow of the game is similar to basketball with the half court split, shot clock, picks and whatnot but that's not a bad thing. I don't mind basketball, i doubt most of the guys who watch hockey do either. Lacrosse is still more like hockey but it's not like basketball isn't a popular sport to watch.
I don't like the flow of either basketball or Lacrosse either playing or watching. Lacrosse might actually be more marketable to Basketball fans than Hockey fans.
C'mon do you know how many guys end up playing both sports? Hockey and Lacrosse have too many grassroot ties for there not to be a marketability there.
Lacrosse only has a specific market following for the most part. Not a huge following or national following.
TSN is in the business of televising sports and is always looking for product. Obviously they've done their research and don't show many games.
The market is small because of the exposure, certainly you must realize if it was given greater exposure it would have a more robust fanbase.
TSN hasn't shown Lacrosse because they've had hockey. Also it's only been recently that the sport has grown to the point it has, the past 10 years have made the NLL more relevant than it had been. There's momentum there and i think it's a solid fallback for TSN, the league has established Canadian teams and Lacrosse is somewhat popular at a collegiate level in the States.
