One of the defining characteristics of Minor Sports Leagues is that they play to smaller crowds of fans. Minor-Leagues.com has compiled a series of posts that provides details of attendance figures.
National Lacrosse League (NLL) is a professional indoor (box) lacrosse league which began play in 1987. It is North America’s premier indoor/box lacrosse league. The league strives to be national in scale but has not been able to sustain much franchise growth. Its teams are geographically dispersed across the United States and Canada.
Below is the fan attendance for the entire league from 2006 to 2013.
League | Sport | Season | # of Teams | Team Change | Games | Games Change | Total Attendance | TA Change | Average Attendance | AA Change | Source |
NLL (National Lacrosse League) | Indoor Lacrosse | 2006 | 11 (8 USA 3 CAN) | untracked | 88 | untracked | 941,875 | untracked | 10,703 | untracked | Pointstreak.com |
NLL (National Lacrosse League) | Indoor Lacrosse | 2007 | 14 (11 USA 3 CAN) | 27.27% | 104 | 18.18% | 1,070,575 | 13.66% | 10,293 | -3.83% | Pointstreak.com |
NLL (National Lacrosse League) | Indoor Lacrosse | 2008 | 12 (9 USA 3 CAN) | -14.29% | 96 | -7.69% | 1,005,633 | -6.07% | 10,475 | 1.77% | Pointstreak.com |
NLL (National Lacrosse League) | Indoor Lacrosse | 2009 | 12 (9 USA 3 CAN) | 0.00% | 96 | 0.00% | 961,731 | -4.37% | 10,018 | -4.36% | Pointstreak.com |
NLL (National Lacrosse League) | Indoor Lacrosse | 2010 | 11 (8 USA 3 CAN) | -8.33% | 88 | -8.33% | 841,208 | -12.53% | 9,559 | -4.58% | ILIndoor.com |
NLL (National Lacrosse League) | Indoor Lacrosse | 2011 | 10 (7 USA 3 CAN) | -9.09% | 80 | -9.09% | 786,800 | -6.47% | 9,835 | 2.89% | ILIndoor.com |
NLL (National Lacrosse League) | Indoor Lacrosse | 2012 | 9 (6 USA 3 CAN) | -10.00% | 72 | -10.00% | 681,696 | -13.36% | 9,468 | -3.73% | ILIndoor.com |
NLL (National Lacrosse League) | Indoor Lacrosse | 2013 | 9 (6 USA 3 CAN) | 0.00% | 72 | 0.00% | 695,736 | 2.06% | 9,663 | 2.06% | ILIndoor.com |
Although 5 of the league’s 9 teams are based in the United States, approximately 75% of league players are from Canada. The remaining 25% of league players are from the United States, Australia, various countries within Europe, and the Iroquois First Nation. The average salary as of the 2013 season was $19,135. The maximum salary for a franchise player is approximately $34,000.