A Trip to the Premier Lacrosse League All-Star Game

Premier Lacrosse
League All-Star Game
On July 21, 2019, the Premier Lacrosse League
(PLL) held its ﬁrst-ever All-Star Game during the
league’s inaugural season, played at Banc
of California Stadium (home of MLS club LAFC) 
What follows is a look at the fan experience and
various activations and offerings from the event. For
more on me, visit DSMSports.net and follow me on
Twitter @njh287.

Premier Lacrosse
On the way into the
stadium, it was hard to miss
Honda catching the eye of
lacrosse fans (though I
didn’t note any ofﬁcial
partnership with Honda
and the PLL).
Some kinda punning:
“We’re just *lacrosse* the
street.”

The game was held
at Banc of California
Stadium, home of
MLS team LAFC.
PLL game this
season have been
mostly at NFL, MLS,
and college football
stadiums so far.
Premier Lacrosse

Every PLL game
day is preceded by
the ‘Premier Zone,’
a place for
activities, music,
fun, and sponsor
activations.
Here fans could try
to test their ‘Fastest
Shot,’ fun and in
this case not
sponsored.
Premier Lacrosse

US Lacrosse was on-site
with info about getting
involved in the sport and,
as is popular at these kind
of events, they gave fans
the chance to Spin the
Wheel to win prizes!
Premier Lacrosse

A PLL partner, Evolution
Physical Therapy, invited
fans to ‘Recover Like The
Pros’ and check out and
test out some of their
technology and offerings
on-site.
Premier Lacrosse

The PLL is super-active on
social media and one of
their hosts RJ Kaminski was
outside taking video with
fans (and using a handy
selﬁe stick) to get footage
of the scene and pumped-
up fans. 
 
Some of the video was put
together to be shown on the
stadium video board, as
well.
Premier Lacrosse

The PLL is a proudly
player-driven league and
they had standups like this
one seen here throughout
the Premier Zone featuring
the names and faces of
many of their star players.
Premier Lacrosse

Each of the PLL teams
was represented on a
bunch of corn hole sets
out in the zone for fans to
play and enjoy.
Premier Lacrosse

The PLL does a great job
with its merchandise and
the Premier Zone featured
a fun and interactive merch
experience in which fans
got to tie-dye their shirt
after buying it. 
 
(One of the PLL All-Star
teams was outﬁtted in cool
tie-dye jerseys)
Premier Lacrosse

Apologies for the poor-
quality pic, but wanted to
shout-out the outdoor area
where fans could get beer
and hang out in the Premier
Zone. This was a non-
branded beer garden.
Premier Lacrosse

There was an impressive
concentration of fans
outﬁtted in PLL merch and
the lines to buy reinforced
the popularity. There was
also more merchandise
inside the stadium.
Premier Lacrosse

A closer at some of
the gear - the PLL
got some deserved
kudos for their
sweet All-Star
jerseys.
Premier Lacrosse

Another nod to the
player-driven aspect of
the PLL, there was no
shortage of player
jerseys on sale, and
many fans walking
around sporting the
jerseys (and team) of
their favorite player.
Premier Lacrosse

Wolf Athletics - which provides the ‘ofﬁcial ball’ for the league was on-site
showing off their sticks and balls. There did not appear to be any data
capture or sweepstakes elements, but fans could make purchases on-site.
Premier Lacrosse

The PLL staff was able to
make use of the screens
throughout the
concourse in the
stadium, showing live
footage from a couple of
their cameras, as well as
some traditional sports
TV stations.
Premier Lacrosse

The stadium, which
seats 22,000 at full
capacity, was only
selling seating on
one side and area
behind one goal.
The attendance
stated by the PLL for
the All-Star Game
was ~ 8,200.
Premier Lacrosse

The Figueroa Club was
open to anyone and was
bumping especially
pregame with fans able to
get a view of the ﬁeld, TV
screens up, and plenty of
seating for fans to hang
out.
Premier Lacrosse

Much of the concessions
typically open for LAFC
games were also open for
the PLL event and there
was good food and drink
selection, as well as beer
stands like this with seating
alongside.
Premier Lacrosse League
All-Star Game

The PLL does a great job at
all of their events providing
group experiences and VIP
upgrades, and they
activated with a number of
fans at the All-Star Game.
Premier Lacrosse

Pressing personalized
jerseys on-site for fans.
Nice touch!
Premier Lacrosse

Hard to tell in this pic, but I
thought it was cool and
unique that many fans,
especially the kids, in
attendance brought their
lacrosse stick to the game
(or had purchased one in
the Premier Zone).
Like bringing a mitt to a
baseball game!
Premier Lacrosse

There wasn’t a ton of
fan engagement with
the video board, even
during the media
timeouts, but late in the
game we did get their
version of the dance
cam - the ‘Lacrosse
Floss.’ This was a fun,
non-sponsored element
that the kids seemed to
enjoy. (#ImOld)
Premier Lacrosse

The fans got to hear every
on-camera interview that
was done for the NBCSN
telecast.
Though fans there like me
missed out on the cool
during-game interviews the
NBC Sports broadcast
does for PLL games.
Premier Lacrosse

Between the All-Star Game
and the Skills Competition
that followed players spent
as much time as it took to
interact with every fan that
came down to say hey,
including autographs,
selﬁes, and high-ﬁves.
The players in the PLL get
it.
Premier Lacrosse

Some candid pics here in
which I wanted to note the
considerable presence of
San Diego Seals gear here.
The Seals are a new team
in the [indoor] National
Lacrosse League (NLL)
and it looked like plenty of
fans came up to see some
PLL stars in action (many of
whom play in the NLL, too)
Premier Lacrosse

Football legend (who also was
quite a lacrosse player back in his
days at Syracuse) was a special
guest judge in the ‘Freestyle
Challenge’ when PLL players tried
to score the coolest-looking goal as
part of the Skills Competition.
There wasn’t much sponsor
integration in the Skills Competition,
though new PLL ‘ofﬁcial style’
partner Vineyard Vines was
featured effectively for the
Accuracy Challenge.
Premier Lacrosse

Thanks for coming along on my trip to the PLL All-
Star Game!
For more on me, visit DSMSports.net and follow me
on Twitter @njh287.
Premier Lacrosse

A Trip to the Premier Lacrosse League All-Star Game

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A Trip to the Premier Lacrosse League All-Star Game