In some ways, Major League Lacrosse mirrors mainstream professional sports.
It's fast-paced, hard-hitting, boasts tons of action, and there's plenty of scoring.
But it's different from America's primary professional sports — namely football, basketball, baseball and hockey — in that the majority of players don't live in their team's hometown market.
Instead, the MLL estimates 65 percent to 70 percent of players commute to games on a weekly basis during the season that runs from April through August.
MLL spokesman Dan Ventresca said more than half of the league's players live between Boston and Baltimore.
They fly to the city they're playing in that weekend on Friday and have a team practice that night. Saturday morning is for the walk-through of that night's game. Then, on Sunday, they fly back home. The league pays their travel expenses.
While some players do live within their team's market, the number of those who travel for every game far outnumbers the total who live in the city where they play, Ventresca said.
When the league started in 2001, a lot of the athletes lived the 9-to-5 work week in New York and left the city to play lacrosse on the weekends.
"There was a big connection between guys who played lacrosse and Wall Street," Ventresca said.
Gross estimated that in the initial seasons, about 40 percent of the players had Wall Street jobs. Now, it's down to about 10 percent, he said.
Most of the athletes have other lacrosse-related income, including from manufacturer endorsements, private camps and clinics, and coaching at the high school and college levels. Some also play box lacrosse for the National Lacrosse League, which runs from December through April.
"It’s not like being in the NBA," Ventresca said, "but there are more guys now who are kind of focusing on lacrosse in every aspect of their life, and it’s not just something they do on the weekends."
Gross wouldn't share numbers on player pay but said rookies receive a set amount. (A player's parents said last year that their son received $500 for every game he dressed for.) For veterans, teams recommend salaries to the league, which then either approves or modifies the amount.
Facebook: Tracy M. Cook / Twitter: @tmcook23
