Premier Lacrosse League at Gillette Stadium
PREMIER LACROSSE LEAGUE POWERED BY TICKETMASTER TO OPEN 2021 SEASON AT GILLETTE STADIUM
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – The Premier Lacrosse League (PLL) powered by Ticketmaster will return to Gillette Stadium to kick off the 2021 season with an opening five-game slate June 4 through June 6.
“There’s no better location to kick off our 2021 tour than Gillette Stadium,” said PLL Co-Founder and CMO Paul Rabil. “Our inaugural weekend in 2019 was a huge success. The fans in New England are passionate, and the Patriots organization is exceptional.”
The PLL season will begin at Gillette Stadium for the second time, getting underway with a primetime matchup between Cannons LC and Redwoods LC under the lights on Friday, June 4. Saturday’s slate includes a championship rematch between Whipsnakes LC and Chaos LC, followed by Archers LC taking on Atlas LC. On Sunday afternoon, Cannons LC will return to the field against Waterdogs LC, and the weekend will be capped off with a matchup between Chrome LC and Redwoods LC.
The PLL is a tour-based model featuring eight teams and the world’s best lacrosse players. In addition to being full-time employees and receiving health benefits, players get equity stakes in the league – a first in professional sports. The league recently announced a merger with Major League Lacrosse, leading to the addition of the PLL’s eighth lacrosse club, Cannons LC.
The 2021 PLL season will include 11 tour stops from June to September. For the third consecutive year, PLL games will be distributed via an exclusive media rights agreement with NBC Sports Group with action being shown through a combination of NBC, NBCSN, and Peacock TV.
The PLL played its inaugural weekend at Gillette Stadium in 2019, and had announced plans to open the 2020 season at the home of the six-time Super Bowl Champion New England Patriots and New England Revolution before COVID-19 forced the adjustment of the season to a three-week quarantined and fanless tournament. Gillette Stadium has also hosted five NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Championships since 2008 and holds the NCAA Men’s Division I Championship attendance record (2008: 48,970), the top three attendance records for Division I National Championship Games since 2012 (2012: 30,816, 2018: 29,455 and 2017: 28,971) and the top three Division II and Division III National Championship attendance records (2017: 31,560, 2008: 24,317 and 2009: 24,072). The venue hosted professional lacrosse games in 2015, and was recently awarded the 2025 and 2026 NCAA Men’s and Division I Women’s Lacrosse Championships.
Kraft Group President-International Dan Kraft, who was a collegiate lacrosse goalie for Tufts University in the 1980s and served on the executive Board of the 2018 Federation of International Lacrosse’s World Championships Host Committee, expressed his continued support for the league and its ongoing potential to further grow the sport in the New England region and throughout the country.
“We are thrilled to continue our incredible partnership with Paul and Mike Rabil and the Premier Lacrosse League and once again host the league’s opening weekend at Gillette Stadium this summer,” Kraft said. “We sincerely missed hosting professional lacrosse in 2020 and cannot wait to welcome the world’s best lacrosse players back to Foxborough in 2021 for an exciting opening weekend. We feel Gillette Stadium is the country’s preeminent lacrosse venue and look forward to hosting another world-class event promoting the sport in such a large and passionate lacrosse region.”
Under the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ reopening plan, Gillette Stadium will safely welcome fans to each game, and tickets are available now for all five games at Ticketmaster.com.
The PLL will work with its venue partners to maintain compliance with local and state governance regarding health and safety best practices. This will include standardized weekend-to-weekend health and safety measures, including but not limited to: seating pods, social distancing, enhanced venue cleaning, mobile ticketing, hand sanitation stations, staff and attendee mask requirements. Similar to the 2020 season, the PLL will be working with a committee of medical professionals to develop health and safety protocols for all players, staff and fans. For more information about the PLL and the 2021 season, visit www.premierlacrosseleague.com.