Should Bradley expand into lacrosse?

[Dallas Brave]

Has there been any discussion at Bradley around creating a Lacrosse team? Given the success of soccer as a Fall sport, it would be nice to see if BU could duplicate that success with Lacrosse which is a Spring sport. A lot of the top notch private schools (e.g., Notre Dame) field teams.

[Da Coach]

There would be a problem with the Title IX act. They would have to create an equivalent number of scholarship slots for females.

[houstontxbrave]

Womens Soccer would be a nice addition to BU.

[mike radigan]

Although BU has the facilities in place it is probably cost prohibitive to add another non-revenue producing sport.

[Fyrebyrd]

Personally, I think Bradley is a bit to cautious with their money. Yes, I understand we are a private school and we rely primarily on high tuitions to support the school. However, what is so bad about having a couple bad years to build an organization which could end up being exciting for students. I personally know I would go to lacrosse games with vigor. Although, I do not consider myself the typical American who enjoys high scores (huge fan of hockey and soccer), I think Lacrosse could draw a high attendance. Its a fun, fast paced, high scoring, contact support. If Bradley wants higher attendances and more fan support, they need to do something out of the norm. It's funny....Bradley says it would be incredibly costly to produce things like a football team. However, I think if they just put it at Shea stadium, and maybe charged students a couple bucks a game...the program could be highly successful. Call me optimistic, but this comes from a student of Bradley who would love to see more student involvement on campus.

[Dallas Brave]

Call me a snob , but I think Lacrosse has a certain cachet that plays well out East and would fit with the academic image BU wants to project.

[houstontxbrave]

Just curious but if BU were to play Lacrosse, who would they play?

The closest I can find to BU is Notre Dame, Ohio State and Belliarmine who play in the Lacrosse America conference.

http://gwlladmin.googlepages.com/

There are no other schools in Illinois who play the sport in any division.

Travel would be outrageous.

[Dallas Brave]

Just curious but if BU were to play Lacrosse, who would they play?

The closest I can find to BU is Notre Dame, Ohio State and Belliarmine who play in the Lacrosse America conference.

http://gwlladmin.googlepages.com/

There are no other schools in Illinois who play the sport in any division.

Travel would be out rageous.

Travel costs would definately be more that soccer, but could be within reason I think. As you pointed out the Lacrosse America conference http://web1.ncaa.org/onlineDir/exec/sponsorship? sortOrder=1&division=1&sport=MLA would be the natural conference to join

In addition to Ohio State and Notre Dame, the conference has the University of Denver and the Air Force academy.

Lacrosse is growing rapidly in popularity at the middle school and high school levels and I wouldn't be surprised to see more midwest colleges and universities add the program during the next several years.

[abesimpson]

IMO, I think there would be some other sports that would come ahead of lacrosse, like men's track (we already have a coach and some cross country guys to start with) and women's soccer (the club team at BU is large and organized). Plus these would be the cheapest to start in terms of equipment costs.

The club hockey team has a good following, and there is already ice under the basketball floor, but I think it would cost too much. Also, club roller hockey is really popular and well organized at a lot of schools and there is even some talk that it would be the next NCAA sanctioned sport. It would be cool to get some new sports, but I don't think it's going to happen soon.

[Dallas Brave]

I know there are angles that would have to be worked out, but I would still love for BU to figure how to start a lacrosse team. It is a fun team sport to watch and I think BU fans would get into it.

Article from Friday's Dallas Morning News -

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/spt/stories/031408dnspolacrosse.3f2eac4.html

[Fetz86]

I play on the ice hockey team (as many of you know already), and my buddy is in charge in the inline (roller) hockey team this year. The inline team does not have many people come out for it, and they do not have a league to play in, they basically play mens leagues teams and scrimmage against ISU's team. The ice hockey team is well established and keeps getting better, but we do not draw any fans, its just a few parents and a couple girlfriends and frat members at the games [Many members of the team are PIKEs]. The other schools we play against get a lot better fan support (they even out draw us at our home games) and the state schools like Missouri State and ISU get big crowds and support two teams each. The club hockey team is getting better organized this year, putting together an executive board and is trying to become more visible on campus and the community as we are trying to put together a summer hockey camp/clinic and may do more fund raising in the future. I think if we played downtown in the Civic center we could draw more fans, but we do not have the money for that and will be at the Owens center for the foreseeable future.

If Bradley were to add another varsity sport I would like to see Men's hockey before Lacrosse. A varsity team would almost surely play at the PCC, and fills much the same role as an East Coast academic thing when you consider that the Boston schools are always good. I also like it because there are plenty of teams to play nearby [Notre Dame, Wisconsin schools, Michigan schools, Ohio Schools, Minnesota Schools] and that most schools also have club teams too, so that could open doors to expand and elevate the current club teams status.

[thefish7]

Hey Fetz... Owens center seating any good? I like watching any BU sports... No idea when you guys play though I managed to be there trying to skate (hehe, I can't) one night you guys had a game a few years ago.

[Bradleyguy10]

yeah...Bradley needs to expand the sporting field. President J.G. says one of her main things as president is to expand recruiting for undergrads, and this might sound stupid but the types of sports that schools have play a big part on what type of students choose to go there or not. This would be a good way for her to do it.

We are a private school we should have tons of sports and a few weird ones also (curling anyone?). Girl's Varsity soccer seems basic to me. Lacrosse would be awesome to have. Varsity hockey oh man..in the PCC..that'd be amazing. I'd love to have football, but football is just too competitive to jump into it seems and it couldn't be on Shea...that would tear it up big time for the soccer team. Get a bowling alley on campus and get a bowling team or something, we just need more sports to get students more involved and proud of the campus and proud to be a BRAVE.

But this is probably all a dream because most of the money is going towards all the new construction..which of course I am happy with and can't object. It'd just be nice to go to an institute of diverse athletics and diverse people. So I can brag.

[houstontxbrave]

yeah...Bradley needs to expand the sporting field. President J.G. says one of her main things as president is to expand recruiting for undergrads, and this might sound stupid but the types of sports that schools have play a big part on what type of students choose to go there or not. This would be a good way for her to do it.

We are a private school we should have tons of sports and a few weird ones also (curling anyone?). Girl's Varsity soccer seems basic to me. Lacrosse would be awesome to have. Varsity hockey oh man..in the PCC..that'd be amazing. I'd love to have football, but football is just too competitive to jump into it seems and it couldn't be on Shea...that would tear it up big time for the soccer team. Get a bowling alley on campus and get a bowling team or something, we just need more sports to get students more involved and proud of the campus and proud to be a BRAVE.

But this is probably all a dream because most of the money is going towards all the new construction..which of course I am happy with and can't object. It'd just be nice to go to an institute of diverse athletics and diverse people. So I can brag.

When I used to live in Madison, UW hockey was HUGE. The Kohl Center would rock and there usually were over 16K every night for a game.

[Fetz86]

Owens does not have a ton of seats, but there is nothing wrong with the views, the Peoria Mustangs (junior hockey team) pack people in and I have not heard complaints from their fans. The season is over for this year but we would love to get more people out next year.