LXM EFFECT
ews traveled through lacrosse’s Internet portals quickly in May when Colgate’s Peter Baum said he was taking his considerable talents to the LXM Pro Tour and not Major League Lacrosse. Four months earlier, the Ohio Machine selected the Oregon native and 2012
Tewaaraton winner as the No. 1 pick in the MLL draft. Front office execs expected the split-dodging, sharp- shooting savant to elevate a franchise in need of offense and star power. But Baum elected to forego lacrosse’s established league to join the LXM Pro Tour and traverse the country playing in a series of exhibition games. Baum’s defection was neither unprecedented nor
wholly unexpected. Since 2011, when the MLL moved its draft to precede the start of the college season, at least one high-profile selection has jettisoned the MLL in favor of LXM each year. After graduating from Colgate, Baum was hired by Adrenaline, a lacrosse company whose club teams Baum played on and coached with for years. The company merged with LXM in 2012. Throughout their history, professional sports often have
included multiple leagues, especially during their early stages. The NBA had to compete against the ABA. Over the years, the NFL has fought off the WFL, USFL and XFL. While this very public tug-of-war for players like Baum
makes it easy to consider the two leagues rivals, LXM has created its own niche by not directly competing against the MLL, but in many ways by complementing it. Kyle Harrison, brothers Scott and Craig Hochstadt
and brothers Xander and Max Ritz started the LXM Pro Tour in 2009. Living in Los Angeles, where the MLL’s Riptide franchise had just folded, they wanted to create an X Games-like event in which a pro lacrosse game would coincide with other forms of entertainment to draw lacrosse and non- lacrosse fans alike. They also saw the need for a professional lacrosse
Billy Bitter left the MLL after two seasons with the Denver Outlaws and Charlotte Hounds.
platform to cater to more than one manufacturer. Warrior CEO Dave Morrow helped establish the MLL, and at the time the league’s players were required to use exclusively the company’s products. (The MLL has since opened the door for other companies to sponsor categories of equipment.) “For me, being an STX and Nike guy, I would be playing
in a professional league where I wasn’t allowed to support my sponsors,” Harrison said. “For a manufacturer, when you say ‘I’m going to play in a league where I can’t wear any of your stuff,’ you become a lot less appealing.” During its first two years, the LXM Pro Tour saw mixed
results. The inaugural event, held in Southern California in May 2009, was well-attended and generated significant media hoopla. (It helped that Scott Hochstadt’s girlfriend at the time, Lo Bosworth of MTV’s “The Hills,” made a red carpet appearance.) Other tour stops built the brand in both traditional and non-traditional areas, connecting Mikey Powell and Harrison’s on-field histrionics with musical acts such as rapper Wale. Yet during this span, only eight events were staged and not all drew a crowd. LXM moved away from expensive entertainment
acts to focus on tapping into emerging youth lacrosse markets. In 2012, the Tour merged with Adrenaline, a California-based lacrosse monolith that runs club teams and recruiting tournaments and even has its own apparel line. The LXM game became a draw for the Adrenaline Tournament Series, as pros could play and run clinics involving up to 70 youth teams that came mostly from west-of-the-Mississippi locales underserved by professional lacrosse. “We realized that the lacrosse fan right now happens
to be the player,” Xander Ritz said. “So we wanted to connect him to the two things he loves: to compete on the field and to witness elite-level players.” In 2013, LXM will host nearly three times as many exhibitions as it did two years ago, with events stretching from Atlanta to Arizona. Sponsors also have rallied
NAMES YOU
KNOW Sam Bradman
44 LACROSSE MAGAZINE September 2013>>
A Publication of US Lacrosse
©DIRK DEWACHTER (BB); ©SCOTT MCCALL (SB)
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