The National Lacrosse League (NLL) is a men's professional box lacrosse league in North America. The NLL when it was first formed in 1987, was originally known as the Eagle Pro Box Lacrosse League and after two years, the Major Indoor Lacrosse League. The NLL would take on its current name beginning in 1998.
In Philadelphia, Eagle Pro Box Lacrosse League games were televised by PRISM[1]. Larry Rosen[2], Tony Seaman, Mark Zumoff[3] were the commentators for PRISM. Meanwhile in New England, the 1990 Championship Game between the Philadelphia Wings and New England Blazers was broadcast on NESN[4] with Leif Elsmo and Steve Glover on the call.
For the 1992 Championship Game, the Buffalo Bandits defeated the Philadelphia Wings, 11-10, in an exciting overtime game. This marked the first time since the league’s inaugural season, that an expansion team won the World Championship. The game was broadcast live in Buffalo on Empire Sports Network. For the rest of the nation, the game was broadcast on the Prime Network[5] with Craig Johnson[6] and Leif Elsmo on commentary. Other commentators that Prime employed were Bill Beroza, Bruce Todman[7] and Jon Horton[8].
On November 30, 1993, ESPN signed a six-year agreement, making them the network of the League. Regular season games would be shown on ESPN2[9], as well as the playoff broadcasts on both ESPN[10] and ESPN2. This particular package of 12 games would be telecast on a delayed basis.
ESPN2's first Monday night broadcast in 1994 featured the Detroit Turbos against the Baltimore Thunder. Later that year, the Philadelphia Wings denied the Buffalo Bandits a third consecutive World Championship[11] by defeating the Bandits, 26–15, in front of a sellout crowd of 16,284 at Memorial Auditorium. The win gave the Wings its third League Championship in their history, the most of any league team. ESPN broadcast the game live from Buffalo, marking the first live telecast by ESPN of a league game. ESPN employed Leif Elsmo[12], Kristi Lee, and Quint Kessenich[13] as commentators during this period.
On December 1, 1995, the 1996 television schedule was announced with ESPN2's "Game of the Week" scheduled to be broadcast on Monday nights from 7:30 p.m.-9:30 p.m. ET during the season. The 1999 Championship Game between the Toronto Rock and Rochester Knighthawks was televised throughout Canada by CTV SportsNet, and in the United States on ESPN2. CTV SportsNet used Joe Bowen[14], Brian Shanahan, and Suneel Joshi on commentary.
In the early 2000s, CNN Sports Illustrated[15][16][17][18] aired NLL games regularly. The initial deal called for CNN Sports Illustrated will be the NLL's national broadcast partner for the 2001-02 and 2002-03 seasons. CNN/SI was scheduled to broadcast 23 games throughout each season, including 17 Game of the Week[19] broadcasts, the NLL All-Star Game[20] and all five playoff games, including the NLL Championship Game in April of 2002. CNN/SI aired its first game November 24, 2001. Just like with ESPN's prior coverage, CNN/SI used Leif Elsmo and Quint Kessenich on commentary.
Meanwhile, on September 20, 2001, the NLL announced Rogers Sportsnet (formally CTV SportsNet) to be the league’s national broadcast partner in Canada. Sportsnet would broadcast 26 games during the 2001-2002 regular season. Sportsnet would also carry the 2001-2002 Playoffs, including the Championship Game in April of 2002[21].
For the 2011 season, the NLL returned to Versus, beginning with coverage of the 2011 All-Star Game, followed by 6 weekly games, and 2 playoff games, one of these being the championship game.[22] Versus would drop the NLL for the league's 2012 season; U.S. broadcast rights were instead picked up by CBS Sports Network.[23]
CBS outbid Fox for the rights to the package of National Lacrosse League games it for the entire 2011 season including playoffs. CBS entered the bidding to regain the National Lacrosse League rights beginning in the 2011, only to again be outbid by Fox, which agreed to pay an undisclosed amount for the three-year broadcast contract.[24]
In 2012, the NLL shifted the package to a new model to increase its prominence. The entire package would be produced by a separate rightsholder, who would hold rights to simulcast a portion of the package on their respective network. CBS was the first rightsholder under this model, airing season games on broadcast television, and producing the remainder of the package to air exclusively on NLL TV to satisfy its carriage agreements.
Beginning with the 2012 NLL season, U.S. broadcast rights shifted to the CBS Sports Network with the segment NLL on CBS, carrying 8 regular season games, all of them live.[25] Regional sports networks would also provide some coverage of individual teams.