Lacrosse Remains America's Fastest Growing Sport

SGMA Survey says more lacrosse players than hockey players in US if trend continues
4/28/2011

According to the 2011 Sporting Goods Manufacturer Association Participation Report, Lacrosse is America's fastest growing sport with a 33% growth among frequent participants and 37.7% growth among all participants.

Should the sport maintain the same growth rate, lacrosse will pass ice hockey at the participation level over the course of the next year.

Last year, the SGMA named lacrosse as the "hottest growth sport", with national sales of lacrosse equipment increasing in 2009, during a year in which sales of sporting goods for all sports was down more than four percent (4%) nationwide.  In a survey of SGMA members, a whopping 50 percent of them chose lacrosse as the sport most likely to have growth in retail sales of equipment.  Football came in a distant second
at 25 percent.

"Lacrosse continues to outpace all other sports in growth rate," said National Lacrosse League Commissioner George Daniel. "We are proud to have been a part of the surge by creating thousands of fans to the sport over the course of league's history."

Earlier this month, the St. Paul Pioneer Press attributed the dramatic increase in Minnesota's lacrosse participants to the arrival of the Minnesota Swarm in 2005.

"We look forward to continuing to create new fans and players by bringing are thrilling brand of lacrosse in the coming years," said Daniel.