Premier Lacrosse League announces North Carolina will be one team’s home base in 2024
Long a hotbed for college lacrosse, with Duke and North Carolina having eight NCAA championships between them, North Carolina will have a professional lacrosse team of its own next year.
The Carolina Chaos is one of eight teams competing in the Premier Lacrosse League as it transitions from touring teams to clubs with home areas in 2024.
“Each time we’ve brought the world’s best lacrosse players to North Carolina, fans from all over the South have packed the stands for PLL games,” Mike Rabil, co-founder and CEO of the Premier Lacrosse League said in a statement. “A complement to the success of powerhouse college programs in the region, the Chaos will bring playoff-caliber, relentlessly bold, and creative play to lacrosse fans in the South as we invest in one of the fastest growing fan bases in lacrosse.”
According to Rabil, the PLL’s home base for the Carolina franchise will be in Charlotte.
Over the PLL’s first five seasons, teams were not tied to a specific geographic area. All eight teams played in one market on game weekends. The Chaos Lacrosse Club won the 2021 PLL championship under that format, beating the Whipsnakes Lacrosse Club, 14-9, at Audi Field in Washington, D.C., in the final.
In 2022, the PLL played a game weekend at Charlotte’s American Legion Memorial Stadium with doubleheaders on June 10-11.
Last May, the PLL announced plans to place teams in geographic areas while maintaining the touring schedule. The Carolina Chaos are joined by the Boston Cannons, New York Atlas, Philadelphia Waterdogs, Maryland Whipsnakes, Denver Outlaws (formerly Chrome Lacrosse Club), Utah Archers and California Redwoods.
In 2024, eight of the 10 game weekends will be held teams’ markets. That means when the league makes its weekend stop in the Carolinas, the Chaos will play two games in Charlotte.
The schedule is expected to be announced in January.
In addition, the PLL will sponsor Chaos-branded grassroots youth lacrosse initiatives across North Carolina.
This story was originally published November 14, 2023 at 2:31 PM.