Rabil announces creation of new outdoor pro league

Former Johns Hopkins All-American Paul Rabil formally announced his intention to form a new professional outdoor lacrosse league in a news release Monday. Rabil and his brother Mike are co-founders of the Premier Lacrosse League, which intends to launch its inaugural season June 1. According to the release, the PLL will feature six teams and make stops in 12 “major-market” cities. Premier Lacrosse League also announced that it has secured a media rights deal with NBC Sports Group, which will televise a total of 19 games. NBCSN will televise 17 games while the championship game and two others will be on NBC. Rabil stated in the announcement that the new league’s players will receive full-time wages, benefits and equity in the league. That would make PLL the first major North American professional sports league to offer equity to its players. PLL published a list of 140 players it says have committed to the new venture, and it features 86 former college All-Americans, 25 past members of United States national team, 10 former Tewaaraton Award winners and nine former Major League Lacrosse Most Valuable Players. Rabil, Jordan Wolf, Tom Schreiber, Kevin Rice, Drew Adams, Trevor Baptiste, Matt Dunn, Matt Rambo and James Pannell are among the big-name players who have signed with PLL.