BOSTON, Mass. (Monday, December 12, 2011) – Major League Lacrosse (MLL) announced Monday the regular and post-season schedules for the 2012 season, according to MLL Commissioner David Gross.
A total of 56 regular season games will be played by the league’s eight teams including the Boston Cannons, Charlotte Hounds, Chesapeake Bayhawks, Denver Outlaws, Hamilton Nationals, Long Island Lizards, Ohio Machine and Rochester Rattlers. The season will commence on Saturday, April 28, 2012 and will mark the league’s twelfth consecutive season since its inception in 2001.
In January 2011, MLL Commissioner David Gross announced the league would play 14 regular season games in 2012, which will expand the regular season by two games. The league’s eight teams will play each other twice.
In Week 1, the Rochester Rattlers will travel to Harvard Stadium to take on the MLL Champion Boston Cannons, the Denver Outlaws will travel to Charlotte for the Hounds’ inaugural MLL home game, and the Chesapeake Bayhawks will travel to Long Island to take on the Lizards.
Schedule highlights include the return of the MLL All-Star Game, to be played on Saturday, June 30 at 7:30 p.m. The Denver Outlaws will host the Ohio Machine on Independence Day (Wednesday, July 4th) at 7 p.m. MT/9 p.m. ET. In 2011, the Outlaws broke a league record for single game attendance during the July 3rd game when the team hosted the Boston Cannons. There were 27,184 fans in attendance.
A rematch of the 2011 MLL Championship game will take place in Week 3 at Harvard Stadium between the Boston Cannons and the Hamilton Nationals at 7 p.m.
The Charlotte Hounds and the Ohio Machine will play their inaugural MLL home games in 2012. The Hounds will host the Denver Outlaws in Week 1 at American Legion Memorial Stadium in Charlotte, N.C. and the Ohio Machine will host the Rochester Rattlers at the historic Selby Stadium at Ohio Wesleyan University in Week 4.
The MLL season will conclude with three post-season games during the MLL Championship Weekend. Two semi-final games will take place on Saturday, August 25 and the MLL Championship game will take place on Sunday, August 26.
A total of twenty live, nationally televised games will be broadcast in 2012, to be announced at a later date. In November, the league announced a major broadcast deal with CBS Sports Network that will put 14 live games on TV in addition to all 18 episodes of “Inside the MLL,” the league’s 30-minute magazine show. ESPN2 will air six live games and will stream most games on ESPN3.com.
