Sports Media Report
With its teams battling for playoff berths and seeds in the remaining weeks of the regular season, “The March to May” is on in the National Lacrosse League (@NLL), the world’s largest and most successful professional lacrosse league. Every matchup down the stretch will influence the eight-team NLL Playoffs that begin May 5-7.
“The March to May” begins with every NLL team in action during an eight-game slate this weekend, including seven contests on Saturday. The new campaign will be incorporated across all NLL channels, including broadcasts, NLL.com, social networks, and in-venue by all teams to promote their remaining regular season contests and push towards the playoffs.
“’The March to May’ clearly defines how the run up to the NLL Playoffs is an exciting time for fans, players, teams, and league partners as we collectively march towards the postseason played through the month of May,” said Kurt Hunzeker, Executive Vice President of Commercial Operations. “The campaign easily communicates the importance of every game as teams pursue the ultimate prize, the NLL Championship.”
As previously announced, the 2023 NLL Playoffs format will again feature the top four teams from the East Conference and top three from the West Conference, plus a “wild card” entry with the best record between the fourth-place team in the West standings and the fifth-place finisher in the East. This “wild card” will play in the West Conference side of the bracket as the fourth seed. The unique qualifying format gives fans in nearly every NLL market a chance to earn a spot in the postseason tournament.
Last year, the final week of the regular season featured 32 possible playoff seeding and qualifying combinations, and the final NLL Playoffs bracket wasn’t settled until the final game of the regular season was completed.
The first round will be single elimination, while the East and West Conference Finals and NLL Finals will each be a best-of-three series. Game 1 and 2 of the NLL Finals will be played during Memorial Day Weekend, while Game 3 of the NLL Finals, if necessary, is scheduled for the weekend of June 2-4. The complete broadcast TSN and ESPN broadcast schedules will be announced at a later date.
