The Premier Lacrosse League plans to sell teams by 2028 or soon after

The Premier Lacrosse League wants to start selling its teams to individual owners or groups by 2028 “or shortly thereafter,” league co-founder Paul Rabil told CNBC.

Rabil said that in the next decade he wants the league to expand from eight teams to up to 16 teams, with each team being independently owned, similar to other professional leagues in the United States. The PLL is in its eighth season, and the league currently owns teams.

Rabil, 40, is perhaps the most famous American lacrosse player in history, having played in Major League Lacrosse from 2008 to 2018 before co-founding the PLL with his brother Mike. The PLL merged with the MLL in 2020.

The PLL is one of a number of emerging sports leagues, along with the Premier Volleyball League, the Professional Women’s Hockey League, and the African Basketball League, that started with a single-entity ownership model.

League One Volleyball has recently begun selling teams to interested owners who pay expansion fees to take control of the franchises. BAL is starting that process now, NBA Deputy Commissioner Mark Tatum told CNBC Sport last month.

The demand for owning sports teams has risen dramatically in recent years as valuations for the biggest sports – the NFL, NBA, Major League Baseball and the NHL – have soared. A surge in team valuations in the so-called major four U.S. sports leagues has pushed a class of investors toward the more affordable teams in Major League Soccer, the National Women’s Soccer League and the WNBA.

Emerging sports leagues like the PLL are seeking to prove they can join the mezzanine category of leagues that can command team valuations in the hundreds of millions or even close to a billion dollars.

Earlier this week, the PLL raised $100 million in a Series E funding round to grow the league. Rabil is counting on the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Olympics to introduce the league and the sport. Lacrosse has not been a medal sport at the Summer Games in about 120 years but will return in 2028.

“The first batch of tickets sold out within 48 hours for the lacrosse game, so there’s a lot of buzz,” Rabil said.

The prevention and liquidity line is supported by a group of investor companies and wealthy individuals.

However, Rabil said, if it is a large private equity fund or a strategic firm e.g taco group, “We will definitely have those discussions,” which owns World Wrestling Entertainment, the Ultimate Fighting Championship and Professional Bull Riders, would like to take over the league.