Vegas bets on lacrosse

The television presence is a critical factor in lacrosse’s presence at the Wynn - and likely significant enough to have made its arrival inevitable somewhere in Vegas.

“If people bet on whatever the Super Bowl flip of the coin is, then I guess it doesn’t surprise me that they gamble on a college lacrosse game,” Georgetown coach Dave Urick said. “People have a lot of interests. It’s a little crazy as far as I’m concerned.”

But just how crazy? A decade ago, neither the prospect of drawing 50,000 to the semifinals in a football stadium nor the chance that even Hopkins could sign a deal with a nascent national cable network to broadcast all of its home games was even plausible.

Both have come to pass. Such interest leads to a plethora of possibilities, even if the sport’s vanguard would prefer to be selective of which developments they embrace.

“It opens up a Pandora’s box,” Mr. Kessenich said. “There can be nothing good that comes about. It is a sign of growth for the sport, but the negatives are obvious. You have a non-revenue sport, it’s scary. It’s a sign of legitimacy, but is it the sign you really want?”

At this point, lacrosse doesn’t appear to have a choice.