The NCAA announced Thursday Boston will host the 2009 Division I, II and III Men’s Lacrosse Championship games, marking the second straight year the Memorial Day weekend event will be held at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass.
Boston was selected over Baltimore, which hosted the event last year, and Philadelphia, which hosted it in 2006.
NCAA?s selection committee said it was impressed with the sport?s increasing popularity in the New England region, along with the numerous hotels, restaurants and practice fields near Gillette Stadium.
So far, about 26,000 tickets have been sold for the 2008 NCAA Championships, which will be held May 24-26, putting it ahead of last year’s pace when more than 123,000 fans poured into M&T Bank Stadium over three days. The Division I semifinals and finals will be held at Gillette Stadium, but Division II and Division III teams play their semifinal games on campus sites, with the winners coming to Foxborough for the title game.
“In the end, the committees were committed to building upon the momentum and excitement that Boston has created for the 2008 NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Championships,” Tim Pavlechko, chair of the Division I Men’s Lacrosse Committee, said.
The NCAA also announced that Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium would be a quarterfinal site for the third straight year in 2009.
“We?re just really disappointed right now,” Baltimore lacrosse tournament director Marty Schwartz said. “Baltimore deserves the event, and it will be really difficult for local fans to travel up to Boston two years in a row. We put the lacrosse championship on the map and have broken records every time we?ve hosted it.”
Schwartz said Baltimore is likely to put together a bid for the 2010-12 lacrosse championships this spring.
