Party Time?

IT’S NOT PARTY TIME AT LACROSSE CANADA

In mid-November Lacrosse Canada released the information pertaining to the number of its registered participants in 2024. The information was only given out to the provincial presidents (all 11 of them) who attended the Association’s annual meeting. That is as far as the information circulated. Nothing on Lacrosse Canada’s website; nothing either on the provincial associations’ websites.

Almost the best performance ever!

What is positive is that the number of officially registered participants has grown from 41,390 in 2022 to 46,959 in 2023 and to 51,113 in 2024. For the last year it’s a growth of 8.8% and the closest to the all-time high of 51,216 achieved in 2016. One would have expected that such positive information would appear somewhere on the Association’s website and would be circulated with pride nationally and provincially. Clearly, it’s not the case within closed shops! So, nobody in Canada knows that Lacrosse Canada has 51,113 registered players. Why is that? Why is it that THINK LACROSSE is the only source of information concerning the number of registered players in Canadian Lacrosse?

It must be pointed out that the number mentioned (51,131) is a far cry compared to the 85,000 participants incorrectly claimed by Lacrosse Canada on its website. Everyone knows that the 11 provincial associations DO NOT REPRESENT ‘’about 85,000 participants’’; they only represent their registered and paying members. To state otherwise is misleading and false. Why does Lacrosse Canada persist in stating (and repeating) a falsehood?

Now, 51,131 is not the correct number either because Lacrosse Canada, in its wisdom and opacity, has decided not to recognize Sixes as a sector in 2024 and not to issue votes to the provinces who registered members in that sector this year. In 2023 Lacrosse Canada did recognize Sixes as a sector. Why it elected, in total secrecy, not to recognize the sector in 2024 is unknown to all as nothing about that decision ever appeared on the association’s website. So, the real number of registered participants, in 2024, is 50,023; the official growth is thus of 6.5%, not 8.8%.

For some it might be party time at Lacrosse Canada as the increase of 3,064 participants comes with a revenue of 30,640$ in membership fees. This is the best return on a non-investment ever! The provincial associations do all the work, register all their players, pay membership fees and Lacrosse Canada collects the money. Now that is some new form of partnership! Invest nothing and collect 30,640$. Who can match that?

Provincial performances in the last three years.

It is interesting to consider, from Lacrosse Canada’s own documents, what the different provinces have done in the last three years in the area of recruiting new players.

Province 2022 2023 2024 Players added Growth % from 2023 to 2024

In 2024

Manitoba 1121 1653 1973 320 19.3%

Nova Scotia 1897 2162 2572 410 18.9%

BC 12,137 11,695 13,336 1,641 14%

NB 288 627 701 74 11.8%

Alberta 7,907 8,005 8,708 703 8.7%

FNLA 130 342 369 27 7%

Ontario 14,245 18,420 18,695 275 1.4%

PEI 131 216 210 - 6 -2.8%

Québec 830 1,245 1,169 -76 -6.5%

SASK 2,904 2,494 2,290 -204 -8.9

NFLD 0 100 0 -100 -100%

Seven provinces are up and four are down this year. Performances vary every year. It’s yoyo lacrosse. The game seems comfortable with cyclical performances which clearly confirms that there is no national comprehensive plan to increase the number of registered players in the game. No plan, no goals, no objectives, no strategies, no resources, no will, no interest. Nothing. Absolutely nothing at all.

It is utter folly for Lacrosse Canada to operate without a plan to increase the number of its registered participants. The oldest national sport governing body in Canada whose mission is to ‘’promote, develop and preserve the sport of lacrosse and its heritage as Canada’s national sport’’ does not have a plan to increase the number of participants within its game! Total utter folly.

Let’s look at some provinces’ performances.

Clearly, it’s time to ask Manitoba, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick to share their strategies for growth as they have been performing very positively in the last three years. THINK LACROSSE will touch base with these provinces to gather and share information about their performances. Maybe a new narrative will emerge from these provinces. Maybe even some sort of national leadership!

But who will contact PEI, Québec, Saskatchewan and NFLD to find out why they are in the red, why they are tapering off or why they have totally collapsed? Surely, Lacrosse Canada has a Board member concerned with provincial development who will rush to these provinces to see what is happening and how things can be corrected…because a provincial decrease in player registration is a loss in Lacrosse Canada’s membership revenues!!!

Performance by sector

There are four sectors at Lacrosse Canada; box lacrosse, men’s field lacrosse, women’s field lacrosse and Sixes. Here are the number of registered players per sector in the last two years:

Sector 2023 2024 Growth % % of total membership

Box lacrosse 34,272 38,157 11.3% 76.2%

Men’s field 8,071 8,550 5.9% 17%

Women’s field 3,774 3,316 -12.1% 6.6%

Sixes 842 1,108 8.7% 0 (sector not recognized)

Do we need again to mention that there is no national plan for growth?

Do we need to point out that 3 provinces (FNLA, PEI, NFLD) have no men’s field program at all?

Do we need to point out that 6 provinces (SASK, Québec, New Brunswick, FNLA, PEI, NFLD) do not have a significant women’s field program? And never have. Do we need to mention that Lacrosse Canada operates a national women’s box team and has not informed anyone of the number of women registered in box lacrosse? Women’s box lacrosse is also in the 2025 Canada Games and no one knows the number of women playing box lacrosse! Why the secrecy? Why the lack of information?

Do we need to mention that 9 provinces do not have a Sixes’ program and that the sector, recognized in 2023, was not recognized in 2024?? Four years before the Olympic Games only Ontario and NB have registered players in Sixes. Is it also relevant to mention that Lacrosse Canada operated two national teams in 2024 without any of the players on both the men’s and women’s teams being registered within their province in the Sixes’ sector? Did I hear anyone say ‘’Insane’’? Or maybe, even, ‘’partnership with the provinces’’.

Lacrosse Canada and the provinces have one fixation; box lacrosse. King of the hill. Everything else is secondary or irrelevant

What is highly problematic, however is the situation of women/females within the game. Women make up 6.6% of the national membership, 44.4% of the Board membership and 15% of the voting power at meetings. And they are going nowhere. Correction, they are going downhill. Yet Lacrosse Canada has four women’s national teams: Women’s field, women’s U20, women’s box and women’s Sixes. And 3,316 female athletes to pick from! 82.7% of the females playing field lacrosse emerge from Ontario, BC and Alberta. Do I hear anyone mentioning the term ‘’national pyramid of development’’? Do I hear anyone comparing women’s lacrosse to luge? This situation is simply not serious and is totally ridiculous. And the burden for change is with Lacrosse Canada and the provincial associations.

Hey the women’s field sector has been in existence since 1980 and this is all it has to show for today. Shame on all of us. Clearly, it’s not party time at Lacrosse Canada.