(Photo courtesy of PLL)

By Terry Foy, InsideLacrosse CEO

When I've had conversations with fans and lacrosse industry observers about the PLL over the last five or so years, I'd routinely hear, “What the PLL does best is broadcast and social media.”

I always disagree. I say, “No disputing they do those things well (especially relative to their predecessors), but I think the two things the PLL — chiefly co-founders Mike and Paul Rabil — have done best are develop a diversified, long-view capital table and structure the company like a tech startup.” What I specifically mean by the second part is that the league can stay funded while prioritizing growth over profitability.

Well, Exhibit E (pun intended) rolled out Tuesday morning when the league kicked off all-star week by announcing that it had raised $100M in its latest Series E round on an increased valuation of the business of an undisclosed amount.

IL spoke to Mike Rabil in advance of Tuesday’s announcement, addressing — among other things — the priorities for deploying the proceeds of the raise, how, why, when and with whom the round came together and what it means for the league and its future fundraising efforts.

In terms of new or amplified efforts, the league will deploy the capital on four main priorities: 

• Extending the PLL season
• Building the WLL
• Augmenting its youth participation platform
• Investing in storytelling and content

The extension of the PLL season is on full display right now, as teams will play 12 regular season games between May and August this year, up from 10 previously. Concurrent with that, multiple preseason reports highlighted players’ increased wages heading into 2026, in addition to the fixed costs of operating 16 game weekends (including the all-star game and postseason).

The WLL investment is similarly on full display as the league graduated from being a Championship Series property in prior years to a full four-team summer campaign this year.

While the PLL Play’s flagship property — PLL Juniors — expanded in WLL Juniors this year, sources tell IL that the league is examining the youth space for further opportunities to invest in the market.

As for why this is happening now, the PLL announced its Series D nearly four years ago — on July 21, 2022 — and Rabil says the planning and efforts to raise a Series E round started either then or shortly before the Series D round closed.

“Your responsibility, as you know as the CEO of Inside Lacrosse, is to figure out capitalization, right?” he says. “So in a business where we're investing and we purposefully haven't hit profitability, I'm always thinking about ‘How do we stay capitalized?’ At the same time, I believe in fundraising with momentum.

“We just extended the media rights deal with ESPN at a meaningful increase for five years. They invested in the league [again], as well. All of our core metrics are up, whether it's revenue or participation within our youth verticals. We're launching a women's league that is incredibly undervalued, that we think [investors] should be pricing in, and we're excited about it.”

As for who’s named as joining the round, I asked Rabil about the additions of actors Glen Powell and Rob McElhenney (whose ownership of Wrexham F.C. is arguably the most incredible sports story of this decade), as well as the continued leadership of Ares’ Jim Miller and recent Hall of Fame inductee Joe Tsai.

“Jim Miller is one of the best humans that I've been around in a long time, and it starts with that,” Rabil says. “Investors aren't just a checkbook, they're the people that you put around yourself, and I think more so than ever, we want to bring really good humans. He played lacrosse growing up, and he's also an amazing investor, right? He helped build Ares, he’s been there since the beginning. He's built multiple funds there that have performed, and now he runs their sports fund. And so he understands the sports ecosystem. He's incredibly helpful. I mean, he picks up the phone whenever I call him. He's just the type of person you want to build with.”

“Honestly, man, like Joe Tsai is fuel for me and Paul,” Rabil says. “We work harder because we get to work for Joe, and I told Joe that after that Hall of Fame: ‘You're the type of leader that everyone works harder for, and I want to emulate that, and we're just lucky to continue on.'"

On Powell: “Glen loves the sport. He grew up playing, he wants to bring a team to Texas one day. He came to our championship game to check it out, and he's a big fan. He's going to be involved in how we think about creative delivery in the future, and we’re really excited about not just him being investor, but working more closely with him.”

On McElhenney: “Getting to have the ability to call a guy that creative, that entrepreneurial, and also understand sports — it’s an amazing Batphone to have. Those are relationships that Paul's worked really hard at building, and I think they respect Paul's grit, his hustle, his creativity, and we're excited to glean, learn, and be in the foxhole with those guys.”

Perhaps most indicative participant in this round is ESPN, who received an initial stake last year as part of the current right extension. That the publicly traded broadcaster is already participating again suggests that leadership at the Worldwide Leader is at least preliminarily pleased with the new and novel relationship.

As for what’s next? Both Paul and Mike have spoken extensively publicly about setting their sights on selling franchises, and Mike explained that the elevator pitch to prospective investors culminates in the ability model out the prospective revenue that will come from selling teams.

“We have this emerging league that is has product-market fit that continues to grow, that also has immediate upside, we believe, with the growth that we are going to be able to achieve, and the potential returns from selling teams,” Mike said. “So we have a growing business, we've extended our media rights and distribution, we've added on products that are really great and continue to grow those, and we have a vision for where we want to go. This isn't, ‘Well, we might do this or we might do that.’ [We have] a concrete vision around team sales that I think allowed people to understand and do some modeling to say, ‘OK, this is how I can invest in this and get a good return.’”