Where’s the Coverage?

With three major sports networks and a television station that is supposed to represent all aspects of the country (history, heritage and current events), one would expect television coverage of a world sporting event, especially when the said event involves one of the country’s national sports that is being held on Canadian soil. This does not seem to be the case when it comes to the sport of lacrosse and in this case the World Lacrosse Championship.
Lacrosse, just like its winter counterpart hockey, is one of Canada’s national sports although, unlike hockey, it does not get the recognition as such. TSN claims to be Canada’s leader in sports but they all but ignore the sport of lacrosse. Rogers Sportsnet only show games from the professional National Lacrosse League and ignore the Major Series Lacrosse league, a summer league with participation from many of the professional players from the NLL. To give Rogers credit, they did show a MSL and OLA Junior “A” game of the week on their local station in some areas of the province last summer. Then there is The Score, which used to show Toronto Rock games early in their history but to the benefit of lacrosse fans, let Rogers Sportsnet take over the past two or three seasons. The Score does show the scores of some, if not all, the NLL games so they at least acknowledge the sport.

Not one of these sports stations provided broadcasts for the World Lacrosse Championships from London, Ontario last summer but instead the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation had to step up and broadcast Team Canada’s games. CBC might step up again and show Team Canada games from the indoor championships but as of now, there is no indication of this happening. It looks like us Canadians will have to tune into APTN to get any coverage from this tournament.

Lacrosse has been labelled the fastest growing sport in North America and it is time that the sports networks in this country realize the increasing interest in the sport and start broadcasting more games. Not to have any coverage of a world event such as the upcoming World Indoor Lacrosse Championship on a major sports network is absolutely ludicrous. It is time for the major sports networks to acknowledge and help the growth of Canada’s national sport, lacrosse.