For pro sports in Boston, a net gain

Boston Blazers president Doug Reffue (left) and head coach Tom Ryan are gearing up for January. (Michele McDonald/Globe Staff)

Sports fans, get ready for Boston's second professional lacrosse team.

The Boston Cannons already play pro lacrosse here outdoors during the summer. The Boston Blazers will offer a winter lax fix starting in January at the TD Banknorth Garden.

In a city full of venerable - and these days highly successful - pro sports franchises, the Blazers will have to compete for attention. But with a roster of players eager to take the field for $10,000 to $30,000 a season, in one of the nation's lacrosse hotbeds, team officials think they have a winner.

"There's such a large lacrosse fan base here in New England, and the fan base keeps growing and growing," said Randy Fraser, a Blazers assistant coach. "Lacrosse has actually become the fastest-growing team sport in the entire country."

According to US Lacrosse, the sport's governing body, there were 18,242 pre-high school lacrosse players in Massachusetts last year, the third-highest for any state. And the popularity of lacrosse in this area was demonstrated by crowds of 40,000 and more at the NCAA championships, which were held this spring at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough.

Of course, this doesn't guarantee success at the professional level.

"The growth of lacrosse should help lend some support, but that assumes the people that play or have played lacrosse will also support the league," said Jay Gladden, an associate professor of sports management at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. "This was the initial assumption of Major League Soccer, and that was proven wrong."

The key, Gladden said, is getting off to a good start. "If the launch is unsuccessful, then this immediately gets associated with the team brand. If the team is not high-quality, fans will disappear quickly - see the XFL," said Gladden, referring to a short-lived football league.

According to team president Doug Reffue, the Blazers expect to draw more than the league average of 10,000 per game and be profitable in its inaugural, 16-game season.

"We think the Blazers will fit right into the Boston sports market," Reffue said. "But it will be important for us to find our own voice in this market."

Reffue said the Blazers plan to take a grass-roots approach to marketing, which they hope will set them apart from other franchises. Unlike other teams, where the price of a ticket can climb well over $100, the Blazers plan to charge from $9 to $62 per ticket.

Additionally, players will become visible members of the community and accessible to fans who want their autograph - or simply a handshake. "Having our players mix with the community is a huge part of our business plan," said Reffue.

This is actually the second go-around in Boston for the Blazers, which moved from Worcester in 1992 and folded in 1997. In May 2007, the Blazers were awarded an expansion franchise in the 13-team National Lacrosse League. Over the last month, officials have assembled a roster through a dispersal draft, where players from a disbanded organization were made available to the rest of the league, and an expansion draft, which let the Blazers pick one player from a list provided by each team in the league.

In the June dispersal draft, the Blazers chose two players from the now-defunct Arizona Sting, including Dan Dawson, a 6-foot-5-inch forward who is considered one of the top talents in the league and looks to be the centerpiece of the Blazers franchise.

Through the expansion draft last month, the Blazers added 12 players, including Mike Poulin, a Canadian goalie who spent last year with Toronto, and defenseman Mitch Belisle, a Cornell graduate.

For Poulin and Belisle, like most others in the league, playing for the love of the game is much more than just a slogan.

Poulin plays in a summer league in Canada, in addition to balancing a job in sales. "I've been doing this for three years. There's a lot of scheduling involved. Someday it would be nice if I could just play lacrosse, but right now I have to do both jobs."

Belisle, meanwhile, gave up a job in finance to make lacrosse his full-time profession. He is now in the middle of his season with the Los Angeles Riptide of Major League Lacrosse and coaches when he's not playing.

"You're getting paid for something you love," Belisle said. "And you're with a great group of people. Lacrosse is a game with a small, tight-knit community."

The Blazers will play what's known as "box lacrosse," which Fraser likened to fast-break basketball.

With a 45-second shot clock, and six men per team, instead of the 10 on an outdoor team, each game averages about 25 goals, said Fraser. "There's a lot of speed in box lacrosse and a lot of transition," he said. "And like the NHL, we have fighting, too."

Though no one knows what the crowds will be like, it isn't hard to find lacrosse enthusiasts who are looking forward to the season.

"I'll definitely go to a few games," said Matt Lindsey, a 19-year-old lacrosse fan from Medway. "I've only seen outdoor lacrosse games. But everything is more exciting indoors, right?"