Moving up to the big leagues

David Gross has an ambitious plan to turn Major League Lacrosse into one of the premier professional sports leagues in the country.

The strategy isn't radical, daring, or flashy. But that's OK. Like Gross himself, a smart, serious Sudbury native who last week was named Major League Lacrosse's first commissioner, it's got substance.

And, more importantly, it's working.

"We've avoided the trap that so many new pro leagues fall into, which is coming out and saying that they're the fifth major sport on Day 1," said Gross, a 1984 Lincoln-Sudbury High graduate who was promoted to commissioner after serving as the four-year-old league's chief operating officer since December.

"Just look at the NFL. It took a lot of years for the NFL to develop into what it is today."

Gross's master plan, which he employed during three successful years as the vice president and general manager of Major League Lacrosse's Boston Cannons, is rather simple -- keep ticket prices low, control costs, and don't worry too much about TV and media exposure, concentrating instead on building a loyal fan base through good, old-fashioned grass-roots marketing.

"It's funny; we used to have a joke with the Cannons that if the Cannons haven't come to visit you, you haven't asked," said Gross, an All-New England player at Connecticut College who earned a master's degree in business from Babson College before moving on to the Cannons. "We tried to be everywhere we could to share the passion that we all have for this sport."

Being "everywhere" means that Cannons and other MLL players regularly run youth clinics, sign autographs, and shake hands with fans after games, generally making themselves as available as possible during the season.

The strategy has worked wonders for the Cannons and the fledgling MLL. Under Gross's control, the Cannons led the league in attendance each of the league's first three seasons, enjoying an annual attendance increase of 12 percent.

This summer, the MLL's six franchises -- in Baltimore, Boston, Rochester and Long Island, N.Y., New Jersey, and Philadelphia -- have watched their attendance figures leap 27 percent to an average of 4,200 per game.

MLL founder Jake Steinfeld has been impressed with the steady gains his league has made since Gross took control of the MLL's day-to-day operations in December.

"The entire organization has operated so smoothly under his direction," Steinfeld said. "We've seen gains in sponsorship, attendance, and television since he became COO. This move ensures the continued growth and evolution of Major League Lacrosse."

Gross, however, isn't satisfied. He sees potential for far greater growth over the next five years.

"We're just at the start of the lacrosse boom," said Gross, who also has extensive experience with youth lacrosse, having helped found both the Sudbury Youth Lacrosse program and the wildly successful Mass Bay Youth Lacrosse League. "We're just at this little, tiny tip of the iceberg."

Riding what Gross predicts will be an explosion in lacrosse's popularity over the next few years, the MLL will double in size to 12 teams by 2008, adding four franchises in 2006 and two more two years later. All six teams will be based in either the Midwest or West, where the MLL's promotional Wild West Tour recently drew 9,000 fans in Seattle and 8,000 in Denver.

"We know the stadiums we want to be in, so we just have to do our due diligence to make sure that the investers we bring on board can be successful right out of the gate," Gross said. "After four years, we know what works and what doesn't work. We have a good idea of what the overall model should be."

As far as the MLL's television deal goes, Gross admits that while the league's 12-game, tape-delayed package on ESPN2 isn't ideal, he is excited that the MLL championship game, to be played Aug. 22 at Boston University's Nickerson Field, will be broadcast live for the first time.

"We're looking for slow, steady growth," he said. "We want people to see what we're doing so they keep coming back to enjoy it. We're working to slowly and surely get the casual sports fan interested."

Everywhere Gross has gone in the sport of lacrosse, success has quickly followed. Sudbury Youth Lacrosse, which Gross ran from 1992-2001, is now a model for programs across the state. The Mass Bay Youth Lacrosse League, which began in 1993 as an 18-team experiment, now has more than 500 teams. And the Cannons, competing for fans in the crowded Boston sports market, are steadily building a loyal base of supporters.

Now Gross is working on his biggest project yet -- transforming Major League Lacrosse from a regional, six-team league into a major player on the national professional sports scene. Anyone doubt that this dedicated, lacrosse-loving Sudbury native can pull it off?

"Lacrosse is addictive," Gross said. "That's the beauty of it. Once you pick up a stick, you want to play, and then you get hooked. It's a great, great game and I'm thrilled to have the chance to spread the growth and expose as many people as possible to it."

James Whitters can be reached at whitters@globe.com