Brown not blue as team owner’s pro lacrosse venture looks rosy
According to a 2005 article in Sports Illustrated, lacrosse is on the verge of a boom business in the United States. The number of youth-league players has more doubled since 2001, and no other team sport has anything close to lacrosse’s rate of growth at the high school level, the magazine reports.
Such news brings a rosy glow to Bob Brown, president and co-owner of the New Jersey Pride of Major League
Lacrosse, which was founded in 1999 by fitness entrepreneur Jake Steinfeld, Dave Morrow, and Timothy B. Robertson.
Brown’s team played its season opener at its new digs at Yurcak Field, a 5,000-seat stadium on the campus of Rutgers University in Piscataway last weekend, beating the Boston Cannons in overtime by a score of 13-12, a good start as the Pride seeks to improve on its 2-12 showing in 2005.
In an interview with NJ Jewish News, Brown concurred with the SI assessment. “At all levels, it is booming, from recreational and youth levels on up. It’s exploding.”
Brown himself came to lacrosse relatively late; there was nothing available when he grew up in Passaic. Now a resident of Kinnelon, he coaches seventh-graders — including his son — in a youth league. He also plays in a men’s league “I thought 45-50 was the right age to get involved,” said the 50-year-old jokingly.
His other sons, age 16 and 18, are also heavy into the sport. “They brought me to the sport more than I brought them.” His oldest will enter Haverford College this fall, and you can bet that the reputation of the school’s team was a factor in the choice.
“Lacrosse has a unique combination: the speed and dexterity of basketball and the physicality of football. It’s a team sport where everyone gets to play. Every kid, no matter body size, can contribute and be a good player.
“The biggest thing a team like the Pride needs is the support of the fans,” he said. Brown put attendance last year at about 3,000 per game, a situation he hopes will improve at the Rutgers field, with an increase of about 1,000 seats over their previous home facility at Montclair State University. “When you have them in the stands, that brings revenue in ticket sales and merchandise, but also in sponsorship,” he said. He expects the new, more central location will expand the team’s reach within the state, offering “better access to south Jersey, which has a boom of new [amateur] teams every year.”
Brown, a founding partner of the law firm Brown Gavalas & Fromm LLC, graduated from Hobart College in 1978 with a bachelor of arts in political science. He attended Rutgers University School of Law, graduating in 1981 with a JD degree and also studied international law at Oxford University. Despite his hectic schedule, Brown said, he was “involved every day” in team business, working in conjunction with general manager Trey Reeder and the rest of the front office.
“In our stage of pro lacrosse, we’re most involved in a hands-on way with the kids,” he said. “In some sports a kid would never have access to work with the athletes. We have autograph sessions after every game. There’s a much closer relationship with the fans. We’ve organized youth lacrosse clinics across the state and held practices at different facilities so [the fans] can see the new breed of hero.”
Brown was quick to add that his philosophy of community involvement extends beyond the playing field. His players have visited hospitals and participated in numerous projects, including Willing Hands, a work/study program for developmentally disabled adults, of which Brown served as chair. He was also a founding member of the Jewish Congregation of Kinnelon and a former member of Beth Shalom in Pompton Lakes.
“I think most of these players make very good role models,” he said, addressing the backlash from the recent scandal with Duke University’s lacrosse team. “I really don’t think it will have any ultimate negative repercussions on the game. Obviously we have to wait and see…. It is unfortunate. Most [of our players] came from the finest colleges across the country and truly were student athletes. Many have full-time jobs outside the game. One of the things that lacrosse has prided itself on is that it has a reputation of athletes being good students with high character.”
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