The 2016 Major League Lacrosse season was the 16th season of Major League Lacrosse. The season featured 9 teams (all in the United States) after the addition of the

Atlanta Blaze The Atlanta Blaze were a professional men's field lacrosse team in Major League Lacrosse (MLL). The Blaze became the ninth team in MLL as an expansion team for the 2016 Major League Lacrosse season, 2016 season and played its home games at Atlanta ...

via expansion. It was the first season since

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

that the league fielded more than eight teams. The defending champion New York Lizards are coming off their third Steinfeld Cup victory in franchise history and first since

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

after defeating the

Rochester Rattlers Rochester may refer to: Places Australia * Rochester, Victoria Canada * Rochester, Alberta United Kingdom * Rochester, Kent **City of Rochester-upon-Medway (1982–1998), district council area **History of Rochester, Kent **HM Prison R ...

15–12 August 8, 2015 at

Fifth Third Bank Stadium Fifth Third Bank Stadium, known as Kennesaw State University Stadium until 2013, is a stadium near Kennesaw, Georgia, that is primarily used as the home for the Kennesaw State Owls football team as well as the KSU women's soccer and women's lacr ...

Kennesaw, Georgia Kennesaw is a suburban city northwest of Atlanta in Cobb County, Georgia, United States, located within the greater Atlanta metropolitan area. Known from its original settlement in the 1830s until 1887 as Big Shanty, it became Kennesaw under its ...

. On August 20, the Denver Outlaws won their second Steinfeld Cup trophy in three years, coming back to defeat the Ohio Machine, 19–18. The 2016 season was a particularly unusual one. Going into the final week of the regular season, all four playoff spots were still up for grabs. In the end, seven teams finished at 8–6. With the tiebreaker procedures, the teams that were rewarded with a playoff berth were the Ohio Machine, New York Lizards, Denver Outlaws (who had started the season 2–6), and the

Charlotte Hounds The Charlotte Hounds were a Major League Lacrosse (MLL) field lacrosse franchise that began play in the 2012 MLL season and ceased operations after the 2018 season. The team played their home games at American Legion Memorial Stadium. Franchise ...

. The 8–6 teams left out of the postseason were the

Boston Cannons The Cannons Lacrosse Club are a professional men's field lacrosse team in the Premier Lacrosse League (PLL) . Formerly based in Boston, Massachusetts, they played in Major League Lacrosse (MLL) as the Boston Cannons from their inaugural 2001 sea ...

, Chesapeake Bayhawks, and Rochester Rattlers. 2016 was the first season since the season expanded to 14 games that no team finished with more than eight wins.

Milestones & events

*August 8, 2015 - An expansion team is announced to play in Atlanta as the Blaze. *October 27, 2015 - The

Machine A machine is a physical system using Power (physics), power to apply Force, forces and control Motion, movement to perform an action. The term is commonly applied to artificial devices, such as those employing engines or motors, but also to na ...

announce they are changing venues to Panther Stadium in downtown Columbus, home to the Ohio Dominican Panthers. The Machine spent their first four seasons at

Selby Field Selby Field, usually referred to simply as Selby, is the football, field hockey, track & field and lacrosse field at Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio, where the Battling Bishops play. Selby has a seating capacity of 9,100, with all se ...

in Delaware, Ohio. *March 9 - The MLL announced the two semifinals games would be hosted at two separate neutral locations for the first time in league history. One would be hosted at

Fairfield University Fairfield University is a private Jesuit university in Fairfield, Connecticut. It was founded by the Jesuits in 1942. In 2017, the university had about 4,100 full-time undergraduate students and 1,100 graduate students, including full-time ...

Rafferty Stadium Rafferty Stadium is a 3,500-seat lacrosse stadium on the campus of Fairfield University in Fairfield, Connecticut. It is home to the Fairfield Stags men's and women's lacrosse teams. The facility opened officially on February 2, 2015. The sta ...

in Connecticut and another at the

National Sports Center Stadium The National Sports Center (NSC) is a multi-sport complex located in Blaine, Minnesota. Its site includes a soccer stadium, over 50 full-sized soccer fields, a golf course, a meeting and convention facility, and an eight-sheet ice rink, the Sup ...

in Blaine, Minnesota north of

Minneapolis, Minnesota Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

. *March 23 - The MLL announces the 2016 Steinfeld Cup would be held in Atlanta at

. It will be the third consecutive championship game held in greater Atlanta. The 2015 championship game was the most attended game in Steinfeld Cup history. *May 2 - The

announced they would move to Wegmans Sports Complex at the Aquinas Institute. Even though this announcement was made after the season began, the Rattlers' 2016 home opener was not until May 28 against the Bayhawks.

Coaching changes

- John Tucker, becomes the first head coach and general manager of the expansion franchise. On July 21, 2016, the Blaze fired Tucker after a 3-7 start and replaced him with assistant head coach

Dave Huntley Dave Huntley (1957 – December 18, 2017) was a Canadian lacrosse player and head coach and general manager with the Philadelphia Wings of the National Lacrosse League. Huntley played collegiate lacrosse at Johns Hopkins University where he ...

. *

Sean Quirk Sean, also spelled Seán or Séan in Irish English, is a male given name of Irish origin. It comes from the Irish versions of the Biblical Hebrew name ''Yohanan'' (), Seán (anglicized as ''Shaun/ Shawn/ Shon'') and Séan (Ulster variant; angli ...

replaced John Tucker, who became the first head coach and general manager of the expansion team Atlanta Blaze. *

Jim Stagnitta Jim or JIM may refer to: * Jim (given name), a given name * Jim, a diminutive form of the given name James * Jim, a short form of the given name Jimmy * OPCW-UN Joint Investigative Mechanism * ''Jim'' (comics), a series by Jim Woodring * ''Jim ...

becomes the second head coach in franchise history, replacing

Mike Cerino Mike Cerino is the former head coach of the Charlotte Hounds of Major League Lacrosse Major League Lacrosse (MLL) was a men's field lacrosse league in the United States. The league's inaugural season was in 2001. Teams played anywhere fro ...

who would transition into a front office role. Cerino lead the team to a 19-37 record in its first four seasons. * Chesapeake Bayhawks -

Brian Reese Brian Derreck Reese (born July 2, 1971) is a former professional basketball player and current assistant coach at Monmouth. He was a 6'6" player from the Bronx, NY. Reese went to High School at St. Nicholas of Tolentine High School where he was a ...

, Bayhawk assistant and former head coach of the Outlaws, replaced

Dave Cottle Dave Cottle is a retired American lacrosse coach. He was a consultant for Marquette University, when they added men's and women's varsity lacrosse on December 16, 2010. He was previously the head coach for the Maryland Terrapins men's lacrosse te ...

after his retirement.Chesapeake Bayhawks Sign Brian Reese as New Head Coach
/ref>

Teams

Stadiums and locations

Standings

All Star Game

The 2016 All Star Game took place in Orange County, California at Cal State Fullerton's Titan Stadium on July 9. In the first professional lacrosse game in Southern California since the

Los Angeles Riptide The Los Angeles Riptide were a lacrosse team based in Carson, California. From 2006 to 2008, they played in Major League Lacrosse and ceased operations before the 2009 season. Franchise history In March 2005, Major League Lacrosse, MLL announced ...

left, Team Riptide narrowly defeated Team Rolling Thunder, 21–20 in front of 4,217 fans. Goaltender for the Ohio Machine and Team Riptide, Scotty Rodgers, went onto win the MVP award.

Playoffs

On March 9, the league announced the two semifinals games would be held at separate neutral locations for the first time ever. One (Denver vs. New York) was held in Fairfield, Connecticut, and the other (Charlotte vs. Ohio) was held in Blaine, Minnesota. For the third straight year, the championship game was held at Fifth Third Bank Stadium in Atlanta.

References

External links

Official Site
{{Major League Lacrosse 16 Major League Lacrosse Lacrosse