Philadelphia has a new pro franchise. The Philadelphia W̶a̶t̶e̶r̶d̶o̶g̶s Wooderdogs. I’m calling them the Wooderdogs. It’s how it naturally comes out of our hoagie mouths. The PLL is just going to have to accept it and file a new trademark. You want merch to fly off the shelves? Give people “Wooderdogs”. Here’s the announcement set to… you guessed it (!) …Dreams and Nightmares:

This color scheme is sick. Purple on white. Purple on black. Purple on lighter purple?! Our teams might disappoint us every year in Philadelphia, but the franchise colors never do.

The Wooderdogs just won a PLL title two seasons ago, which is nice because finally a Philly franchise gets to reap the benefit of a championship moving to our city instead of away. Typically it’s us having our pro sports teams move and the new franchise being the ones who collect the glory and hang the banners i.e. Warriors (2) and Athletics (5).

If you don’t follow the PLL, the competitive advantage that separated them from other pro lax leagues was the touring model. Every team would play in a select city over the course of the weekend. That’s still going to happen. The Waterdogs aren’t going to be playing however many home games at The Linc or Franklin Field. The reason for the inclusion of home cities was announced in May by Co-Founder Paul Rabil:

The Premier Lacrosse League (PLL) powered by Ticketmaster today announced that beginning in 2024, all eight PLL lacrosse clubs will be assigned to home cities.

“Moving our eight teams into home cities will mark the biggest investment in the league since its inception,” said Paul Rabil, co-founder and President of the Premier Lacrosse League. “This move will unlock deeper, more connected relationships between our fans, teams and players. Continuing to build a global presence around lacrosse and driving our mission forward will remain core to our approach. We’re giving the PLL local love and global awareness.”

The PLL will maintain its touring model with its eight teams playing in one city over a two-day weekend. Beginning in 2024, the home team will play a double-header when the league is competing in that team’s market. 

Now you’ll see the Waterdogs doing brand activations with Comcast or Wawa around the city. They’ll probably have a little kiosk at Eagles or Phillies games on some nights promoting the season. It’s a smart move while also keeping costs down because they’re not renting out the Linc for $2 million a game to play in front of 20% capacity like idiots (cough cough Temple football). The team has a lot of local guys from Upper Dublin, Strath Haven, Conestoga, and Malvern Prep, including Michael Sowers who is a 2x All-Star and was the MVP of the playoffs during the championship run:

This now makes Philadelphia home to 8 professional franchises. Philly sports facepaint guy is going to have to hit up Party City today:

  • Eagles
  • Phillies
  • Sixers
  • Flyers
  • Union
  • Wings
  • Phoenix
  • Wooderdogs

Are you a real Philly sports fan if you’re not 8 for 8, bro?