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Major League Lacrosse (MLL), the premier professional outdoor lacrosse league, today announced their schedule for the 2009 regular season. The ninth season of Major League Lacrosse kicks off on May 15 when Washington hosts Toronto, the newest addition to the MLL.

According to MLL Commissioner David Gross, the 2009 season will feature a total of six teams, including the Boston Cannons, Chicago Machine, Denver Outlaws, Long Island Lizards, and Washington Bayhawks. The sixth franchise will located in Toronto, Ontario, and will play their home games at BMO Field, home of Major League Soccer’s Toronto FC. A name and logo for the Toronto franchise will be unveiled at a press conference Friday, February 20 at Toronto’s Air Canada Centre.

The 2009 season begins with a single game the evening of Friday May 15 as Washington and Toronto meet at Navy-Marine-Corps Memorial Stadium, the new home of the Bayhawks. Coach John Tucker will be in his first game at the helm for Washington. Face-off is scheduled for 7:30 PM ET. On Saturday, May 16, the Boston Cannons will host the Long Island Lizards at Harvard Stadium, and the Denver Outlaws will host the Chicago Machine at INVESCO Field.

The Warrior Major League Challenge and MLL Collegiate Draft will again fall between the second and third weeks of the regular season and will take place on Wednesday, May 27. A venue will be announced at a later date.

In Week Five, Chicago travels east for their first visit to Boston in team history. The Machine will play a second time at Harvard Stadium in Week Ten when they face the Cannons again on Saturday, July 18. Also in Week Five, the Long Island Lizards will make their first appearance at Denver’s INVESCO Field when they battle the Outlaws.

Week Seven of the schedule sees a team playing two games in a single weekend for just the second time in League history when Toronto travels to Boston on Thursday, June 25 before returning north of the border to host Denver on Saturday, June 27. The last and only time that teams played multiple games in the same weekend during the regular season was back in 2006, when Los Angeles and San Francisco played a pair of games against each other on consecutive days in late July.

Between Weeks Nine and Ten, the Denver Outlaws will once again host the MLL All-Star Game on Thursday, July 16.

Due to the reduction in the number of teams, the Eastern and Western Conferences will be eliminated for the 2009 season. At the conclusion of the regular season, the four teams with the best overall record will advance to New Balance Championship Weekend in Annapolis, MD. The two semi-final games will take place on Saturday, August 22 with the winners advancing to the Championship Game on Sunday, August 23.

Major League Lacrosse will announce the 2009 ESPN2 Television Schedule in the coming weeks.

Please click here to view the complete 2009 MLL Schedule.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 20th, 2009 at 8:31 am and is filed under Other Lacrosse News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.