New League Alignment Will See Rock Play Every Team
Oakville, ON –The Toronto Rock’s 2023-24 18-game regular season schedule was announced today. Fans will notice some significant changes as the National Lacrosse League has introduced several new structural formats, most prominently a single-table, “Unified Standings,” in which teams are ranked regardless of geography, debuting with the 2023-24 season.
Some notes/points regarding the announcement:
- It is the most significant and impactful change to the NLL schedule format in league history.
- Scheduling will be rooted in competitive equitability and schedule parity, with each team playing every other team once, plus four additional “flex” games that preserve established rivalries and fan interest, showcase games with impactful storylines, and highlight star player matchups.
- The schedule and standings format allows the NLL to definitively showcase its continental reach as a truly North American league; for example, teams in San Diego and Vancouver competing against Toronto and New York for regular season superiority.
- Every single game, every weekend, will have a playoff atmosphere and implications on the path to the Championship, while guaranteeing that the best eight teams at the end of the regular season have an opportunity to win the NLL Cup.
- Each fan base in every city will have the opportunity to see every team and player visit their home arena at least once every other year.
- The “NLL March to May” playoff format will feature the regular season #1 seed vs. #8; #2 vs. #7; #3 vs. #6; and #4 vs. #5 in the Quarterfinals, with a “bracket” style advance through to the NLL Finals. The Quarterfinal round will be single elimination. The Semi-finals and Finals will continue to be best-of-three series.
- NLL Faceoff Weekend is set for December 1-2, 2023. Buffalo will begin its defence of its 2022-23 NLL title on Saturday, Dec. 9 at Albany, then will raise its Championship banner at home on Dec. 16.
- For the third consecutive year, every NLL game will be distributed on ESPN+ and TSN+. The schedule of national broadcast games on TSN and ESPN linear networks will be announced next month.
- The complete 2023-24 National Lacrosse League schedule can be found at https://www.nll.com/schedule/full-schedule/.
- For the latest scores and developments in the National Lacrosse League, please visit: NLL.com and find the NLL on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and TikTok.
The Toronto Rock will begin the season with a bye week on the opening weekend of the NLL schedule. The very next weekend, the Rock will host their Home Opener against Philadelphia on Saturday, Dec. 9 at 7pm ET at Hamilton’s FirstOntario Centre, the home site of every 2023-24 Toronto Rock home game. Tickets for the Home Opener will go on sale on Thursday, Sep. 28 at 10am ET. Tickets for all remaining games will go on sale on Tuesday, Oct. 10 at 10am ET.
The new schedule format will see the Rock play every team at least once either home or away, with a second game against Buffalo, Halifax, Calgary, and New York.
The Toronto Rock will open training camp at the end of October with three exhibition games slated for November at the TRAC in Oakville, ON.
For more information on Toronto Rock tickets, including 2023-24 Full and Half Season Memberships which are on sale now, please contact a Toronto Rock account executive by phone at 416-596-3075, by email at tickets@torontorock.com or visit torontorock.com.
