Is $22,000 Even Worth It?
The first overall pick in the NLL draft just signed for $22,000. That’s the reported number for Finn Thomson, the Syracuse forward Rochester took at No. 1 last month. Lacrosse social media spent the weekend arguing about whether that’s $200 an hour or $13 an hour.
Wrong argument. The better question is whether it’s worth taking at all.
Run the comparison every young player should run and nobody in the sport wants to say out loud. Employers projected an average starting salary of $68,873 for this year’s business grads. That’s one entry-level job, out of school, with a desk and a manager. The best prospect in professional box lacrosse is being paid about a third of that for the year.
And that $68,873 is just year one. The day job is where the raises are. It’s where the promotions happen, where you build the network that gets you the next job, and where your 401(k) match starts compounding. Your 22 to 27 window is when a career gets built. It’s also exactly the window a pro lacrosse player gives to the sport.
The NLL schedule makes the trade obvious. The league plays December to June, and games land on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Half of them are road games. That’s half a year of weekends gone, plus the Friday you have to leave the office early to catch a flight. The league knows it, too. Its own labor deal reimburses players for missed work. Think about what that means. The contract that governs the league assumes you have a real employer, and it’s built to work around that employer, not replace it.
Now picture that from the employer’s side. You’re 24, you’re good at your job, and you’re out of the office every other Friday from December through spring. Who gets the promotion, you or the person who’s always there? The $22,000 doesn’t show up as a loss on anyone’s spreadsheet. The stalled career does, just a few years later.
Add the PLL and it gets worse. A player who does both leagues has no offseason. Winter and spring indoors, summer outdoors. The PLL told players average compensation would rise 15% for 2026, with new playoff bonuses. Good for them. But even friendly coverage admitted the average still isn’t enough to be a player’s only income. So a two-league player is working two part-time jobs that add up to a full calendar, and still needs a third job to pay rent.
So why does anyone sign? Because for a few players, the paycheck isn’t the point. A No. 1 pick with a following can turn a pro jersey into camps, clinics, coaching, brand work and a business name. For that player, $22,000 is the cheap part of a much bigger deal, and it can be worth every weekend.
That player is the exception. The other 90% of the roster isn’t building a brand. They’re trading their best career-building years for a stipend and the chance to keep playing a sport they love. That’s a fine trade if you go in with your eyes open. It’s a bad trade if you think the pro contract is the career.
And here’s the irony. Thomson, the best box prospect in this class, went undrafted in the PLL draft in April. If the top of the box draft can’t get a field roster spot, imagine the odds for everyone below him. Betting your 20s on a lacrosse paycheck is betting on something the market itself won’t commit to.
None of this is a knock on the players. It’s a knock on a model that only works because players are willing to treat a professional career like a weekend hobby. Last fall the NLL players asked to see the league’s books before agreeing to a new deal. The league’s answer was to sign first. As long as that’s how pay gets set, the smart advice for most young players is simple. Play if you love it. Take the money if you can fit it in. But never let the $22,000 cost you the $68,000 job and everything it leads to.
