Mammoth appeal.

• Author: Schley, Stewart
• Position: Attitude at Altitude - National Lacrosse League team

MINUTES BEFORE THE OPENING FACE-OFF AT THE COLORADO Mammoth's inaugural regular-season game last year, something unexpected happened. People showed up.

A line of 1,000 walk-up ticket buyers extended beyond the statues that decorate the Pepsi Center landscape. A surprised Tom Philand, senior vice president for Kroenke Sports Enterprises, made a hurried call on his cell phone to Mammoth GM Steve Govett, asking for a 30-minute delay so the new fans could file in.

An announcement was made, a sympathetic crowd roared its approval, and half an hour later the Mammoth was in business, on the way to a 13-12 win over the Toronto Rock.

Professional lacrosse gets nowhere near the amount of attention lavished on Kroenke Sports' Denver Nuggets and Colorado Avalanche, yet on its own scale the Mammoth might just be the best-performing business Kroenke Sports has going. Adroit salesmanship and a bold gamble on ticket prices made the team a surprise hit in its first year, as the Mammoth drew nearly 16,000 fans per game vs. the league average of 8,600. With a total team payroll that's a fraction of what Kroenke pays to individual Nuggets and Avs players, the Mammoth represents a low-cost, high-appeal addition to a business category--pro sports--not known for stellar margins.

The Mammoth has tripled season-ticket sales going into its second season, which starts this month. It is part of the National Lacrosse League, a reborn collection of 10 professional teams raised from the discards of the now-defunct Major Indoor Lacrosse League. Formerly East Coast-based and independently owned, NLL teams increasingly are moving west and going corporate as arena-owning, multi-sport enterprises like Kroenke acquire struggling, independent clubs. Kroenke Sports transplanted the Mammoth from Washington, D.C. where the team played as the Washington Power and drew 2,500 fans on a good night.

The Kroenke marketing team has made lacrosse a hit by making it accessible. Single-game tickets start at a league-low price of $5 per game--a bargain in a market where rink-side seats for an Avalanche game sell for $224. But the Mammoth isn't chasing Denver's high-spending sports crowd. Kroenke's Philand says a better barometer is the price of a movie. "That's our competition," he says.

Mammoth games themselves are...