FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – The NCAA, Gillette Stadium and Harvard University announced on October 14, 2020 that the 2025 and 2026 NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Championships and Division I Women’s Lacrosse Championships will be played at Gillette Stadium, the home of the NFL’s six-time Super Bowl Champion New England Patriots and Major League Soccer’s New England Revolution. The Division I Women’s Lacrosse Championships will be played in conjunction with the Division I, II and III Men’s Lacrosse Championships over Memorial Day Weekend, on May 23-26 in 2025 and on May 22-25 in 2026.
These banner weekends for the sport mark the second and third times in NCAA history that the Division I Men’s and Women’s Lacrosse Championships will be hosted at the same venue, with Gillette Stadium also serving as the host venue in 2017. The Division I Women’s Lacrosse Championship set its all-time attendance record at Gillette Stadium in 2017, which still stands.
“We are honored to have earned the privilege of hosting the 2025 and 2026 NCAA Men’s and Division I Women’s Lacrosse Championships, building on Gillette Stadium’s and New England’s rich lacrosse tradition,” said Robert Kraft, chairman and CEO of The Kraft Group. “After first bringing the men’s and women’s lacrosse communities together at Gillette Stadium for the 2017 championships, we cannot wait to welcome fans from across the country and the nation’s best lacrosse programs back to Foxborough for another landmark weekend for the sport. Lacrosse is especially important to our family, as my son Dan played collegiately at Tufts University, and my three grandsons have all enjoyed playing the game in the past. We have an extremely passionate community of lacrosse fans across New England, and have seen that enthusiasm for the game shine through each of the five previous times we have hosted this great event, setting attendance records and welcoming thousands of fans to Gillette Stadium.”
The agreement marks the second and third times Gillette Stadium has hosted the Division I Women’s Lacrosse Championship after the venue became the first to host both the men’s and women’s championships in 2017. The men’s championships will take place at the home of the Patriots and Revolution for the sixth and seventh times, where the event has enjoyed a history of tremendous success. Gillette Stadium first hosted the event in 2008, and holds the NCAA Men’s Division I Championship Game attendance record (2008: 48,970), the top three attendance records for Division I National Championship Games since 2012 (2012: 30,816, 2018: 29,455 and 2017: 28,971) and the top three Division II and Division III National Championship attendance records (2017: 31,560, 2008: 24,317 and 2009: 24,072). The championships have been played in Foxborough in 2008, 2009, 2012, 2017 and 2018, attracting fans from 47 states and six international countries.
The New England lacrosse community is comprised of 80 NCAA teams, 35,889 high school players, 1,009 high school teams and 64,872 registered US Lacrosse members. New England is also home to the largest youth lacrosse organization (Mass Bay Youth Lacrosse League) in the United States.
“Harvard Athletics is excited to partner with Gillette Stadium again in hosting an NCAA Lacrosse Championship,” said Erin McDermott, The John D. Nichols ’53 Family Director of Athletics. “It is always an honor to be selected and when selected multiple times, it signifies the quality of experience for past participating teams and spectators. We are confident that Gillette Stadium will again be a terrific site to showcase the best collegiate lacrosse teams in the country and the sport that has grown exponentially more than any other in recent years. Given our current state, it is welcome news and a beacon of light, to look ahead to when we will enjoy the energetic community that comes together out of respect for competitive excellence in a preeminent stadium.”
“Massachusetts has established a first-rate reputation for hosting the NCAA Lacrosse Championships at Gillette Stadium,” said Martha J. Sheridan, CEO of the Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau. “Our industry partners in Boston and Foxborough look forward to once again welcoming lacrosse fans from across the country and world to experience exciting lacrosse games at Gillette Stadium and to explore the region’s extraordinary cultural, culinary, and historical assets.”
Ticket, hospitality, reunion opportunities and fan activity information will be announced at a later date. Additional information is available at gillettestadium.com/ncaa-lacrosse/.