As the top men's teams in college lacrosse face off for the national championship outside Boston this weekend, Web designer Glen Doss plans to be competing there, too - for fans' attention.
The 31-year-old from Locust Point in Baltimore has toyed with various ideas for new Web sites, including one that tracks development news in Baltimore (as opposed to urban ills) and is called baltimoregrows.com.
But another he developed may have the best potential. It flows from his own experience as a lacrosse player at Severna Park High School in Anne Arundel County and at Salisbury University, from which he graduated in 1999.
In January, he launched LaxSpot.com, a social networking site where lacrosse players, coaches and fans can communicate with one another.
He planned his first sizable promotional campaign this weekend at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass., where thousands are congregating to see college lacrosse's version of the Final Four.
"I just felt it was a niche that wasn't being filled. Obviously, there's Facebook and YouTube and everything like that," Doss said. "I've seen it done for other sports, but especially for lacrosse, nothing was done like this."
Social-networking sites are all the rage, although as a recent article in USA Today pointed out, no one has quite figured out why Facebook is valued at $15 billion or how many of these sites will ever turn a profit - like many dot-coms that imploded years ago.
But lacrosse, on paper - or on a business planner's cocktail napkin - seems to have some built-in advantages as an online community.
While it lacks the base of major sports such as baseball and football, its supporters are intensely loyal. The game, though played coast to coast, is concentrated in some affluent and technology-rich areas such as Maryland, Long Island, N.Y., and North Carolina. Lacrosse also has a unique culture that wends its way through some of the country's elite universities and follows many graduates to Wall Street.
"It's a tight-knit community," Doss said. "The response has been pretty good."
LaxSpot has developed about 1,000 registered users, mostly by word of mouth, he said. The site, still in its "beta" or test stage, gets about 400 unique visits a day. Doss has two partners so far: former college lacrosse teammates Hirbod Azmi, who works in financial services, and Mark Breier, who works in the tech field.
