The league began play with six founding teams: Baltimore Bayhawks, Boston Cannons, Bridgeport Barrage, Long Island Lizards, New Jersey Pride and Rochester Rattlers.
Each team played a 14-game regular season schedule that ended with a championship game on September 3, 2001.
Baltimore's Chris Turner scored the first goal in MLL regular season history.
Those same two teams met in the Steinfeld Cup, the championship trophy named for co-founder Jake Steinfeld, with the Lizards turning the tables and beating the Bayhawks 15–11.
All games were played at John F. Kennedy Stadium in Bridgeport, Connecticut.