Being owned by the Pat Bowlen family and the Denver Broncos, the Outlaws were successful from the start, missing the postseason only once in 14 seasons, while claiming three championships in ten appearances.

The Connecticut Hammerheads were the league's youngest franchise, and were set to play at Rafferty Stadium near Bridgeport in 2020 before the COVID-19 pandemic forced a shortened, quarantined season.

The final champions were the Boston Cannons, who defeated the Denver Outlaws at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, Maryland, following a COVID-19-shortened 2020 season.

Their roster would be set via expansion draft and, following PLL style, dropping "Boston" from their name, becoming the Cannons Lacrosse Club.

Major League Lacrosse was founded in 1999 by Jake Steinfeld, Dave Morrow and Tim Robertson.

[5][6] Steinfeld was a former lacrosse player at Cortland State (NY), read an article about Dave Morrow.

After reading the article, Steinfeld couldn't believe that with the excitement the sport of lacrosse has, there was not a professional outdoor league.

A second draft was held on June 1, 2001, in Baltimore, Maryland, for players whose college eligibility had expired in 2001.

The first MLL Championship Game saw the Long Island Lizards beat the Baltimore Bayhawks 15–11 in September 2001.

[6] New Balance founder and CEO, Jim Davis got very involved in the operation of the league, including providing financial support.

[10] In 2005, Andrew Goldstein became the first American male team-sport professional athlete to be openly gay during his playing career.

So in 2008, the Barrage tested out new markets by playing all of its "home" matches in five other cities: Cary, North Carolina; Hillsboro, Oregon; Irving, Texas; St. Louis; and Virginia Beach.

At the end of the 2008 season, four teams – Los Angeles, New Jersey, Philadelphia, and San Francisco – folded due to financial problems.

The Chicago Machine played the entire 2010 season as a traveling team testing expansion markets for the league, before deciding that the franchise would be moving to Rochester and adopting the Rattlers name in 2011.

In January 2011, Commissioner David Gross announced that Charlotte, North Carolina, as well as Columbus, Ohio, were granted expansion teams for the 2012 season.

The Ohio Machine and Charlotte Hounds opened play in April 2012, with both teams missing the playoffs in their inaugural season.

In November 2013, the Hamilton Nationals folded and an expansion franchise was awarded to the Florida Launch for the 2014 season.

On April 1, 2019, just two months before the start of the season, the league announced that the Charlotte Hounds, Florida Launch, and Ohio Machine would not be playing in 2019.

While the Hounds announced they would be back in 2021 under new ownership in a renovated stadium, the Launch and Machine effectively folded.

[10] Returning from a two-year retirement, 44-year-old John Grant Jr. broke the record for career points scored during the 2019 season.

[28] Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the league announced they would play a week-long quarantined season in Annapolis at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium with no fans.

[29] On December 16, 2020, it was announced that the MLL had agreed to merge all operations with the Premier Lacrosse League.

Beginning in 2009, the league conformed to high school and college lacrosse rules and now allows four long–sticks per team on the field at any one time.

The draft was held to expand a team's protected list to a pre-season active roster of 40 players.

Playing at Invesco Field at Mile High, the Denver Outlaws had led the league in attendance all but one year of their existence.

The Outlaws established a tradition of having a game on the Fourth of July that always attracted the biggest single-game attendance in the league.

The suit also claimed that because the league, some of its major sponsors, and Lax Sports Network were all controlled by the same people and entities, sponsorship and broadcast rights were sold for below market value.

[49] In August 2017, the MLL accidentally exposed the confidential personal information of over 1,000 players, nearly everyone who has ever played in the league or tried out for a team.

[59] One day prior to the start of the 2019 season, the league announced that 12 games would be broadcast on Stadium and the network would air a weekly studio show.

[63] A few days later, the partnership was expanded to TSN for Canadian viewers and ESPN Player to allow fans to watch from over 130 countries.