The Highest-Paid Lacrosse Players: Salaries & Earnings

No lacrosse player earns a salary remotely close to major-sport money, and the honest answer to “who is the highest paid?” is Paul Rabil — but almost none of his earnings came from a playing paycheque. League pay tops out around $42,000 (the NLL veteran maximum) and roughly $50,000 for the best-paid PLL field stars. The genuine top earners make their money off the field: endorsements, camps, media and, in Rabil’s case, owning a piece of a league. Any specific net-worth number you see online is an estimate, and the estimates vary wildly.

Where the money actually comes from

The single most important thing to understand about lacrosse earnings is that salary is the small part. The NLL’s collective bargaining agreement, which runs through 2029-30, sets a veteran maximum of $42,000 for 2025-26 and a franchise-player tag that can reach around $70,000. The PLL does not publish a bargained scale, but reported base salaries sit roughly between $25,000 and $50,000.

Those are respectable part-time numbers, not a living. So a top pro’s income is a stack, not a salary. Here is what that stack looks like.

Income source	Typical figure	Notes
NLL veteran maximum	$42,000 (2025–26)	Collectively bargained ceiling
NLL veteran minimum	~$21,000	50% of the maximum
NLL franchise tag	up to ~$70,000	The league’s true top salary
PLL base salary	~$25,000–$50,000	Stars at the top of the band
Endorsements (top names)	Often exceeds salary	Nike, New Balance and gear brands
Camps, clinics, media	Frequently the largest slice	Where marketable pros earn most

The pattern is clear: for the highest earners, the endorsement and business lines dwarf the salary lines. Want to understand the two salary systems feeding this table? Our side-by-side of the PLL and NLL pro leagues breaks down exactly how each one pays.

The actual top earners

A short list, and why they lead it.

Paul Rabil is the reference point. His playing salary was never large, but he built the biggest personal brand the sport has produced, signed endorsement deals well beyond a typical pro’s, and then co-founded the PLL in 2019. Owning equity in a professional league is a different category of money than a $50,000 contract, which is why he sits at the top of any serious earnings discussion.

Lyle Thompson is the most marketable active player, a two-time Tewaaraton winner whose income leans on endorsements and sold-out clinics rather than his PLL base pay. Tom Schreiber anchors the group of elite field pros whose top-of-band salary sits alongside camps and gear deals. In every case, the field or floor pay is the floor, not the ceiling.

What about college players?

Historically, a Division I lacrosse player earned exactly nothing beyond a scholarship, because NCAA athletes were amateurs. That has shifted with name, image and likeness rules: standout college players can now sign endorsement and camp deals and earn from their social platforms. There is still no salary from the school, and the sums are modest next to the revenue sports, but the best-known college lacrosse players are no longer earning zero.

The honest bottom line

Lacrosse is not a high-paying sport, and the players are the first to say so. The salary ceiling is tens of thousands, not millions; the top earners get there through endorsements, camps, media and, at the very top, business ownership rather than a bigger contract. Treat the net-worth figures online with suspicion — they are guesses. If you want to know the players whose greatness, not their bank balance, defines the sport, read our list of the greatest lacrosse players of all time, and see how the women’s pro game is being built in our guide to women’s professional lacrosse.