The new pro soccer team in Las Vegas, the Lights, are based in a former church in downtown Las Vegas.

Las Vegas’ New Pro Soccer Team Relying On Unpretentious Business Style To Reach Fans, Attract Business Deals

By ALAN SNEL   Downtown Las Vegas' permanent sports team is headquartered in an old church on 3rd Street, where there is neither an executive assistant to greet you nor a security member to keep a watchful eye.   It's the same franchise that enlisted fans to name the team and rolled out a colorful new coach from Mexico City who bought beers for fans at Gold Spike in downtown after he was announced as coach.   "We don't have shareholders or stock investors. We're not above people. We're not going to go into a conference room and decide what everyone wants," said Brett Lashbrook, owner of the new Las Vegas Lights FC soccer team of the United Soccer League. "If we just talk to ourselves, we're not going to get the word out."   Lashbrook's office is a mere eight feet wide, sits just off the former church entrance and offers bare walls. There's not much razzle-dazzle to the office, but then again you are talking about a team that just hired a colo
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Alan Snel

Alan Snel brings decades of sports-business reporting experience to LVSportsBiz.com. Snel covered the business side of sports for the South Florida (Fort Lauderdale) Sun-Sentinel, the Tampa Tribune and Las Vegas Review-Journal. As a city hall beat reporter, Snel also covered stadium deals in Denver and Seattle. In 2000, Snel launched a sport-business website for FoxSports.com called FoxSportsBiz.com. After reporting sports-business for the RJ, Snel wrote hard-hitting stories on the Raiders stadium for the Desert Companion magazine in Las Vegas and The Nevada Independent. Snel is also one of the top bicycle advocates in the country.