By ALAN SNEL
LVSportsBiz.com
It’s a beastly, 100-degree-plus heat on the pitch at Cashman Field, where the Las Vegas Lights FC is playing a soccer team called, “RGVFC,” that I think has a nickname of Toros.
It’s the second half and the hometown Lights would win this United Soccer League game, 1-0. But inside the air conditioned environs of Cashman’s press box lunch room, which is mostly rectangle-shaped tables and chairs, five dudes with gigantic duffle bags stuffed with mascot costumes are talking shop.
At the half, the five local mascots representing the Vegas Golden Knights, UNLV Rebels, Las Vegas Aces, Las Vegas 51s and Lights were amusing the crowd in a dance-off amid the conditions that resembled a sauna.
But now, they were out of their costumes, except the guy who plays “Cash the Soccer Rocker,” who technically is still on duty but has his over-sized, Elvis-looking head lying on a table so that he can relax with his fellow buddies who play the characters. It takes dedication to don the poundage of costumes in this type of sweltering weather. It’s a Febreze night for those costumes.
Photo credit: J. Tyge O’Donnell/LVSportsBiz.com
It’s the first time all five guys who play the mascots have appeared as a group in costume and they swapped contact info.
Playing mother hen — or gila monster, as it were — is veteran mascot character player Clint McComb.
McComb is the only person of the five who works full-time playing a sports mascot, and he has been busy since he began playing the Chance character for the Golden Knights since October. McComb is a veteran sports mascot character player, starting the VGK gig after launching his career playing, “Sparky,” the Arizona State Sun Devils mascot.
McComb, now in his mid 3os, went on to play the mascots for the NFL Arizona Cardinals and St. Louis/Los Angeles Rams before arriving in Las Vegas in 2017.
He’s the veteran of the bunch, chatting with the fellas who play Cosmo for the 51s, Bucket$ for the Aces, Hey Reb for UNLV and Cash the Soccer Rocker.
The mascot industry is a young man’s game. Most of the people who play sports mascots are men, and the job requires a person who can be as nimble as a gymnast who has the improv skills of an actor and who doesn’t mind pay that’s often less than what esports gamers make these days. Some of full-time jobs, mostly at the major-league level where the employees make many appearances around the local market just like McComb does.
But for the guys playing minor-league team mascots here in Las Vegas, it’s a part-time gig. Twelves years ago, I wrote a story for the Tampa Bay Times on the mascot industry
The home team Lights defeated the Toros, 1-0. The team announced a crowd of 6.752 fans at Cashman, though the size of the crowd looked smaller.
McComb is off to another assignment this week. He’s going with the Golden Knights on a bus tour through Reno and mountain markets in the Vegas Golden Knights TV coverage area such as Boise and Jackson Hole this week.
His job never ends.
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