Inside Las Vegas Sports Marketing: Lights FC Owner Brett Lashbrook Says Expect More Zaniness in Year 2

By ALAN SNEL

LVSportsBiz.com

 

Brett Lashbrook brought professional soccer to downtown Las Vegas and fans responded well with crowds averaging about 7,000 during the inaugural season. The owner of the Las Vegas Lights FC always had a marketing trick up his sleeve as the first season wore on. And the fun helped because the team’s performance on the field was lame with eight wins, 19 losses and seven draws. The team scored 50 goals in 34 games, while giving up 74.

 

The Lights did play three preseason games at Cashman Field in 2018 and plan to have two more preseason matches against Major League Soccer teams Toronto FC Feb. 2 and Colorado Rapids Feb. 16 with a start time of 2 p.m. at Cashman. The 34-game regular season begins March 9 when the Lights host the Austin Bold FC at 7:30 p.m. at Cashman. There is an eight-game flex plan for $100 and here is your complete 2019 schedule.

 

LVSportsBiz.com quizzed Lashbrook on the team’s sports marketing approach.

 

LVSB: What was your favorite promotion during the first season? The helicopter cash drop? The marijuana ads on the outfield wall? 

BL: Great question.  I think one of our biggest accomplishments in our inaugural season was the several fun and unique promotions we rolled out.  The one that garnered the most attention was certainly the $5,000 Helicopter Cash Drop. From Scott Van Pelt featuring it on SportsCenter to highlights being shown on national news shows in Mexico, Russia & Brazil, it certainly got more attention than we ever initially sought.  It really was a fun way to show the world that Vegas soccer fans like to have fun.  My personal favorite promotion was paying the players $100 in Plaza Hotel poker chip bonuses on-field after home wins where we scored three or more goals.  It was another way we could help destigmatize gambling around sports which has turned into a passion project for me. We are finalizing our promotional calendar for 2019 season now — but rest assured we will keep pushing the creative envelope when it comes to promotion.

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LVSB: Why is it important for the Lights to push the limit on promoting its product? Do you fear the team will get more attention for the promotion instead of the product on the field?

BL: I am a very, very firm believer that sports is entertainment. And we should never shy away from having fun.  With that said, we take the 90 minutes on the field very serious (as all teams do), but all the up to kickoff we are unabashedly looking to make fans smile, laugh and enjoy their Saturday night out in downtown Vegas.  I personally don’t by into any theory which says teams having fun in their game presentation somehow negatively affects its players during the match — I think the opposite occurs. This was proven this off-season with the amount of interest from players on other teams last season reaching out to us.

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LVSB:  Why did you push to have the team based in downtown Las Vegas and why do you think Cashman Field can become the Wrigley/Fenway of professional soccer?

BL: Simple — there was a wonderful 10,000+ seat stadium available in the heart of downtown Las Vegas located no more than 20 minutes away for 90 percent of the valley.  And with the 51s (Aviators) leaving for Summerlin I saw a wonderful opportunity to convert it into a soccer stadium.  Cashman Field has so much history and character. We proved last year it has a lot of years left in it.  The number of fans that have told me they’ve never felt the amount of energy from fans in the stadium before Lights FC started just further reinforced my sincere belief that we are on our way to turning this into the “Wrigley Field of soccer.”  I absolutely love Cashman Field.

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LVSB: What will it take to push the Lights from the United Soccer League to Major League Soccer?

BL: I know everyone (including me) would love to have a black-and-white answer on this one, but the simple fact is that we have to keep growing step-by-step. Year by year. We need to continue to work hard convincing everyone in Vegas to come to a game so we consistently sell-out Cashman Field for all matches and became such a USL success story that MLS can’t look away from us.

Trust me no one is a bigger MLS fan in Vegas than me.  I sincerely believe that if we keep doing what we are doing then good things will happen in the years to come.

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LVSB: What is a favorite sports promotion that you enjoyed during the past year or two (doesn’t have to be in soccer.)

BL: Anything that is new, different and makes fans laugh is what makes me tick.  I love creativity.  My favorite would have to be…nah, I’m not going to tell you because it happened in another country recently and I’m trying to see if we can pull it off for a Lights match later this season!

 

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