By ALAN SNEL
LVSportsBiz.com
LVSportsBiz.com photos by J. Tyge O’Donnell
When Las Vegas Lights FC owner Brett Lashbrook doesn’t come through on a guarantee of a win, he pays up.
The Lights played to a scoreless draw with the Austin Bold in the team’s season-opener at Cashman Field.
And that meant Lashbrook, who guaranteed a victory in the opening game, lost his self-imposed bet and will give a free ticket to all 8,017 fans for the next Lights’ home game March 30. At 20 bucks a ticket, that’s an unrealized guarantee worth more than $160,000 in tickets for Lashbrook.
As the game came to a close, Lashbrook stood as a solitary figure on the club level concourse watching the final few minutes, clapping and rooting for his team to register a goal to deliver his guarantee of a victory.
The Lights had a few chances in four minutes of extra play — like they did throughout the night — but could not register that winning goal. The Lights looked better than last year’s team, which had only eight wins out of 34 games and finished 15th out of 17 teams in the western conference of the United Soccer League.
When the PA announcer declared it was a zero to zero draw, Lashbrook told LVSportsBiz.com who had caught up with the Lights owner, “I believe in Las Vegas and this is a bump in the road. We promised a win and people will receive ticket vouchers as they leave.
“But everyone saw this is a different team. We wanted the three points and the win. But we showed Las Vegas this is a different team.”
It was a festive crowd. And Aviators President Don Logan officially received from the Lights the “pink scarf” on behalf of the Triple A baseball club that played more than three decades at Cashman and will not inaugurate a new ballpark in Downtown Summerlin. The Lights give the “pink scarf” to local leaders who make a difference in the community.
Logan declared to the crowd, “Let’s get lit,!” to start the game.
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