By ALAN SNEL
LVSportsBiz.com
Look for lots of cross-promotional action between the Golden Knights and Lights FC when the VGK return to T-Mobile Arena Friday night to host the Minnesota Wild and the Lights play the Real Monarchs SLC at Cashman Field Saturday evening.
The Lights’ promotion involves a salute to the hometown Golden Knights with the soccer team’s players wearing jerseys with the VGK colors and theme Saturday.
In an attempt to draw new fans who have not been to Lights games, the downtown-based soccer team is trying to use the appeal of the Golden Knights to get hockey fans hooked on Las Vegas soccer by offering a VGK-theme soccer jersey and Saturday game ticket for $99. The Lights soccer jersey in the Knights colors is also available for $50 to Lights season ticket holders.
The Lights have about 3,000 season ticket holders, but not all of them are going to buy the $50 VGK-theme soccer jersey. Lights fans who have purchased the VGK soccer jersey will be able to pick it up a few hours before the Saturday game, and that time is still being hashed out. The Lights have ordered a few thousand of the special VGK-themed soccer jersey for Saturday’s game.
The Lights VGK-theme soccer jerseys are top quality, the exact same jerseys that will be worn by the Lights players when they take to the Cashman pitch at 7:30 p.m. Saturday.
The soccer game will also feature the Knight Light Drumbots, the LED-decorated drummers who are well known for their stick work at Golden Knights games. The Golden Aces cheerleaders will be at the Lights game, too, along with Chance the VGK mascot.
On Friday night, when the Knights host the Wild after a brief road trip to St. Louis and Denver this week, Lights coach Eric Wynalda will be at T-Mobile Arena to fire up the siren to start hockey play at the beginning of a period.
Both teams are in their second year of existence in Las Vegas, with the Golden Knights achieving record success in their inaugural season while the Lights struggled mightily during their first 34-game season.
The Golden Knights’ first-year success inspired the Las Vegas 51s baseball team to have a have a Golden Knights-themed baseball jersey giveaway at the minor league team’s last baseball game at Cashman Field Sept. 1. It was a free jersey and there was a crush of fans looking for that giveaway.
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