By Alan Snel
LVSportsBiz.com
LVSportsBiz.com photos by J. Tyge O’Donnell
In Season 2, the Las Vegas Lights FC are getting down to business.
It’s the business of playing soccer and focusing on the product on the pitch in Year 2 vs. the circus act of a soccer team in Year 1 in 2018.
The Lights defeated the Colorado Springs Switchbacks, 3-0, at Cashman Field, where Las Vegas’ United Soccer League team is the sole tenant now that the old 51s/Las Vegas Aviators have moved into their sparkling new $150 million ballpark in Summerlin.
Last year’s team finished a lame 15th out of 17 Western Conference teams with only only eight wins out of 34 games and had a coach who didn’t finish the season and was known for smoking a cigarette with fans in the stands after he was booted from a game.
But this year’s team is in the top third in the Western Conference under the guidance of coach Eric Wynalda and have won five, lost four and tied two after 11 games.
Attendance is in the top five in the United Soccer League for the Lights and the team has made in-roads with schools and youth soccer teams because literally hundreds of kids who fulfilled reading goals were on the field with free tickets before the game for the pre-game events.
Attendance was announced at 7,023, though there were lots of freebie tickets redeemed at the turnstiles on a pleasant Las Vegas evening tonight.
There’s no circus acts in Season 2 — just a soccer team looking to make a name or itself in a crowded Las Vegas sports market that will add the WNBA Las Vegas Aces later this month for that team’s second season in Las Vegas, too.
*
Follow LVSportsBiz.com on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.