City of Las Vegas Changes Cashman Field’s Locks, Takes Over Pro Soccer Team’s Downtown Home As New Landlord From LVCVA

May 14, 2019May 14, 2019 Alan Snel Brett Lashbrook, Eric Wynalda

By Alan Snel

LVSportsBiz.com

LVSportsBiz.com photos by J. Tyge O’Donnell

The Las Vegas Lights FC soccer team won games Saturday and Tuesday. And to the average soccer fan, Cashman Field probably looked the same as it did for previous soccer matches.

But unbeknown to just about everyone except Lights FC owner Brett Lashbrook and everyone else who works to put on these Lights games at old Cashman, there was a profound difference in the venue from Friday to Saturday.

On Friday, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (the local tourism agency, LVCVA), said good-bye to Cashman and was no longer the Lights’ landlord.

Instead, the city of Las Vegas took over Cashman as the Lights’ landlord.

It’s a transition with big implications.

The LVCVA hooked its wagons to Cashman’s previous tenant, the Triple A baseball team owned by Summerlin master developer Howard Hughes Corporation that now calls Summerlin home in a gorgeous new $150 million ballpark. The LVCVA gave Howard Hughes Corp. $80 million in public money in the form of a naming rights deal at the glittering venue for the re-branded Las Vegas Aviators in Downtown Summerlin.

In having the city of Las Vegas as its new landlord, the Lights soccer team now has a stronger public advocate that backs professional soccer in downtown Las Vegas. The city’s mayor, Carolyn Goodman, adores Lashbrook and the Lights and has spoken publicly about the value of a pro soccer team in downtown Las Vegas.

The city has already changed the locks around Cashman Field and the “City of Las Vegas” even appears on the garbage containers at Cashman.

It will be interesting to see if the city of Las Vegas helps Lashbrook improve an old venue that still looks more like a former baseball stadium hosting soccer games than a soccer-only venue. The former ballfield outfield walls are used for Lights’ sponsor signage and there are no soccer game seats beyond the old rightfield wall, giving the venue the feel of a baseball park as much as a soccer stadium. The Lights have added permanent grass, so there’s no longer a dirt infield. The grassy pitch looks like it’s in good field shape.

In 2015, the city of Las Vegas, in a private partnership deal with the Findlay family and a private developer, failed to win political support for a public subsidy to build a soccer-only stadium in Symphony Park. Major League Soccer decided to pass on Las Vegas as an MLS host city.

Lashbrook is building a pro soccer team that is drawing solid attendance to downtown Cashman Field, where the average crowds have been numbering more than 7,000. The team is in the United Soccer League, the Triple A league of pro soccer in the U.S., one tier below MLS. Lashbrook and Goodman would like to see the Lights graduate to the MLS level one day, but Cashman is not fit to be an MLS venue in its current state.

Lights coach Eric Wynalda, in black shirt.

So, stay tuned to see how much the city will invest in Cashman and professional soccer in downtown.

The Lights defeated coach Eric Wynalda’s former Cal FC team, 2-0, in their 2019 Lamar Hunt US Open Cup debut Tuesday. The US Open Cup is a 106-year-old soccer tourney that allows soccer teams at all levels a shot at winning the Cup in the middle of the Lights’ United Soccer League schedule. Only a few thousand fans were at Cashman for Tuesday’s game, but the match meant a lot to Wynalda in light of his connection to the Cal FC team. The Lights advance to the next round in the Lamar Hunt Open Cup in a few weeks.