Story and photos by J. Tyge O’Donnell for LVSportsBiz.com
Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman is hungry for soccer in Sin City.
She took a selfie with Major League Soccer (MLS) Commissioner Don Garber on a Bellagio hotel terrace Thursday during an announcement for a Sept. 18 “Leagues Cup” soccer event that will pit an MLS team against a Mexican league team from the Liga MX. The Leagues Cup will feature two brackets of four MLS teams and four Liga MX with the bracket winners facing each other in Sam Boyd Stadium in about two months.
Goodman believes Las Vegas is a soccer market. She would love nothing else to see downtown Las Vegas host a 25,000-seat soccer stadium to host an MLS team — and undoubtedly has lobbied Garber about the virtues of the Las Vegas soccer market.
LVSportsBiz.com asked her if bringing the Leagues Cup to Las Vegas was an effort to influence and entice the MLS to pick Las Vegas as one of its expansion cities and Goodman responded by saying she has “whispered in every important ear” on how Las Vegas would be an ideal market.
But, she noted now it’s up to San Diego County-based Renaissance Companies to produce a viable public-private Cashman Center redevelopment plan that the City Council would approve.
Renaissance, owned by development project manager Floyd Kephart, is only a month into a 180-day exclusive negotiation period with the city. If the city council approves a redevelopment mixed use agreement with Renaissance to revitalize the downtown Cashman corridor along Las Vegas Boulevard, Las Vegas Lights FC owner Brett Lashbrook would sell the independent United Soccer League team to money management company Baupost Group, owned by hedge fund manager billionaire Seth Klarman. Klarman is working with Kephart on the entire deal with Las Vegas.
Joining Goodman Thursday at the Leagues Cu was Garber, Liga MX President Enrique Bonilla and Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority Marketing VP Fletch Brunelle.
“We’ve been focused on this market for quite some time,” Garber said. “We’d love to have the mayor come work for us and sell sponsorship,” he joked. Garber discussed the role of the Leagues Cup success on any decision regarding granting Las Vegas an expansion team:
Lashbrook and Lights coach Eric Wynalda even attended the Leagues Cup announcement.
The inaugural Leagues Cup starts elsewhere July 23, with semi-finals starting August 20. The two final teams will head to Las Vegas for the Sept. 18 match at Sam Boyd, the same week Mexico celebrates its Independence Day which typically draws big numbers of Hispanics to Las Vegas for events.
The LVCVA board has already approved $175,000 to promote the Leagues Cup.
*
Follow LVSortsBiz.com on Twitter and Instagram and like LVSportsBiz.com on Facebook.