Lights Soccer Team Returns For Season Three With Its Usual Wacky Promotional Stunts While Stadium Redevelopment, MLS Talks Lurk Behind The Scene
By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
He’s quite the earnest fella, this Brett Lashbrook guy who owns the Las Vegas Lights FC soccer team.
He’s always telling the world, “Viva Lights,” and his limitless, unbridled enthusiasm during the minor league team’s first two years outpaced the Lights’ success on the pitch, as the hardcore soccer fans like to call the soccer field.
Playing in the United Soccer League, kind of a Triple A of professional soccer in the U.S., the Lights won only eight out of 34 games in season one under a wacky coach nicknamed “El Chelis” and then only 11 games out of 34 in season two under one of the most respected names in American soccer, Eric Wynalda. (Wynalda has returned for season three.)
Despite the Lights’ losing ways, the team always had a good time trying to create a good time for the club’s supporters. And at a luncheon of sandwiches and soda for about 20 Las Vegas media members Monday, Lashbrook said the fun times will roll again at Cashman Field.
The Lights’ helicopter cash drop — or some event that involves cash being dropped from the air — returns in Year 3, although the FAA did not appreciate the promotion last season. The FAA is still discussing last year’s helicopter cash drop with the helicopter pilot, Lashbrook said.
Lashbrook is also back to guaranteeing a win for the season opener (Lights will give attending fans free tickets if the team loses). And a halftime water balloon fight at a home game is on again this season, which began in San Diego with a 1-1 tie Saturday.
The team tapped the game promotion playbook of the old Las Vegas Wrangler minor league hockey team by rolling out a midnight game on July 11 at Cashman Field. The Lights host their home-opener against Sacramento Saturday for their second game of year three and then hit road March 21 when the Tulsa Roughnecks host the Lights.
While Lashbrook and his work pals try and devise zany promotional stunts, some very serious negotiating is going behind the scenes that will determine this young soccer franchise’s future.
An investment group seeking to rebuild the Cashman Center area with a new 25,000-seat soccer stadium is involved in talks with the city of Las Vegas on a public-private agreement that still has not gone before the Las Vegas City Council yet. Here’s a rendering of the new soccer stadium.
If the city council approves the stadium and redevelopment agreement with the investment group, then the Lights will be sold by Lashbrook to the development group as part of an effort to win an MLS team for the Cashman site.
In season one, Lashbrook told LVSportsBiz.com that he and his family invested $10 million to create the Lights. But it’s obvious that any purchase of the Lights — which would only happen if the city council reaches an agreement with the investment group — would be a nice return on investment for the earnest Lashbrook.
Follow LVSportsBiz.com on Twitter and Instagram. Like LVSportsBiz.com on Facebook.
