By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
The Las Vegas Lights FC could be playing soccer games as early as July 11, Lights owner Brett Lashbrook said Thursday.
But the games would start only after the 35-team United Soccer League reaches a labor deal with players, a 2020 schedule footprint is figured out and a testing protocol for players is established, Lashbrook said.
The Lights played only the first game of a 34-game schedule for 2020. It’s unclear how many games would be played under any new potential format, Lashbrook said. It could be anywhere from 16-24 games, he noted.
The good news for the approximate 3,000 Lights season ticket holders is that their tickets are good for 2021 and they could attend any games in 2020 for free.
But Lashbrook expects the first home games at Cashman Field in downtown Las Vegas to be played in front of no spectators with possibly a higher venue capacity of fans as more and more games are played.
“Do we still do the helicopter money drop without any fans?,” Lashbrook asked in an attempt to add some humor into a landscape of very little live sports in the U.S.
Lashbrook, on a more serious note, said, “We will definitely defer to state and local health officials” on protocols for players, staff and fans at Cashman Field.
The team’s players have been receiving salaries, but the team off-field staff was furloughed. Lashbrook acknowledged the “difficult financial” situation for the team.
But the team owner did say the Lights “intend to stay in Las Vegas.”
Negotiations between a development group that wants to redevelop Cashman Center into an MLS soccer stadium site and the city of Las Vegas will probably re-start in the fall at this point. The city of Las Vegas and Clark County worked together in April to create an isolation and quarantine center for the homeless in a parking lot at the Cashman Center, which includes Cashman Field off Las Vegas Boulevard. That isolation and quarantine center is still there.
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