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    Categories: Lights

Las Vegas Lights Soccer Team Still Chugging Along With Promotions Despite Rough Season In Standings

The Las Vegas Lights FC wants to make improvements to Cashman Field, but is in a holding pattern until 51s submit 60-day lease termination notice. Photo credit: Erik John Ricardo/LVSportsBiz.com

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By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com

It’s been a rough season for the Las Vegas Lights pro soccer team, winning only five of 22 matches and residing in last place in the United Soccer League’s Western Conference Pacific Division.

The Lights are no longer an independent soccer club. The Lights, which started play in 2018 with so much hope, are now the Triple A affiliate of LAFC in 2021 and don’t even practice in Las Vegas.

But the Lights still attract crowds that are bigger than the average attendance in the United Soccer League, which is one level below Major League Soccer in the U.S.


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And the team’s founder and owner, Brett Lashbrook, is still rolling out the offbeat promotions, from dropping money from a helicopter to inviting fans to wear a Raiders football jersey or Athletics baseball jersey and receive a free ticket to attend Wednesday’s match between the Lights and the Oakland Roots SC. The A’s angle is a little of a reach since the Oakland Athletics president is checking out potential ballpark sites around metro Las Vegas without any local officials supporting using public money for a ballpark.

“Simply wear the jersey to the Cashman Field Box Office to receive your free ticket to that night’s match,” the Lights website said.


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The Lights’ attendance this season is down from past seasons. And a proposal by a development group to rebuild the Cashman Center area, including a proposed new soccer stadium, has not moved ahead with the city of Las Vegas. The team also has gone through several head coaches since 2018 as the Lights look like a low division developmental team for the LAFC franchise.

There is also talk of other soccer groups looking at Las Vegas as a potential MLS expansion team home, with the Raiders’ Allegiant Stadium as a possible target for a venue for Major League Soccer.

For now, Las Vegas still have the Lights playing games at Cashman Field in downtown Las Vegas.


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Alan Snel: Alan Snel brings decades of sports-business reporting experience to LVSportsBiz.com. Snel covered the business side of sports for the South Florida (Fort Lauderdale) Sun-Sentinel, the Tampa Tribune and Las Vegas Review-Journal. As a city hall beat reporter, Snel also covered stadium deals in Denver and Seattle. In 2000, Snel launched a sport-business website for FoxSports.com called FoxSportsBiz.com. After reporting sports-business for the RJ, Snel wrote hard-hitting stories on the Raiders stadium for the Desert Companion magazine in Las Vegas and The Nevada Independent. Snel is also one of the top bicycle advocates in the country.
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