In Running For MLS Franchise, Las Vegas Hosts Leagues Cup Final: Club Leon 3 Seattle 2 Before 24,824 At Allegiant Stadium Wednesday

September 22, 2021September 22, 2021 Alan Snel Don Garber

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By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com

Major League Soccer came to Las Vegas Wednesday. Well, one of its teams, anyway.

The Seattle Sounders were here at Allegiant Stadium, the NFL Raiders’ palatial domed stadium where the Sounders played Club Leon of Liga MX in a match that is called the Leagues Cup Final. After a sluggish and scoreless first half, things livened up in the second half and Leon rattled off three straight goals in the way to a 3-2 win before an announced attendance of 24,824.

A soccer field was rolled in to Allegiant Stadium for the game that was rooted in an announcement in July 2019 when MLS Commissioner Don Garber came to the Bellagio on the Strip to chat about a new Leagues Cup event matching teams from Major League Soccer and Liga MX.

The 7 PM match was not even the first international soccer game at Allegiant Stadium, which hosted the Gold Cup Final on Aug. 1 when USA defeated Mexico, 1-0, in the first sold out sports event in the stadium’s young history.

Tonight’s game was noteworthy because Las Vegas has been mentioned as a candidate — along with Phoenix and San Diego — for MLS’s 30th team after Sacramento’s main investor dropped out.

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A proposal to build a downtown soccer stadium at the Cashman Center site has not progressed, so eyes have focused on the possibility of MLS coming to this stadium that hosted 61,514 fans for USA vs Mexico in the Gold Cup Aug. 1.

While the Raiders require to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination to attend a Raiders home game in the venue, tonight’s game requires fans to wear a mask to comply with the state/county indoor mask mandate.

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It was a smallish-looking crowd for the Leagues Cup Final, though MLS said attendance approached 25,000. The low attendance may have been linked to the fact It was a mid-week game, and not a weekend game, and that it was not promoted well.

So it’s hard to say the crowd size was a true barometer of the interest in having an MLS team in the Las Vegas market.

Attendance tonight was also hurt by the fact that Leon is a smaller team from Mexico. So, don’t expect the low attendance Wednesday to hurt Las Vegas as a contender to host an MLS club.