Could the prospect of having a Major League Soccer team in Las Vegas be getting brighter?
The Las Vegas City Council is entering an agreement with The Renaissance Companies Inc. to consider a plan for constructing a new soccer stadium on the site of Cashman Field, a mixed-use, 12,500-capacity facility currently home to Las Vegas Lights FC.
The Lights have played in the USL Championship since their inaugural 2018 season, but could submit an MLS expansion bid if a new stadium becomes a reality.
A meeting between the city council and Renaissance will take place at a Redevelopment Agency meeting at Las Vegas city hall June 5.
In a statement released Wednesday, Lights FC founder, owner and CEO Brett Lashbrook said it’s long been his goal to grow soccer in Las Vegas and that he is transferring ownership of the club conditioned upon the city council finalizing an agreement for a new stadium “and other ancillary developments.”
The agreement allows for plans for a new stadium and a mixed-use development on the 62 acres where Cashman Field currently sits and requires Renaissance to present the city with a detailed plan for financing the stadium for review and approval by the city council.
The agreement also requires Lights ownership to collaborate with the city on an expansion bid for the club to enter MLS. The current price for entering MLS as an expansion team is $200 million, though that figure is expected to rise.
“We could not be more excited about the prospect of what today’s announcement may lead to in the months ahead,” Ashbrook said. “We remain enormously grateful to mayor Goodman for all her support and urge the other council members to join her in successfully voting on this transcendent project for downtown.”
Las Vegas has long been a gambling and entertainment capital, but its sports scene has been of tertiary interest until recently with the 2017 arrival of the NHL’s Las Vegas Golden Knights, the 2018 debut of the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces and the planned relocation of the NFL’s Raiders from Oakland in 2020.
The Lights are one of four “minor league” teams in the city, along with a AAA baseball team, an indoor soccer team and a women’s football team.
Soccer does have a history is Las Vegas.
The city hosted the group draw for the 1994 FIFA World Cup, which was held in the United States.
The city’s first professional soccer team arrived in 1975 with the Las Vegas Quicksilvers. Later iterations of a professional Las Vegas team included the Seagulls and the Lights, which are widely viewed as must-see sports thanks to wild promotions that include the use of live llama mascots and paying players with casino chips.
MLS has yet to respond to the agreement reached between Renaissance and the Las Vegas city council, but expansion is not a topic league commissioner Don Garber has ever avoided. In April, the league confirmed plans to expand to 30 teams, more than the original goal of 28 teams, though Garber added there would be no rush to fill out the league.
Austin, Miami and Nashville will all join MLS, which currently has 24 teams, in 2020. Las Vegas joins a plethora of cities, including Phoenix, Sacramento, Detroit, and Charlotte, as potential markets for future franchises.