Sunday, June 2, 2019 | 2 a.m.
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If you’ve been to a Las Vegas Lights soccer game, you know there’s a passionate fan base for the sport here in our city. The Lights’ matches are a spectacle of fluttering flags, pounding drumbeats, painted faces and group chants from tailgating to postgame.
Now the city of Las Vegas wants to take that excitement one step further, with the city council scheduled to consider a deal this week that would bring a Major League Soccer franchise to town.
This would be an impressive catch for Las Vegas, and not just for soccer fans. Adding another major-league franchise behind the Raiders of the NFL, the Golden Knights of the NHL and the WNBA’s Aces would not only give local families and visitors another entertainment option, but would benefit our economy in several key ways. One, as proven by the Golden Knights, the games would become a draw for visiting fans who build a Las Vegas vacation around them. Two, the franchise would add to our allure as a major-league city, which would help in our efforts to recruit new businesses and tourists.
The project also would further boost the ongoing redevelopment of the city’s urban core.
So here’s hoping council members take an optimistic, forward-looking mindset into the discussion.
There’s a lot we still don’t know about the potential deal, including whether it would involve public funding. Another key unknown: There’s no commitment yet from the MLS to award the city a franchise.
That being the case, the council will need to exercise plenty of caution and due diligence in exploring the deal.
But four years after political discord over another soccer stadium proposal prompted the MLS to reject Las Vegas as an expansion site, this new venture is definitely one to approach with an open mind.
What we know now is that the deal before the council this week would enter the city into a 180-day negotiating period with an investment group, Renaissance Companies Inc., to create a plan for a mixed-use development on 62 acres where the Cashman Field complex is located.
For the project to move forward, the city and Renaissance would have to reach a master development agreement that would include a detailed finance plan, and the Lights would have to apply to the MLS to become an expansion team.
As for the provision involving the Lights, that appears to be settled: The team’s owner is on record saying he’s agreed to sell the team to an investor represented by Renaissance pending an agreement between the company and the city on the development plan.
So there appear to be willing partners behind the project, which is encouraging.
But now, of course, comes the hard part of working out the details and, especially if any public funding is involved, determining whether the deal plays out in Las Vegas’ favor over the long term.
There’s a dizzying number of considerations involved here. Although the Lights are averaging more than 7,000 people per game, will there be enough additional support for soccer to routinely fill a 20,000-seat stadium? Will those fans be willing to pay the higher ticket and concession prices of the MLS? Against business competitors that include top-level hockey, football and women’s basketball, Triple-A baseball and major-division college sports, can a team here support itself?
And while redevelopment of the Cashman complex would enhance the economy of the downtown core and help beautify the area, how would it affect the low-income neighborhoods surrounding it? Would it further shrink the city’s already short supply of affordable housing?
These and many other questions will need to be asked.
But there are definitely upsides in repurposing Cashman and bringing MLS to Las Vegas. Becoming the home of professional teams of all types is clearly the next step in Las Vegas’ evolution, and these teams will contribute to anchoring another generation of Las Vegas visitorship.
Council members should focus on the potential of the project just as much as the unknowns.
As the Lights have proven, there’s loud and proud support for soccer here in Las Vegas. And as shown by the Golden Knights’ capacity crowds — along with the VGK hats, shirts, flags, etc., that have become part of the scenery in Las Vegas — residents will support a team even if it plays a sport they’d never before followed.
That kind of passion doesn’t necessarily translate in the cold pages of a cost-benefit analysis, but council members should have it in mind as they consider this new stadium proposal.
