51s ready to welcome co-tenant from USL
Reno offers evidence baseball, soccer can play in same facility
51s president Don Logan has given tours of Cashman Field to groups interested in bringing a soccer club to Las Vegas.
But nothing had ever come to fruition.
Until Wednesday, when the Las Vegas City Council unanimously approved a lease agreement to bring a United Soccer League club to Cashman Field.
“No one’s ever put it together until now,” Logan said. “To (Las Vegas Soccer LLC founder Brett Lashbrook’s) credit, he’s the first one in about 10 people in four or five years that’s been able to put it together.”
Logan said he has talked to Lashbrook “on and off ” for a couple of years. His priority is the 51s, the Triple-a franchise he’s trying to move from Cashman Field to a yet-to-be built stadium in Summerlin.
“We’re the primary tenant there,” Logan said, “but not necessarily the only tenant, and as we move down the road trying to get our stadium situation figured out, it’s not at Cashman, so I understand why they would look for something to back fill and have something else going on besides us.”
For at least the first season of the new soccer club, the two franchises will share the facility during overlapping seasons, creating concerns about how the field will hold up.
“I’m thinking they’ve got enough space in the outfield for them to play unless they decide to play in the infield, which is going to turn the whole thing up,” 51s manager Pedro Lopez said.
When other soccer matches have been played at Cashman Field, part of the infield has been covered by grass.
The Reno Aces of the Pacific Coast League and Reno 1868 FC, which is playing its first season in the USL, both play at Greater Nevada Field. Logan said he recently talked with Eric Edelstein, Reno Aces/reno 1868 FC president, about playing conditions, and he got favorable answers.
Edelstein offered the same response Wednesday.
“I haven’t seen a single bad hop on a baseball. I haven’t seen a single issue with a soccer ball or a soccer player,” he said. “We worked really hard to overcommunicate with everybody … what we’re doing, how we’re doing it, how we’re working to protect everyone’s interests.”
The Aces get priority in scheduling over the soccer club, and the 51s will, too.
Groundskeepers prefer at least two days to prepare the soccer field, Edelstein said. Baseball to soccer takes longer because the grass needs to be placed, he said. The Aces and Reno 1868 FC have played on backto-back nights at Greater Nevada Field one time this year.
“Sports like baseball and soccer can play in the same venue,” Edelstein said. “They can co-exist, and it can be done in a way that’s positive for both sports, so I think it’s a great use of sports facilities.”
When the soccer team moves into Cashman Field next year, it might find a new fan in reliever Chasen Bradford, the only Las Vegan on the 51s’ roster.
“I’ve never been to a soccer game, so I think that would be kind of fun,” he said. “I’ve seen them on TV, and the way it’s done in England seems like it’s pretty cool. There’s packed stands, everybody’s chanting the whole time. It’d be interesting to see what they do with this to make it into a soccer field.”
Contact Betsy Helfand at bhelfand@reviewjournal.com.
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