April 24, 2023 – United Soccer League Championship (USL) – Las Vegas Lights FC News Release
(Las Vegas, NV) — For the first time in Las Vegas Lights FC’s franchise history they will be hosting a Major League Soccer club in an official competition when they welcome Real Salt Lake to Cashman Field for the Third Round of the 2023 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup this Wednesday night (7pm kick-off).
For background, the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup is the longest running soccer tournament in the country dating back to 1913. It is a “knock-out” tournament open to all amateur & professional teams in the country. All Major League Soccer (Division 1) and United Soccer League Championship (Division 2) clubs enter in the later rounds. Qualifying for the tournament has been going on for more than six months. Lights FC won its initial match of the tournament earlier this month by shutting out third-division professional side Los Angeles Force by a score of 4 to 0.
Tickets for the match may be purchased at LightsFC.com/Tickets.
The match will take place at Cashman Field, but potentially with a different field configuration layout than previous Lights FC home matches. Specifically, following the recent completion of the XFL Vegas Vipers season at Cashman Field, the playing surface is currently undergoing needed resodding and reseeding. Therefore, to ensure a competitive playing surface for this U.S. Open Cup match the Club may need to play the match in an ‘east-west’ configuration (not in its traditional ‘north-south’ configuration). The final determination on the configuration of the field will be decided prior to the match & is dependent on the amount of additional time needed to finish the re-sodding (which is heavily weather dependent). As a result, Lights FC does not yet know what field configuration will be used therefore it was decided that the seating bowl for this game will be all General Admission.
However, to enable Season Ticket Members to still receive the first choice of the best seats, all Season Ticket Members will be allowed to enter Cashman Field thirty (30) minutes prior to gates officially opening.
Lights FC is currently on an extended road trip for regular season matches to start the season due to XFL’s recent use of Cashman Field, Lights FC’s regular season home opener weekend will feature two home matches: (i) Friday, May 5th for “The Biggest Cinco de Mayo Party in the State” and (ii) Sunday, May 7th for Family Day featuring a special afternoon kick-off…