Knowles: Lights, Smoke, & Love In Las Vegas
The 2021 regular season is now a wrap for the Tampa Bay Rowdies. There will be a lot of looking back to do whenever the season actually ends; but, there is a great story to tell before we all get to that point.
I was lucky enough to attend the final game of the regular season, an away win to Las Vegas Lights. I got to sit with the supporters’ groups section, where I sang, I chanted, and I had an absolutely awesome time.
As a gift for my birthday earlier this year, my lovely family got me a whole trip to see the Rowdies play away from home. I was put up in a hotel on the strip, I was given a few days to see the area, and I was sent on my way to cover the team in their final game before the playoffs.
Without turning this into a travel blog entry, Las Vegas has a lot of stuff for people to do outside the usual shenanigans associated with the city. I did some of those on the two days that sandwiched game day, which I entirely devoted to the match later on.
Upon seeing where in Las Vegas the Lights play, a former baseball stadium called Cashman Field (which is by no means a slight to the venue), I wanted to see what pregame activities could be found in the area.
As it turned out, Las Vegas has a Brewery Row which was only a short drive away – not that I would be doing any driving. I stopped in a couple breweries to do small samplings of beer before I was joined by two members of the Ralph’s Mob.
Ben and Mike were not my first introduction to people in the supporters’ groups; but, they were among the most gracious. They coordinated meeting up with several other members at a final restaurant before heading to the game right around dusk.
Once we got there, all the supporters’ group members tried to find their counterparts for the Las Vegas Lights. We had been invited to their tailgate, I’d been told, and had been promised to be treated like honored guests. I can only say the Electric Company lived up to their own hype as hosts. They offered us burgers and beer, which I did not partake in because I was so caught up talking to them about their experiences as local fans. The fact that it was Halloween only added to the buzzing atmosphere we were already in.
I saw a Loki, a Rick (of Morty-ous fame), a member of Kiss, a character from the Walking Dead, the Joker, and several luchadores. Everyone was in the mood for a good time. They played a trumpet version of the song Tequila, originally by the Champs. The team mascot llama was brought out to pose for pictures. It was all very light-hearted and wholesome, possibly in opposition to the usual stereotype of a party in Las Vegas.
Of course, it should be noted now that there was an air over their party. Everyone wanted to have fun specifically because, according to them and some of our own chants during the game, this might be their last game together with this supporters’ group. It at least looks like it could be for a long period of time.
Why? Why would that be when there was such good attendance for a dead-rubber game for one of the statistically worst teams in the league? Why would a group of fans like this not expect to get together again if they can even under these circumstances? The answer, unfortunately, is entirely out of their hands.
When, in 2017, the owner of the Las Vegas Lights got his lease at Cashman Field approved, local fans had reason to celebrate. I learned in talking with them that many of the folks in the club’s supporters’ group had met through the supporters’ group for the national team, the American Outlaws. (Several had even seen the CONCACAF Gold Cup final in July when the US men’s national team beat Mexico 1-0.) This was something local they could join together on to specifically call their own, though. It was Vegas through and through.
However, in March of this year, Las Vegas announced they had partnered with LAFC, one of the two Major League Soccer teams from Los Angeles. Since then, their team has been made up almost exclusively of players from LAFC who aren’t getting lots of minutes with the first team. Going through their roster, a full twenty-one players are on loan there from either the LAFC first team or its academy. That is out of thirty-four players overall. It is stark.
Contrast the fortunes of LAFC and the Las Vegas Lights this season. LAFC are right on the bubble of qualifying for the playoffs in a tight Western Conference in MLS. This is a downturn in form for a team that had very recently won the league points total before moving into the postseason. Las Vegas, meanwhile, are dead last in their group in the Pacific Division. They’ve earned twenty-one points from their thirty-two games, a number that puts them third worst in the league overall. On this subject many members at the tailgate were very melancholy.
Quotes ranged from, “having an MLS team owner sucks,” to, “we’re still here ‘cause we all love each other.” But, it was obvious that this was almost a going away party. Without any official news coming from the owner’s mouth, they have no way of knowing how much money to even keep their team afloat comes from LAFC. If they are paying any large portion, and with the MLS Reserve League starting back up again next season, what use will LAFC have for this affiliation? They’re currently spending money to train all of these players – two teams’ worth of players – and then bus half of them four hours away from LA to compete for the fans in a city they don’t live in. This was another point several supporters’ group members mentioned: the whole team now seems artificial.
As a fan, I can see the benefit of having players that don’t just play locally, but live locally. When I’m on pregame or post-game conference calls with players, many will mention how much they love the city of St. Petersburg. While I live in Tampa, I consider this all a part of the Greater Tampa Bay area. It is an area that I know is vibrant and filled with good people – and all the players know that, too. They are proud not only to be able to play professional soccer, but to be able to play for the people of Tampa Bay. This pride really shines through when I get to ask players about their backgrounds: many talk slyly about living in cities that aren’t as nice, while never referring to them by name, of course. I know if all the Rowdies players lived and trained in Orlando, I’d feel differently about the team overall (and the distance between Orlando and Tampa is shorter than that between LA and Las Vegas!).
I can only wish the fans of the Las Vegas Lights better in the future. They deserve that much for showing up in such numbers for a game they were almost certain to lose, the last in a season that might prove to be their final one ever.
Another quote from this game referenced how the Lights’s ownership group did put on a good game day experience. However, “if they put the money they put into [that] into the team, they’d [at least] draw a lot more!” For a group of people so dedicated to supporting the Beautiful Game locally, a better on-field product might serve them more than their usual pitchside kiddy pools. (In this game, being a little colder than during the summer, the Lights had a series of pitchside mattresses for the fans who wanted to be closest to the action.)
Without forgetting my new friends in Las Vegas, attention turned to the game right before kickoff. They took up their usual spot behind one of the goals while the Ralph’s Mob and Skyway Casuals members present started hanging their banners in a corner set aside for away team fans. The president of the Mob had purchased a $2 drum from a local pawnshop, he’d said. Aron Retkes, whom RBLR Rowdies interviewed earlier in the season, started banging that drum right before the whistle. Our chanting followed and it never stopped for the whole game.
We sang the usual songs the supporters’ groups love to belt out; we sang about how the rest of the crowd only seemed to stir during key moments; we sang about the giant Jarritos bottle that waved wacky-waving-inflatable-arm-flailing-tubeman style behind one of the goals.
When the Rowdies scored the first goal of the game, we cheered and we settled in for a comfy evening. As it turned out, the players on the field had another thing in mind. Danny Trejo, of LAFC’s roster rather than he of a series of slasher movies, scored what seemed a world class goal to stun us in the away fans section. Never bothered, we picked up the chanting and singing once again as play resumed. It was to good effect as Steeven Dos Santos scored his second goal of the game to give the Rowdies the lead and, ultimately, the win.
While smoke bombs have been banned at Las Vegas Lights games, we were told ahead of time that they may or may not be present at this one, considering it might be their last anyway. Rowdies fans had already thought of this, it seemed, as we also set off smoke when the final whistle blew. Ours, of course, were green and yellow instead of light blue and yellow like in the other corner.
The Rowdies players came over to where we were standing and, with their 2021 REGULAR SEASON CHAMPIONS shirts, all posed for a picture with the traveling supporters. They would also all individually high five and fist bump the supporters who lined up near the team’s buses after the game. While some had said they wanted to party with the Rowdies, the hired bus drivers gave nothing away because no one was able to find them out afterwards, as far as I’d heard.
I have to take a moment now to note just how wonderful all of the Rowdies players are. This is not the first game they’ve spent time to honor the fans after the final whistle. If you attend home games, you’ll note that they often hang with fans to sign things and take pictures before heading into the dugout. It comes back to that pride from earlier, I think. They play for us, the fans. They know this is the reason they got into the game, and we are the reason they continue to want to play. To have a professional soccer team of such gracious gentlemen really is an amazing thing. Neill Collins definitely does take into account personality when he signs his players.
After seeing the team off on the bus, we fans disbursed to our Ubers, Lyfts, and taxis to go back to our hotels. We said our goodbyes to each other and our Las Vegas counterparts. Despite the settings, and despite the friendly ribbing in our chants, everything was more than cordial after the game. We had all gained new friends for the future and new comrades in the grassroots supporting of soccer in America. We do love Las Vegas and their Lights; but, we have a playoff game coming up this weekend. All focus now shifts to intimidating FC Tulsa and its players. The folks of Ralph’s Mob and Skyway Casuals ride again.
