Cashman Field

About

Cashman Field is a stadium in downtown Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. It is primarily used for soccer as the home field of Las Vegas Lights FC of the USL Championship. Originally built as a baseball stadium, it was the home of the Triple-A Las Vegas Stars/51s of Minor League Baseball from 1983 to 2018, and home to the Vegas Vipers of the XFL in 2023. The stadium is connected to Cashman Center, an exhibit hall and theater operated by the City of Las Vegas. The complex, built on the site of a former stadium of the same name, is named for James "Big Jim" Cashman and his family, who have been Las Vegas entrepreneurs for several generations.

The original Cashman Field was built in 1947 on the same property as the modern stadium, with the grandstand on the hillside between the modern parking lots A and B and the field itself on the site of the modern parking lot B and the Cashman Theatre. The original stadium, called Elks Stadium, was used for football and rodeos before the first baseball game was held on May 21, 1948. The stadium was designed primarily for football, rodeo, concerts and boxing with one large grandstand. For baseball this meant all the seats were along first base line. The stadium was home to the Las Vegas Wranglers from 1947 to 1952 and again from 1957 to 1958. Boxing matches were also held at the facility. The first professional football game in Las Vegas was held at the stadium in 1964 when the American Football League then-Oakland Raiders played the then-Houston Oilers.

The modern Cashman Field opened in 1983 as the home field of the new Las Vegas Stars, the relocated Spokane Indians of the Triple-A Pacific Coast League, who had moved to Las Vegas following the 1982 season. The symmetrical field boasted dimensions of 328 feet (100 m) down the left and right field foul lines, 433 feet (132 m) feet to center field, and 364 feet (111 m) feet to the power alleys in right-center and left-center fields. The ballpark opened with a maximum seating capacity of 9,334. Its first professional baseball game was a Major League Baseball (MLB) exhibition held on April 1, 1983, in which the San Diego Padres faced the Seattle Mariners in front of 13,878 fans. The Cashman Field attendance record of 15,025 was set on April 3, 1993, for an exhibition game between the Chicago White Sox and Chicago Cubs. The ballpark played host to the 1990 Triple-A All-Star Game which saw the team of National League-affiliated All-Stars defeat the team of American League-affiliated All-Stars, 8–5. Las Vegas' Eddie Williams was selected as the PCL MVP. In further interleague play, Cashman Field hosted the Triple-A World Series from 1998 until 2000. Its final professional baseball game was played on September 3, 2018. With the 51s trailing 3–2 in the bottom of the ninth inning and a runner on base, first baseman Pete Alonso hit a walk-off home run to left field giving Las Vegas a 4–3 win over the Sacramento River Cats. The 51s (later renamed the Aviators) moved to Las Vegas Ballpark in Summerlin in 2019.

In July 2017, Las Vegas Lights FC, a team in the league then known as the United Soccer League and now as the USL Championship, was announced to begin playing at Cashman Field in 2018. Lights FC played their first game on February 10, 2018, an exhibition match against the Montreal Impact of Major League Soccer (MLS) in front of a crowd of 10,383 people. Cashman Field previously hosted MLS exhibition games between the LA Galaxy and San Jose Earthquakes, dubbed the California Clasico in 2016 and 2017. The original configuration of Cashman Field is more suited for soccer than other former baseball parks. With center field at a right angle and all the foul territory behind first and third base at equal distance, the field is in a square shape and seats are close to the field for soccer. The Lights intended to renovate Cashman Field into a soccer-specific stadium after the Aviators baseball team formally terminated their lease at the stadium in 2019. However, the COVID-19 pandemic and cancellation of the 2020 season left the organization struggling to find the cashflow needed to properly renovate the aging facility. As of May 2023, the only renovations that the team has completed are fresh coats of paint throughout the walkways leading to the seating area. In 2024, a new seating area known as the Premium Deck was constructed on the eastern side of the field, adding suites and other premium areas. On August 13, 2026, the Lights confirmed that the team would be vacating Cashman Field at the end of the 2026 USL Championship season.

Adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA). Photography via Wikimedia Commons.