Las Vegas Soccer Team Takes Shot at Oakland with Second-Rate Promotion

The Las Vegas Lights FC thin it's a good idea to promote an unpopular relocation to draw fans

What do you do when you're an irrelevant soccer club? Poke fun at a city that is in mourning over the looming loss of yet another sports team for clicks. It's a tried and true recipe on social media platforms in order to increase engagement and follower counts. 

A's mouthpiece in Las Vegas, Mick Akers, let everyone know about an upcoming event. 

The @lvlightsfc are hosting “Vegas Loves Oakland Sports Teams” night Saturday when they host the Oakalnd Roots. Fans wearing a Raiders or A’s jersey will get half-price tickets. #vegas #raidernation #Athletics #lvlights pic.twitter.com/ik9LasEJ2o

— Mick Akers (@mickakers) September 5, 2023

The Las Vegas Lights FC are the worst team in the 24-team United Soccer League with two wins on the season. Their overall record is 2-16-9 and they have accumulated 15 points all year. The team above them in the standings has 32 points. The A's have lost a lot of games this year--96 to be exact--and they have never approached the futility that this team is trying to promote. The team debuted in 2018 and has never made it to the postseason. Tickets start at $20 for Saturday's game, but with a jersey it's only ten dollars to watch a god awful soccer team! 

For a promotion that is hoping to bring eyeballs to their product, this social media push seems to have fallen flat. The post on Twitter (or X) has been quote tweeted 103 times and reposted just six times without comment. That's never a good sign. The post from the team account also has 53 likes with over 75,000 people having seen it. That is a terrible engagement rate for a post that has been shared like they wanted it to and drawn eyeballs to their crappy product.

The Lights came into existence just a few years ago, and there is a good chance that many residents haven't been to a game yet, either because they haven't heard of the team, they stink, or they haven't found the time. But imagine this is your first time hearing of this team and you're one of the residents that wants the A's to stay in Oakland. The Lights may have just lost many potential customers forever because they were chasing the quick engagement as opposed to putting in the work and building up the interest in the club organically--kind of like the team they'll be playing on Saturday, the Oakland Roots. 

There are many A's fans, including members of the Oakland 68's, an A's fan group, that have latched onto the Roots as their new sports outlet with the Vegas relocation looming. Fans have brought the drums that are closely associated with games at the Coliseum, giving Roots games a very Oakland feel. 

For some reason, the Lights haven't reported their home attendance numbers this season. It's hard to imagine it's because they've been so good, hence this cheap stunt trying to put butts in their seats.

But hey, some people are drawn to this kind of thing. Maybe it's part of the Vegas vibes that A's fans will never understand, because there won't be many-if any--that continue with their A's fandom once they leave Oakland.