“We’re Putting Ourselves in a Position to Win Championships”: Shawn McIntosh Striving for Glory With Las Vegas Lights
Over the past decade, Las Vegas has gone from a professional sports desert to a major hub of sports franchises. There’s the Las Vegas Raiders in the NFL, the Las Vegas Golden Knights in the NHL, the Las Vegas Aces in the WNBA, and pretty soon, the Las Vegas Athletics in the MLB. And as far as football goes, the Las Vegas Lights are making their presence felt in the USL thanks in large part to the leadership of CEO Shawn McIntosh.
“We’ve still got so much work to do, but I think my proudest achievement in my year and a half in charge has been reframing how the Las Vegas Lights are viewed,” stated McIntosh in an exclusive R.Org interview. “I think we’ve been able to refresh our brand without having to necessarily go through a comprehensive rebrand. We haven’t changed the logo, but I think we’ve changed how we are viewed by really leaning into some exciting storytelling and refreshing our brand through world-class visuals, great graphic design work and kits now that are both of quality and design work that are much more, fashion-forward and modern.
I think just revitalizing the brand where, I take a ton of pride in football fans that I’m connected with globally, seeing the change in how the Lights operated then versus how they are perceived now. It’s much more professional, and a ton of credit goes to José Bautista and ownership to our Sporting Director Gianleonardo Neglia, who have just operated in a much more professional manner in investing in better players and investing in better resources for our players and staff. I think these have been some of the things that I’m most proud of.”
Shawn is the progeny of an Italian mother and an American father, who met her whilst he was stationed overseas in the military. He grew up in places like Napoli, La Maddalena, Gaeta – where his mother is from – and quickly became hooked on football and S.S. Lazio, but he never drifted too far away from his American roots. And after graduating from high school in Catania, he traded Sicily for West Virginia in 2003, spending four years at Wheeling University and earning a Bachelor of Arts in Criminal Justice and Political Science, before heading to Pennsylvania and graduating with a Master of Science in Sports Management from Penn West California.
McIntosh got his first opportunity shortly with American Hockey League side Norfolk Admirals (then the Tampa Bay Lightning’s affiliate) after completing his higher education, going from an intern to a Group Sales Representative to the Group Sales Manager & Director of Game Entertainment, where he oversaw the programming and execution of all in-arena announcements, scoreboard graphics, videos, music, and in-game promotions.
Cutting his Teeth in Sales
After four years in Virginia, McIntosh made the move to Arizona shortly after the 161-day NBA lockout came to an end, transitioning from hockey to basketball and working with both the NBA team Phoenix Suns as well as the WNBA team Phoenix Mercury as the Account Executive of Group Sales. He was tasked with driving new business across multiple properties through prospecting, cold calling, and face-to-face meetings, and he proved his mettle by finishing 2013 as a top-three group seller in the WNBA, before departing in 2014 as the top group seller in the WNBA.
McIntosh traded one Southern metropolis for another, joining MLS side Houston Dynamo and ascending the ranks from a senior account executive all the way to the Director of Ticket Sales. He oversaw all ticket sales and marketing strategies, setting attendance and revenue records, including the club’s single-game attendance and revenue records, as well as increasing partial plan revenue by 97%.
During his time in the Space City, McIntosh launched the Dynamo’s first Inside Sales Program, overseeing a team of 6-10 inside sales representatives responsible for selling season tickets, partial plans, and group tickets. McIntosh departed for the Las Vegas Aces in 2018, where he administered all ticket sales strategies, including pricing, marketing, paid media, and single-game ticket campaigns, whilst he also displayed his tech savviness by implementing Microsoft Dynamics CRM and KORE and enhancing segmentation and targeted marketing.
As the Director of Ticket Sales & Service, McIntosh worked with marketing and MGM leadership to build campaigns that drove brand awareness and produced historic ticketing growth, exceeding overall revenue goals by 120%+ in each season and steering the Aces to the league’s top ranking in new season ticket revenue in back-to-back years. He left in 2021 and went back to where it all started: Norfolk. It didn’t take long for him to make an impact as the club’s Chief Revenue Officer, increasing new season tickets by 216% and cash sponsorships by 112%, as well as securing the first official outfitter deal in club history. And after eight months in Norfolk, McIntosh headed south for North Carolina, becoming Charlotte FC’s Chief Fan Officer.
“Charlotte FC were coming in as an expansion club, they were supposed to launch in 2021, then COVID happens and they’ve got to delay their launch until 2022. They got a ton of hype about this new expansion team, and then COVID hits, and all of this hype went flat. They were looking for ways to reinvigorate the community and build out their fan experience, and so the president at the time (Nick Kelly) created this role of Chief Fan Officer. I went through a pretty extensive interview process with internal leadership, sponsors, and supporters. I landed that role and spent three years with the club, and it was a really incredible opportunity to build that club up. It was great being a part of crafting all of their traditions, working with supporters, working with every department, everything from how we marketed to our fans to building out that actual fan experience once a fan came into the building.”
“My first couple months were really unique, and honestly, some of the most fun I’ve had in my career. I did a lot of travel: I was going to not just other MLS teams, I went out to check out teams like the Portland Timbers and the Seattle Sounders, who all have great experiences, but I was also taking a small group with me to places like the Las Vegas Golden Knights, who are known for having an incredible fan experience, seeing exactly how they executed and what were some of the things that they did. I took a team out to Rome to go check out my club Lazio and just understand how football is consumed in Europe, and what were some of those things that we could kind of pick from. That was a lot of fun, because we built this fan experience from scratch. Charlotte is a really diverse city – not a lot of people know a ton about Charlotte – and so we were trying to build this fan experience that kind of was a compilation of the different groups you find in Charlotte.”
Running the Show at Las Vegas
With McIntosh at the helm, Charlotte was able to establish campaigns that ameliorated fan sentiment, driving a 71% NPS score, and consistently ranked amongst the top two teams in terms of MLS attendance, with Charlotte achieving the MLS’ single-match attendance record (74,479) on March 5, 2022. But after three years with Charlotte, he decided it was time for a change.
It’s why, on August 20, 2024, McIntosh was formally announced as the Chief Executive Officer of USL club Las Vegas Lights FC, reporting directly to MLB legend and team chairman José Bautista. After an impressive 2024 season that saw them finish fourth in the Western Conference and reach the Western Conference Finals, Las Vegas took a step back in their eighth season, placing 12th in the West (24th overall) and missing out on the USL Championship Playoffs.
They kicked off the 2026 season with a 1-1 draw at Orange City SC before losing 3-2 at Switbacks FC and FC Tulsa, but they nevertheless managed to bounce back as Johnny Rodriguez’s penalty saw them prevail 1-0 against Monterey Bay. And after commencing April with a 3-2 defeat at El Paso Locomotive FC, Las Vegas raced to an early lead courtesy of Aaron Guillén’s opener, only for Canada international Mark-Anthony Kaye to level proceedings for Sacramento Republic FC in a 1-1 draw. Las Vegas sits ninth in the Western Conference table (eight teams qualify for the postseason), and they’ll be looking to get back to winning ways at Oakland Roots before taking on AC Boise in the USL Cup.
“We’ve shown no hesitation about wanting to be competitive on the football pitch…that has been a change in the José Bautista era. We want to be a competitive football club, and that is a priority. This city is a city that demands winners: you’ve got the Las Vegas Aces, who have won multiple championships, and the Vegas Golden Knights, who have won a Stanley Cup. It is an incredibly competitive market, and so we understand that we need to be competitive in terms of results. We want to be in the playoffs, and once you’re in the playoffs in this sport, we know that anything can happen. We’re putting ourselves in a position to win championships. Above everything, that’s really, really important and critical for us.”
“We want to continue growing our fan base, and that’s really important for us, ensuring that we continue to grow our fan base and deliver on a fan experience. We survey our fans after every match, and we take those surveys very seriously. We are listening to our fans, we are adjusting, and we want to ensure that our fan experience is the best in the league. I think those things are two very clear signals that we’re being successful, right? If we’re winning on the football pitch, and fans are attending our matches and feeling great about the experience, then we’ve done our part.”