Sports stats



Louisville Mayor Fischer Visits Lightning

February 2, 2011 - Professional Arena Soccer League (PASL)
Louisville Lightning News Release


New Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer was in attendance at Mockingbird last Friday for the Louisville Lightning's 8-3 victory over the Ohio Vortex. Mayor Fischer met with fans as well as Lightning management, witnessing the squad's first home league victory of the season in front of a season-record 1,237 fans. I spoke with Mayor Fischer at halftime about his experience with soccer, as well as how he hopes the game's success plays into his tenure as Louisville mayor.

Mayor Fischer said soccer played a big role in his family, recalling one of the most exciting games he ever witnessed. "I grew up as a casual player, and my brother Chris Fischer was a really good player for Trinity High School. One of the most exciting sporting events I ever witnessed was a sudden-death shootout," he said.

Fischer talked about his hopes for the city during his tenure, which includes more exposure and resources for Louisville's growing soccer scene. "I want to grow our city and get more jobs in the city, but I'm also very interested in how we use our location here, where half of the United States is one day's drive from Louisville," the mayor stated. "I'd love to have a soccer complex here in the city where people could come from all around the region, and not just for soccer, but other sports as well. I want to use our geographic location as a real asset, and the more sporting activities we have here, the better," he said.

"We want to draw more young people to Louisville. Right now we're about breaking even on that, which isn't good. At my State of the City address, I said we were solidly average in a lot of categories, and we're doing well in others. But we don't want to be average in any categories."

Fischer beamed when asked about Louisville's rising soccer profile, quickly interjecting with a comment about the top-ranked University of Louisville soccer team. "How about that soccer team this year? What they did for the game here in Louisville was just incredible," he remarked. Fischer said the university's success across the board has created unique visibility opportunities for the city of Louisville.

"University of Louisville athletics has done a great job focusing in the classroom too. We've got some top-ranked teams, and Tom Jurich has done a fantastic job. You can see it with the results they have there on the field. With the soccer team, their emergence with Ken Lolla has been amazing. He's just the best coach in the country, and we'd like to partner with them as much as we can," Fischer stated. "The quality of the teams and coaches is just fantastic, so we want to partner with them in any way possible."

The mayor, who took office last month, said media coverage for the Louisville Lightning and the University of Louisville is crucial in marketing the city. "Whether it's UofL or the Lightning, the more the name 'Louisville' gets out there in the media, the better it is for our city. So we want to see the Lightning and the University of Louisville continue to grow, because it's a great all-around situation for the entire city of Louisville."

• Discuss this story on the Professional Arena Soccer League message board...

Professional Arena Soccer League Stories from February 2, 2011


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central