NASHVILLE, TENN (December 20, 2017) – There will be celebrations in the Honky Tonks on Broadway tonight. Well, a bit more than the usual. As Major League Soccer plays Music City to an adoring crowd. At the Country Music Hall of Fame and live streamed, MLS President Don Graber announced that MLS is coming to the Music City.
Major League Soccer to the Music City
Nashville is now the 24th club to join the league since it first started back in 1996. The city put in their bid on January 31, 2017. They went on a list of 12 other cities vying for a club. Twelve cities then went to four with only two cities to make the final cut. They are receiving the first expansion club beating out Cincinnati, Detroit, and Sacramento. Another announcement will be made later this month for the final city, out of the remaining three, to be awarded an expansion club.
The third (fifth overall) MLS team to be placed in the Southeast Region of the United States. The region has been known to be a hidden resource for overlooked players and fans. A spotlight has now opened up to talent in the city, state, and the surrounding areas.
Why Nashville?
Why Nashville? In the announcement MLS President, Don Graber said: “Nashville is a city on the rise”. Nashville has recently become something of a boom town. Increase in tech jobs in the city has caused a spike in economic and population growth. An increase that mixes with the creative aura that always brings people from all over the world to this city.
Any doubters thinking soccer will not work here, I have one word, hockey. A Southern city that was able to make hockey an important part of the cultural landscape. Shocking the world when people came out in droves to cheer on their Nashville Predators in the Stanley Cup last summer.
As for the beautiful game, they showed up in record-breaking attendance to support the USMNT during the Gold Cup. They broke another attendance record in the state for soccer when the Tottenham Hotspurs played Manchester City in the International Champions Cup. These two occurrences sparked surprise across the country and intrigue from the head office of the MLS. Helping to move the #MLS2Nashville train in the right direction.
Now it’s in the hands of the fans. Their responsibility to build traditions of their own and cement this new club as they did with the Predators and Titans. It all starts with supporting Nashville SC in their inaugural season in USL in 2018.
