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Nashville expansion bid takes step forward with stadium vote

Good news has been hard to come by at points in the MLS expansion race, but there’s plenty of it in Nashville.

On Monday, the Metro Council’s Budget and Finance Commission voted 10 to three to back a $225 million plan to issue revenue bonds for the soccer-specific stadium project required for the expansion bid, according to The Tennessean.

“It’s not the perfect deal, but I can live with it,” committee chairwoman and Councilwoman  Tanaka Vercher said. “Overall, it’s incredible for the city. It’s a huge opportunity.”

While the vote is a good sign, it’s not the final detail for the project to be approved. There is a vote of the full 40-member council on Tuesday where a majority is needed for the project to go through.

If the vote reaches a majority on Tuesday, it should put Nashville near the top of the list of expansion candidates, as few bids have been able to secure specific details on stadiums.

Comments

  1. Well we will see. Looks EXACTLY like Columbus to me. Easier to build a stadium, means getting a team, which they probably will, but then next thing you know your team in the playoffs and you are drawing 14k fans. Atlanta drew 67k for the same series, well over 4x as many fans…..It just isn’t enough. I think this could be the same “mistake”.

    I don’t mean this as a slam against the 14k that went obviously, they are the ones like me and other non whiners, that are causing MLS to be successful, but it just isn’t enough.

    How are you going to have parity if that is what happens? The answer is, you aren’t. LA won three. Seattle is in the conference finals four out of last six years.

    There are always going to be teams on top of something like that and eras of soccer do happen, but Columbus is one of the teams that are closer to the top lately and STILL drawing like that. MLS finals two years ago, conference finals this year.

    Reply
    • The stadium seats 30K, which is big. A lot bigger than they’re opening with for LAFC, for instance…they’re already building a too-small stadium right next to the Coliseum that, while it looks slick as anything, only seats 22K.

      What makes me dubious is Nashville’s ability to fill the thing. I was telling anyone who would listen that Atlanta was going to be a hit because of how immensely huge youth soccer is in Atlanta and how the ATL was basically one giant burb, but with mass transit…the same is not true of Nashville or any part of Tennessee. Youth soccer is huge in North Carolina, especially the Triangle (which speaks well for the viability of North Carolina FC’s bid) but it’s very, very weak in Tennessee and the demographics aren’t right. Teams from my neck of the woods go to Tennessee to win easy trophies.

      Reply

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