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Report: Nashville awarded one of two MLS expansion teams

Nashville will be the latest city to be home to an MLS franchise, according to Sports Illustrated.

MLS commissioner Don Garber will be in Nashville to make an announcement on Wednesday afternoon, which will reportedly be to officially award the expansion franchise in front of the city’s population.

The Nashville bid is led by billionaire John Ingram and has support from the Wilf family, who also own the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings.

What separated Nashville apart from the other three expansion finalists is its stadium deal. The franchise will have a 27,500-seat stadium at a site just south of downtown Nashville.

Cincinnati, Sacramento and Detroit are the three cities left waiting for the announcement of the second team to be awarded in this round of expansion.

Comments

  1. The youth soccer take doesn’t hold water. The Predators have no problem getting support. The last I checked Nashville wasn’t surrounded by frozen ponds littered with youth hockey players. Youth soccer players also don’t pay for anything.

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  2. yeah, I think this is a mistake. I hope I am wrong and my guess is probably just that…. a guess.

    But let’s look at this. Nice stadium for sure. What others should have shot for earlier.
    But very small metro area with not much around it. The Spanish speaking watchers have to be zero and not many playing youth according to post above, which DEFINITELY helps a team succeed. All that adds up to low revenue and if one thing is true. Revenue is king as MLS tries to grow.

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    • Spanish speakers have nothing to do with being a successful MLS team. Ask Chivas USA, the Miami Fusion, the Tampa Bay Mutiny, and the SJ Earthquakes that had to move to Houston. Dallas and Chicago suck too.

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  3. Kinda figured. Garber’s looked at the success of Atlanta and Orlando and he undoubtedly wants a lot more presence in the Southeast.

    I’m a little iffier about Nashville, though. Nashville – much like Atlanta – is sort of an island of unexpectedly urbane sophistication amidst a sea of Old South rurality – but it’s just nowhere near as BIG as the ATL is. And the youth soccer base of Tennessee is wretched, whereas ATL was just one endless sprawling high-end burb with some Latin enclaves sprinkled in, which is about as good a youth base as there is in the nation.

    Guess we’ll see if Nashville is as far along the progressive curve as they think they are.

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    • I’m a little iffy myself, but with only a 27.5K stadium, MLS is really only asking Nashville to be Diet Atlanta anyways. It’s possible they can match or exceed Orlando and claim status as the 2nd best SE MLS team

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  4. I have no problem with this choice. I’m not sure what Sacramento has done to piss Don/MLS off, but they have seemed like the obvious next city for a while now. California is certainly large enough to accommodate a 4th franchise. So they would be my next choice after Nashville.

    The uncertainty in Columbus hurts Cincinnati’s chances, in my opinion. But geographically, It’s seems that having Columbus, Chicago and Detroit/Cincinnati is overkill. But I understand why MLS is less interested in “covering the whole map” than about having the right investment group with a viable SSS plan.

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