Nashville SC: Rolling with punches the only way

Nashville SC CEO has said that the first year of existence has been difficult. However, as a first-year expansion team in MLS, rolling with the punches is the only way to achieve success.

It is not easy to be an expansion team in any sport. You have to garner a market, attract fans, potentially build a stadium and training complex. And on top of all these extra-curricular activities that most other teams do not have to contend with, you also then need to build a team and management that can compete in professional sport. It requires finance, expertise, time, patience, and a whole lot of resilience.

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The 2020 Major League Soccer season features two expansion teams, Nashville SC and Inter Miami CF. Both have encountered problems throughout their preparations for their time in MLS, but, eventually, they made it to the big time. And then everything stopped.

After just two weeks of actions in MLS, both Miami and Nashville SC saw their dreams come crashing down. The coronavirus has ripped through the sporting schedule, and all other parts of society, and halted the 2020 season in its tracks.

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It has not been easy for either. Both have encountered a variety of issues, from stadium plans to failing to hire a manager until months before the season starts.

On Wednesday, Nashville SC CEO Ian Ayre provided a neat analogy for the club’s difficult first year as an MLS team on a roundtable conversation alongside Nashville Predators CEO Sean Henry:

"“It’s been a challenge. I’m a big boxing fan, it’s like being a prizefighter. We had really good energy building up, but then we had an issue around our stadium so it felt like we got punched in the face and knocked down. But after that we have our opening game, then two days later there’s the tornado. Smacked in the face again.”"

But in reality, while troubles like COVID-19 are entirely unique and unpredictable, many of the difficulties that Nashville have encountered were always going to happen. In setting up a soccer organisation in MLS, it was inevitable that Ayre and the Nashville management would hit hurdles that are difficult to clear. It is simply the nature of the beast.

Bar the coronavirus and subsequent postponement of the league, Nashville’s greatest difficulties have stemmed from their stadium plans. There has been great legal uncertainty regarding the plans, with the Save Our Fairgrounds coalition fighting hard to prevent work going ahead. However, early in March, a judge denied the Save Our Fairground’s motion seeking an injunction to stop the project. Work has since begun on demolishing the old buildings on the ground in preparations for the new stadium to be built.

Work has since been put on hold once more due to the COVID-19 outbreak. But in a letter sent to fans on Wednesday, Ayre provided an update on proceedings, while also naming May 2022 as a possible end date.

“Given the size, scope and challenges in building what will be the largest soccer-specific stadium in the U.S., and without certainty of how COVID-19 will continue to impact our lives, our stadium project team has tentatively identified a substantial completion date of mid-May 2022,” Ayre said. “The group is currently reaching out to suppliers and contractors, and construction will commence after demolition wraps up.”

“It is impossible to predict the actual date with any level of certainty in the current environment, but we will continue to monitor gains or losses on timing and keep everyone informed as we progress,” the Nashville SC CEO continued. “We remain excited about the 2022 season in our new home and fully committed to bringing the 2020 MLS season back to Nashville and all our fans as soon as possible.”

As Ayre has discovered this year, running a football club is no easy task. It is only more difficult when that club is an expansion team in its first year. Rolling with the punches, then, is the only way, and that is precisely what Ayre and Nashville have and will continue to do.