Get ready, Nashville soccer fans.
Major League Soccer officials are coming to Nashville where they're expected to announce Wednesday that Music City has been awarded a new expansion franchise, capping Nashville's meteoric rise from an underdog to now on the verge of landing a club.
MLS Commissioner Don Garber, Nashville Mayor Megan Barry and Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam are among those slated to attend what the league called a "special announcement" at the Country Music Hall of Fame at 4 p.m. Wednesday. John Ingram, lead investor of Nashville's expansion group, will also be present.
It will be followed by an MLS2Nashville "Thank you" reception. Taylor Twellman, a soccer analyst for ESPN, will emcee the gathering.
Nashville, along with Sacramento, Cincinnati and Detroit, are vying for two spots that the league plans to fill this week. The league's board of governors discussed expansion last week at a meeting in New York.
“We are excited and optimistic about the future of soccer in Nashville," Barry said in a statement. "We look forward to hearing more tomorrow.”
Historically, MLS holds celebrations in the chosen cities to announce expansion decisions.
The expected pick of Music City concludes a year-long expansion process in which Nashville overcame initial long odds to catapult up a list of 12 contenders to likely land one league’s 25th and 26th franchises. It's unclear what other cities will be tapped for expansion.
Over the past year, Nashville emerged high on the radar of MLS, which had an eye on the city’s rapid growth, development boom, red-hot brand and budding soccer community. The league was attracted to a city on the rise as well as a strong local ownership group.
Steadily, Ingram, controlling owner of Nashville Soccer Club and a billionaire businessman from one of Nashville's most prominent families, enhanced the city’s proposal.
He brought on the Wilf family, owner of the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings, as minority owners, and secured public funding for a soccer-specific stadium last month.
Along the way, Nashville last summer broke attendance records for soccer matches in Tennessee with a pair of international friendly matches at Nissan Stadium. The Nashville Predators Stanley Cup Final run last spring provided another key moment as the world watched a nontraditional hockey market pack downtown streets to watch each game.
Nashville's future MLS team, which wouldn't begin play until 2020, would play in a new 27,500-seat, soccer-specific stadium that the city plans to build on the Metro-owned fairgrounds. The Metro Council voted 31-6 last month to commit to $225 million in revenue bonds for the $275 million project.
The stadium wouldn't open until 2021, however, meaning the team would need to find a temporary home for one year.
Relocating to Nashville — which carries some risk because Nashville has never fielded a pro soccer team — would make MLS the third major league sports league to locate in Nashville, joining the National Football League and National Hockey League.
Both the Tennessee Titans and Nashville Predators have been supportive of Ingram’s push for MLS.
Nashville’s pro soccer journey began in in May 2016, when Nashville was awarded the United Soccer League franchise, which is set to begin play this spring even if Nashville is awarded an MLS club.
Months later, Nashville businessman Bill Hagerty — now U.S. ambassador to Japan —launched a committee of around two dozen business and political heavyweights to try to bring MLS to Nashville.
Although Nashville was already primed for a USL franchise, Hagerty argued then that Nashville faced a fast-closing window if it ever wanted MLS, and that the city had to move immediately.
Ingram, chairman of Ingram Industries Inc., who comes from one of Nashville’s most prominent families, signed on last December as controlling owner and lead investor of Nashville’s MLS bid. He purchased the rights of Nashville SC in May.
Along with securing the stadium financing, the emergence of Ingram was one of the key moments to boost Nashville’s bid. His involvement gave Nashville’s application the direction and financial support of someone with deep ties in the Nashville community whose connections span business, philanthropy, higher education, college athletics and politics.
Days later, Nashville was named one of 10 cities in the running for MLS expansion. The number later rose to 12. With Nashville playing catch-up to other cities, Ingram embraced the tag of “underdog” in the expansion pursuit. But as the city’s proposal strengthened, that label quickly went away.
Reach Joey Garrison at 615-259-8236, jgarrison@tennessean.com and on Twitter @joeygarrison.
