Nashville SC To Play First Season At First Tennessee

NASHVILLE, TN — Nashville SC, which debut in the United Soccer League in 2018, will play its inaugural season at First Tennessee Park, home of the Nashville Sounds, the team announced Wednesday.

All 17 of the team's home games in 2018 will be played at the 10,000-seat, Metro-owned stadium under a one-year agreement between the Sounds and Nashville SC. The team released renderings of how the field will be arranged for soccer, with one sideline running down the first-base line and the other through left-center field. The goal lines will be along the third-base line and the right field fence, with home supporters on the third-base side. Grass will replace the infield dirt for soccer.

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Now that it has a place to play, the team wants to fill the seats by building buzz, asking ultras to put Nashville SC flags in their yards in a campaign called, perhaps a bit predictably, "Plant The Flag."

The team's controlling owner, John Ingram, is also leading the push for Major League Soccer to award an expansion franchise to Nashville. MLS plans to announce two of its four expansion cities in December, with the final two spots awarded some time down the road.

The United Soccer League, along with the North American Soccer League, is considered on the second level of the American soccer pyramid.

First Tennessee Park does not meet the MLS' requirements for stadia for expansion franchises, which generally require soccer-specific venues and have higher capacity requirements. Ingram revealed preliminary plans for a 30,000-seat MLS stadium at the Fairgrounds last week

Images via Nashville SC