I believe they announced the capacity as 27,500 after Vanderbilt publicly said they didn't want to share the stadium. Had Vanderbilt wanted to join the project, I think the venue would have been bumped up to 30-40K.
Sorry, I thought I was posting on a board of MLS fans rather than MLS critics. I don't think anyone would compare MLS to the big 5 European leagues, but there are dozens of professional leagues throughout the world. Should all but the very best leagues just fold? Are none of the others even worth watching? I happen to follow Liverpool in the Premier League, but since I live an ocean away, I can't attend games in person. However, I can certainly attend Atlanta United games, so I was thrilled to get a MLS team right in my backyard. I think a LOT of people in Nashville will feel the same way if they land a team. As for MLS, I happen to think the level of play is pretty respectable, but even if you don't think so, wouldn't you want to see the league grown and improve? Expansion, increased attendance, and increased value from the next TV deal equates to higher salary caps, more designated players, more allocation money, better facilities, bigger investments in development academies, etc. all of which help improve the league and increase the talent level. Finally, I can understand the sentiment of American fans being guilty of cultural appropriation with all the ways we copy European clubs with team names, songs, chants, scarves, etc. But who cares? Soccer fans all over the world do those same things and it's all for FUN. That's the whole point. What's wrong with enjoying ourselves?
First of all, let me just say hi there! Lurker here, liked your post and wanted to write a little something as someone from the other side of the pond. As someone sitting in Europe, seeing kneejerk comments like "the MLS is crap", it's boring, low quality, yada yada.. Well, compared to what? The Bundesliga, Premier League? Yeah sure, at least for the few select teams able to stockpile talent from year to year. Rigid hierachies where any good player is destined to go to the handful of top clubs. Sure, the 5-6 clubs in Europe who have a chance to win the Champions Leauge, those are pretty flippin good'. But a bog standard league game in Belgium? In Holland? I've watched Anderlecht live in the Jupiler, Groningen in the Eredivisie, Norwich in the Premier League. It was alright, it was fun experiences. But the football was.. Decent. Not much more. These teams played in pro/rel leagues, how about the atmosphere? People went about their rituals, talked to friends, moaned at refs, shouted a few obscenities. Some even sang chants here and there. Was it for 90 minutes? No, when the going was good. Or like in many cases, the away fans were partying on a trip and outsang the whole lot. I went to two cup games with Liverpool, which happens to be my fav club too, it was dead. Expectations not matching up to reality, old, tired fans in their 40s-70s in a league where tourist traffic is outpricing the young rascals who could liven up things. What I'm getting at is that football in Europe is not a magical fairyland where everything is awesome because of pro/rel and old traditions. The best game I watched on my laptop recently was from the Israeli league, actually. Was it good? Well.... But was it fun? Oh yes!! End to end football, teams going mano a mano. Just mayhem and open football. I bet Mourinho in Manchester would be disgusted, but oh well... I envy Atlanta the fantastic enthusiasm you're showing. It's all new. It's all fresh. That's what Europeans like me find alluring about the MLS. It's new, it's different. You are a new frontier and you can make new futures outside of our hierarchies where a team like Rosenborg can win 10 years in a row. Don't be ashamed of corny chants. Just be glad that fans are chanting after all. It's not all good or not all bad, just felt like saying that. The pro/rel crowd paint a black/white picture in their cultlike behaviour that doesn't resonate with me. I get a good gut feeling about Nashville as a MLS team, from what I'm reading. A city with its own unique culture and Atlanta nearby. It's intriguing. But also get the impression that if Garber can get St Louis and San Diego onboard, he'd be more than happy to step over bodies on the way there?
Very much appreciate the insight as I get easily annoyed by two things... People trashing MLS just because it's not the Premier League, Bundesliga, or La Liga. It's still quality, entertaining soccer and, most importantly, it's OURS. I certainly enjoy watching Liverpool and many other European clubs, but those teams will never really be mine. I finally have my own team now that MLS has expanded to Atlanta. So, why not get on-board and enjoy it? It doesn't have to be the world's very best soccer to be fun. I happen to think the quality of play in MLS is much higher than the critics would admit. In fact, I'll bet a team like Toronto would have a better chance of avoiding relegation than a team like Crystal Palace or Bournmouth. Same goes for teams at the bottom of the table in other European leagues. Would a team like Atlanta United fail to score a single goal in 7 games like Palace, even against PL competition? It's not like they play Man U, City, or Chelsea every week. They get just as many games vs. the lower end of the table. So, as you said, I think people have an inflated opinion of the European leagues based on the quality of the super clubs even though that quality isn't reflected throughout the rest of the league. Meanwhile, MLS gets underestimated because the league is built for parity rather than producing super clubs. Don't get me wrong, I'm certainly not suggesting MLS is on the level of the Big 5 in Europe. Just saying the gap isn't as massive as it's made out be. As for expansion, I tend to agree with you. I'm rooting for Nashville for selfish reasons, but if I were Don Garber, I'd put the final 4 teams in the largest remaining media markets. Getting the biggest possible TV deal in the next round of negotiations is the single most important element for the growth of the league. Ticket revenue can't go all that much higher because stadiums are already selling at least 90% of capacity. So, increasing the TV money is the key to raising the salary cap, allocation money, designated player spending, etc. It's also the key to financing all these $250 million soccer-specific stadiums.
Detroit is a big one to get in place for Garber and co then! Worth bypassing the grassroots movement in that city which hates MLS? One quick look at twitter and it's full of fume. What do you reckon about the political process in Nashville? Likelihood of it falling to pieces like in other places? http://www.tennessean.com/story/new...vate-development-questions-council/729270001/
Oh, I'm calm. Just don't quite get the anti-American soccer thing. I enjoy watching EPL and Bundesliga matches on the weekends but I also enjoy going to matches here at home. I have been to soccer matches in six other countries and thoroughly enjoyed the atmosphere. If that can develop here all the better. I am also old enough to have experienced the derby between the old NASL Fort Lauderdale Strikers (the first team I supported when I was a kid) and the Tampa Bay Rowdies. That fan rivalry was terrific and while quick in development was not phony. There is no reason that cannot develop in MLS between say Nashville and Atlanta. So yeah, as long as the stadium deal isn't greatly reliant on public funds I definitely want MLS to come. And in the meantime I am looking forward to the start of the USL club in 2018. Shalom.
I wasn't aware of the anti-MLS sentiment in Detroit. Is it any different from the anti-MLS sentiment among non-soccer fans or the soccer purists who think only the European leagues are worth watching? That sentiment doesn't help I guess, but you don't market your team to the haters anyway. You market it to the people who like soccer or are at least excited and curious about it and, in a large, diverse city like Detroit, there must be plenty of those fans.
Let me ask a serious question. On one hand, you don't care at all about your town, Nashville, landing a MLS team and don't seem to care for MLS in general. Yet the club you support is Sheffield Wednesday. What makes the Championship so much more enjoyable than MLS, especially if you have to stream their games online and can't attend in person? Plus, is it really a higher level of play than MLS? Seems about comparable to me, at least outside of the top few teams battling for promotion. Is it just the lack of history in MLS? I get the point that a young, expanding league won't have the club history, rivalries, traditions, legends of the game, etc. of a 150-year-old league or club. But you gotta start somewhere, right?
the style of play. or lack of style. but the championship has its moments too. i can have an opinion and it doesn't have to be the same yours, right?
@IvanIV despite your lack of interest, can you tell if there's any excitement elsewhere in town about a possible MLS team?
Its mostly the diehard grassroots fanbase of Detroit City FC. Its more of a "built, not bought" sentiment. The fans have invested a lot of their own time and resources into the team, especially their stadium....and they see it as insulting that billionaires want to start an MLS team as a business asset as opposed to just for the love of the game (what theyve already built with DCFC). I think they also feel theyre rabid supporter culture will be stifled in MLS (restrictions on smoke/flares, obscene language, etc). Even if MLS Detroit cant win over all of the DCFC diehards (and I get their gripes about MLS)......theres a huge, largely untapped international community in the metropolitan area and tons of suburban youth players and their families to lure in. Considering the size of metro Detroit as well as their TV market size....and that you have 2 billionaires with sports team ownership experience and that makes for a very attractive candidate to Don Garber.
Correct on different opinions. I'm not bashing. I'm simply asking what makes it better. I understand the difference between the truly elite European leagues and MLS, but below that level, the difference between leagues seems marginal. So, I was curious why a team like Sheffield Wednesday would seem so appealing but a MLS expansion team in Nashville would not. If you're not excited about it, chances are, nothing I say will change your mind and that's fine. I do think the city would embrace it though. If Nashville landed a MLS team, I think it would be a big hit.
I remember certain fans of the Atlanta Silverbacks (previously the Ruckus) feeling the same way, as if their support and their club was a pure labor of love vs. the big money MLS franchise that would just be all-business and ruin the game. Now the Silverbacks are playing in division 4 (NPSL) in front of 1,600 fans while the rest of the city is embracing the new MLS club, selling-out Mercedes-Benz stadium, and having a blast. Isn't Detroit FC also a NPSL club? If so, their small following won't impact the MLS expansion team much. They'll draw an entirely new, much larger, and much more diverse fanbase.
The solution is obvious. There should only be a half dozen elite leagues in Europe and everything else in the world should be shuttered. I mean if it's not the EPL, Bundesliga, La Liga, Serie A or Ligue 1 it is sub-standard and not worth doing.
Exactly. To me, DCFC is a small, but impressive collective of proud Detroit-centric hipsters attaching themselves to this alternative sports culture (which i dont think is bad, theyre a major element of fervent fan support). The culture is more important than being able to enjoy a high level professional soccer though which wont win over many other types of soccer fans though. You have tens of thousands of youth soccer kids and their parents....and the largest Middle Eastern community in America just waiting to have a soccer team to support. I think youre very right about Detroit being like an Atlanta-like case. They wont be getting a stadium the size of Mercedes Benz but theyll have Ford Field 2 blocks away (and indoors) for any occasion they want 65,000 capacity. Anyway. Back to Nashville...
Well, back in Nashville... It's been a different path here. When Nashville FC was born to fill the gap left by the finally long-lived but finally deceased Nashville Metros, it was fan-owned and season ticket holders were club members. There was a good deal of enthusiasm about the club, certainly more that there was by the moribund end of the Metros. Jump forward a couple of years and the group looking to bring in USL soccer bought the IP of NFC, rebranded it Nashville SC and they'll start play next year. Then of course the MLS group decided to buy a controlling interest in NSC and here we are. So in a weird way it can feel like a continuation of the original Nashville SC that was created in 2013 (hence the MMXIII on the current NSC badge). At least as I can tell there has been no alienation of existing fans and it just comes across as promotion up the pyramid. You know, the way it's done in this country, as a business consideration instead of success on the pitch.
I can already tell when/how fast/who to call up is going to be a huge wedge for this fan base this next cycle. Im personally all for radical turnover over stability at this point. We literally have nothing to lose, so let’s start young and not waste our time on the disasters of this forgotten generation (gag me with a spoon, Klinsmann was right at least at one thing)
Professional sports team in the US are not and have never been (unless maybe you go way far enough back to some baseball teams in the 19th century) clubs. They are franchises in a league that rich people purchase as a business in hopes of making lots of money, or in the case of MLS a share in the single-entity league. Anyone pining for that romantic notion of a local sports club here is going to be disappointed.