For the first time as a Major League Soccer franchise, Nashville SC will play a reserve team in 2023. But it won’t play games in Tennessee.
Nashville announced Tuesday that it will base the MLS Next Pro team in Huntsville, Alabama at Joe Davis Stadium, a two-hour drive south. Joe Davis Stadium was once home to Huntsville Stars’ Milwaukee Brewers Double-A (1984-2014). It is currently undergoing a 14-month, $28 million renovation into a modern, mixed-use venue. The 6,000-seat stadium will be ready by May 2023.
The club said the team name and schedule will be revealed with the city of Huntsville “in the coming months.”
“When we started building our MLS team in Nashville, we talked a lot about the key ingredients that made Nashville a perfect football city: great energy, a strong business community, and true civic pride,” Nashville CEO Ian Eyre said in a club statement. . “It’s quite clear spending time in Huntsville that the same raw ingredients are here. We couldn’t be more excited to bring the MLS NEXT Pro team to Huntsville and an amazing stadium project.”
MLS Football:Nashville SC member Hany Mukhtar, Walker Zimmerman are among the 26 who voted for the 2022 MLS All-Star Team.
MLS Next Pro was created by Major League Soccer in June 2021 to be the middle link between the youth football arm, MLS Next and MLS. The inaugural season features 21 clubs – all of which fall under the MLS clubs, with the exception of Rochester New York FC.
Nashville is one of eight clubs that will join the league next year, including Atlanta United 2 and New York Red Bulls 2. At the time of publication, all inaugural and upcoming clubs had clubs in the market, with the exception of Nashville. Here’s why.
Why chose Nashville SC Huntsville for the MLS Next Pro
Nashville said it always plans to build its football footprint out of the market. In fact, club ownership studied several markets outside of Nashville for the MLS Next Pro team, before settling in northern Alabama.
Since March, the city of Huntsville has been publicly recruiting to host the Minor Football League at its new stadium. Mayor Tommy Battle said in a statement that football has become “one of the most popular and fastest growing sports in our region”.
“When the city decided to renovate Joe Davis and convert his stadium into a mixed-use stadium, we hoped professional football would find its way here,” Battle said. Today, we are proud to offer this exciting sporting benefit to our community. “
How MLS Next Pro works
MLS Next Pro is the third tier of professional soccer in the United States and is at the same level with the USL League One and the National Independent Football Association, or NISA. The USL Championship is the second division.
By 2023, MLS-owned reserve teams such as Atlanta, New York, and LA Galaxy II will transition to MLS Next Pro. There were previously as many as nine MLS-owned clubs playing in USL as recently as 2019.
For stories about Nashville SC or Soccer in Tennessee, contact Drake Hills at DHills@gannett.com. Follow Drake on Twitter at Tweet embed. Connect with Drake on Instagram at @drakehillssoccer and on Facebook.