A clock sits in the office of Nashville SC CEO Ian Ayre — temporarily relocated to a construction trailer at The Fairgrounds Nashville. Its purpose is to count down the days, hours and minutes until the completion of the team’s Major League Soccer stadium, GEODIS Park.
It wasn’t that long ago, Ayre recalls, that the days were displayed in triple digits and represented the daunting task his group of designers and architects faced: erecting the largest soccer-specific stadium in the United States, and completing the project in time for the 2022 MLS season. Now that clock reads 0:00:00, and the club finally has a home of its own after playing its first two MLS seasons at Nissan Stadium, home of the Tennessee Titans. The significance of the long journey Nashville SC took to get there isn’t lost on Ayre.
“It’s kind of in that balancing period where every time you come in over the last few months, it feels like you’ve made incredible progress because something big changes — the video board gets switched on, the field gets laid down, the lights go on,” says native Brit Ayre, who formerly served as the CEO of the Premier League’s Liverpool F.C. “It’s satisfying that we’ve made the progress to finish on time and on budget, and it’s just incredible to look at it and know that our fans and our city can be proud of it.”
Ayre has been exceptionally busy over the past two years, between meetings with designers, architects, contractors, financial advisers and Major League Soccer. His two main objectives during that time: finish the stadium on time and don’t go over budget.
“If you do anything of this scale, you’re always worried [about cost], because the world changes,” says Ayre. “And no more so than the two or so years we’ve been building [the stadium] — the world really changed. I think there were a number of things that contributed to us staying on the straight and narrow. First was working with first-class construction partners. They gave us great direction, great support. And we had plenty of bumps in the road — COVID was a big issue, but fortunately we were ahead in terms of ordering and setting aside product for the stadium.
“COVID in a way actually helped us,” he continues. “For a long time, we were just digging a hole, and we were removing hundreds and thousands of tons of rock out of that hole, doing that 100 trucks a day at one point when there was no traffic on the road. Sometimes these things are overrun because of weather or supply or mistakes, and we didn’t have any of those. The end result is a successful one.”
Of the stadium’s $335 million cost, $200 million was paid by revenue bonds, $25 million from Metro in general obligation bonds for infrastructure, $25 million from the team as a capital investment, and the remainder was privately funded by Nashville SC.
Messer Construction project executive Mieah Turner says what helped the project stay ahead of the proverbial eight ball was locking in the stadium material at cost before COVID began wreaking havoc on the economy.
“We want to be mindful of how we do spend those contingency funds,” Turner says. “Construction alone is challenging, then you throw in a global pandemic, and it really throws us a curveball. We made sure that we started the submittal process quickly, and that process basically — once approved — actually releases the material to be made and procured.
“I feel like we were really fortunate on this project because we broke ground in July 2020,” she continues, “and I think at that time a lot of other construction projects around the U.S. kind of stopped or halted, and we kept going. So there was room to get in our material, and we weren’t competing as much [for materials].”
The 30,000-seat venue, which was initially given a cautious mid-May completion date, finished approximately four weeks ahead of schedule. That’s thanks in part to the estimated 600 workers the club had on site putting the finishing touches on the stadium over the past few months, allowing the club to play its entire slate of home games for the 2022 season at the new venue.
The team has already sold more than 20,000 season tickets — approximately two-thirds of the stadium’s capacity. If just those season ticket holders show up, the club would still have the fifth-highest average attendance in MLS. As the anticipation builds and that May 1 match against the Philadelphia Union draws near, Ayre expects to see a surge in ticket sales that will pack the place. He has good reason to believe that will come to fruition too.
The last time the city was this jazzed for a soccer match, 59,069 fans turned up at Nissan Stadium in February 2020 and set a state attendance record for a soccer event. Nashville averaged just under 20,000 fans each of its first two seasons at Nissan Stadium, a venue not exactly conducive to highlighting the awes and wonders of professional soccer.
With every element of the new stadium designed to cater to both the die-hard and the casual fan — not to mention one of the top teams in the league — Ayre and the club are expecting a sellout for GEODIS Park’s debut.
“We sold out all of the premium seating,” Ayre says. “I think that’s a great testament about what they’re hearing or seeing that’s available. It put us in the top five of the league [in terms of attendance], and we’re not finished yet. We’re still a couple of weeks away from opening day, and we know Nashville is a late market, so we absolutely expect that number to keep growing.
“I think what that does is it shows there’s a real belief and a real demand for the sport in this stadium in this city,” he adds. “I think the other thing it does is it gives us confidence that, you know, I really want people to come who have never been into soccer. I really want them to come just once and experience it, because I guarantee you if you have not been, you’ll love it because it’s so different. And in a soccer stadium, it’s so different. There’s already 20,000 people showing up, so it’s going to be full. The atmosphere will be incredible.”
Providing a uniquely Nashville experience was central to the vision of GEODIS Park. The club aimed to have something for everyone regardless of age, ethnicity, socioeconomic status or degree of fandom.
Ayre says the club wanted to take care of its die-hard fans without alienating newcomers or guests who just happen to be attending their first-ever soccer match. That approach was carried out through the stadium’s multicultural food and drink menu, attention to accessibility for disabled attendees, kid-friendly activities and what Nashville SC hopes will be a festival-like atmosphere that reflects what Nashville is at its core.
“The reason [team owner John Ingram] chose soccer, more than anything I would say, is that in every other country in the world it’s the No. 1 sport,” Ayre says. “If you look at Nashville and how it’s developing as a city, it’s attracting a lot of people from a lot of other places. Not just people from places in the U.S. but places all around the world, like myself.
“Second, if we’re going to build something for everyone, it has to be for every age group,” he adds. “So kids are important. All of the people having access is important. Food is important, music is always going to be important in Nashville. People have a lot of choices of how they get entertained in this city, so we tried to mix in a little bit of it all. I think we’ve got it right, but I guess we’ll only know when we turn the thing on and open the door.”
Ian Ayre
Ayre says having something for everyone “is easy to say and quite difficult to do.”
“We had to ask, ‘Where is the lowest-priced seating going to be, and how do we make that affordable?’ And then design it around that. I would say we have about 20 different products available for seating and viewing, and that’s important.”
Neighbors the Nashville Predators essentially provided a blueprint for Nashville SC to follow in terms of growing its sport and creating an enjoyable fan experience. Ayre, who says he’s good friends with Predators president and CEO Sean Henry, admits he and Ingram borrowed a few ideas from the Preds and improved upon a few others for a soccer-friendly crowd.
“The Predators are a great example, and one John used to me when we were talking about me coming to do this,” Ayre says. “It’s a great testament to Sean and everyone with the Predators, because not only did they get Nashville to love hockey, but so many people go to their games for the game experience as much as the hockey. I think it was definitely in our mind when we created this. Putting on a soccer game is relatively the easy part — what we have to do is make people come here and feel like it’s a great day-out experience. … I genuinely want people to leave this stadium — of course the greatest memory I want is us to be winning the game on the pitch — but I want them to go away and tell their friends about how cool the food is and how much fun they had and that they saw some live music at the game. And that, for me, is hitting the jackpot.”
The club also took on the responsibility of investing in the community outside of the park’s gates. The stadium project was contingent on Nashville SC signing a community benefits agreement with advocacy group Stand Up Nashville. The point of the CBA is to invest in the community directly impacted by the stadium development in its surrounding area. (See a list of highlights from the community benefits agreement at the end of this story.)
Both organizations established a community advisory committee responsible for monitoring NSC’s compliance with the CBA and producing an annual public report.
GEODIS Park had a number of roadblocks thrown in its way between conception and completion, and Ayre says it took a village to get the thing done.
As he reflects on not just the challenges of the construction project itself but also Nashville SC’s abnormally trying first two seasons in MLS — winning though they were — Ayre cracks a smile and credits those hardships for helping the team truly earn its place in the community.
“We don’t shout about ourselves or make too much noise, we just get on with it, just like Nashville does,” he says. “I think the biggest part of our success came from having a genuine place in the community. I learned that in my almost four years here. If you don’t become a good citizen of Nashville, you won’t really make it.
“I think as we go forward, our real challenge comes this year, and even more so next year, which will be the first year where we have a normal year,” he adds. “Year One, we play two games, then pandemic, we come back to an outbreak then lockdown. Year Two, we’re still in a pandemic and kind of coming out of that. Year Three, we come in with eight straight road games in the Western Conference, and moving into a new stadium. But I think one of the things about MLS — it’s so well set up that there’s so much parity between teams. Your fans show up in Game One, and everyone’s got a chance to go and win the whole thing.”
Nashville SC offers 25 private suites, three club areas and several premium seating options, each with its own price point and amenities:
Transcard Terrace and Studio
Located below the scoreboard on the Northwest corner of GEODIS Park
All-inclusive food and beverages (including beer and wine)
Invitations to exclusive team events
Discounted merchandise
Tickets to all NSC regular-season home matches and playoff options
Corner Kicks
Located in the southeast and southwest corners of GEODIS Park
All-inclusive food and beverages (including beer and wine)
Private bar
Invitations to exclusive team events
Discounted merchandise
Tickets to all NSC regular-season home matches and playoff options
C Spire Captain’s Club
All-inclusive food and beverages (including beer and wine)
Private access to the C Spire Captain’s Club
Personalized, exclusive merchandise and gift program
Preferred pricing for non-match-day private event rental space
Invitations to exclusive team events
Discounted merchandise
C Spire Captain’s Club Gold
All-inclusive food and beverages (including beer and wine)
Private access to the C Spire Captain’s Club
Reserved table with personalized nameplate
Preferred pricing for non-match-day private event rental space
Invitations to exclusive team events
Discounted merchandise
Valkyrie Premier Club
Midfield seating with a luxury club environment
All-inclusive food and beverages
Pre- and post-match player, coach and mascot visits
Priority access to purchase other events at GEODIS Park
Preferred parking option
Invitations to exclusive team events
Preferred pricing for non-match-day private event rental space
Personalized, exclusive merchandise and gift program
Tickets to all NSC regular-season home matches and playoff options
GEODIS WeHo Club
Music-themed environment with live music, food and drink options
Private lounge access
Preferred pricing for non-match-day private event rental space
Discounted merchandise
Invitations to exclusive team events
Personalized, exclusive merchandise and gift program
Tickets to all NSC regular-season home matches and playoff options
Goal Post Club
Game-day sports bar that offers a variety of food and drink options
All-inclusive food and beverages
Invitations to exclusive team events
Personalized, exclusive merchandise and gift program
Preferred pricing for non-match-day private event rental space
Tickets to all NSC regular-season home matches and playoff options
Private suites
All-inclusive food and beverages
VIP parking spaces
Access to away trips
Tickets to all Nashville SC matches
Loge boxes
All-inclusive food and beverages
Seating for four to eight guests
VIP parking spaces
Access to Premier Club Lounge
Access to away trips
Tickets to all Nashville SC matches
Highlights of the community benefits agreement include:
- Nashville Soccer Holdings setting aside 20 percent of all housing units at the development as affordable and workforce housing
- NSH reserving a 4,000-square-foot child care facility near the mixed-use development
- NSH reserving a 4,000-square-foot area earmarked for small business retail space in the mixed-use development with a reduced rental rate
- NSH donating new and used soccer equipment to Metro schools and hosting an annual coaching clinic for coaches of Metro schools
- NSH directly hiring and not outsourcing stadium employees, and paying them a minimum of $15.50 per hour
- NSH establishing a targeted hiring program in Nashville to connect individuals who have barriers to employment to potential job opportunities at the stadium
- NSH including minority contractors in the construction project
Last month, the club made good on the first part of the CBA when it hosted a job fair at the Easley Community Center. Nashville SC was searching to fill open positions in maintenance, parking and security at the stadium.
Additionally, the first phase of the housing development is underway, and the proposed child care facility is said to be in the works shortly after.
Hany Mukhtar (left) and Dax McCarty
