Nashville mayor's spending plan includes $3 million for recreational soccer fields at Fairgrounds

In an increasingly uncertain world, Nashville soccer fans can at least rest assured in the knowledge that their mayor is a tireless supporter of the game they love. As part of her proposed $288 million spending plan, Mayor Megan Barry has asked for $3 million to fund the construction of recreational soccer fields at the Fairgrounds Nashville in a part of the city-owned property that is currently 46 acres of asphalt and gravel.

"Three of the soccer fields would be full regulation length with the ability to be divided into small youth-size fields," The Tennessean reported last week. "The other five fields would be geared solely for youth."

As Nashville competes with 10 other cities for four MLS expansion spots and seeks to fund a professional soccer stadium that would likely cost around $150 million, this might seem like small potatoes, and in the grand scheme of things it probably is. But continuing to build the soccer culture at the grassroots and youth level will only make the Music City more attractive to MLS down the line, especially for a city that is arriving relatively late to the expansion scene.

A spokesperson from the mayor's office confirmed to Music City Soccer that this proposed expenditure is completely unrelated to the public-private partnership Barry has endorsed for the construction of a pro soccer stadium at the Fairgrounds Nashville. Though Barry has said she views the Fairgrounds as "the best and only site" for the stadium, there's still no official word on where Nashville SC will build.

But with NSC set to begin its first year in the USL in March 2018, the clock is ticking. During a Saturday appearance on a local ESPN radio affiliate, club CEO Court Jeske suggested that a formal announcement would be coming soon. The timing would make sense, with local billionaire John Ingram buying a majority stake in the franchise earlier this month, serving to both unite Nashville's MLS expansion fronts and deepen the pockets of the USL franchise.

At two miles from the city center, the Fairgrounds are only walkable from downtown in the most technical sense. For that reason, I haven't always loved the idea of the of building the soccer stadium on the Fairgrounds. After all, much of the raucous support for the Predators has to be down to the fact that you can stumble right into Bridgestone from a Broadway honkytonk, right? It's hard to imagine capturing that level of enthusiasm in a part of town most people only drive through when there's a wreck on I-65.

On the other hand, the idea of a pro stadium within walking distance of a cluster of youth fields is pretty darn cool. Imagine playing a youth game as a small child and then walking over to Nashville SC's stadium to gape at the pros, thinking, "Hey, maybe one day I can put on the gold and navy blue." When I was growing up, my wildest soccer dream was to letter for my high school's varsity team.