Nashville SC has settled on a home venue for its inaugural season, as the club will play its 2018 home matches at First Tennessee Park, home of baseball’s Nashville Sounds.
The question of where the upstart USL club will play in its first season has been answered, and Nashville SC controlling owner John Ingram is set to participate in a formal announcement of the arrangement on Wednesday morning. First Tennessee Park is the home of baseball’s Nashville Sounds (Class AAA; Pacific Coast League).
The arrangement for 2018, which was reported on our Twitter account on Tuesday, allows Nashville SC to play all 17 of its home matches at the stadium. It will also represent another situation in which a USL club will share a facility with a minor league team, as Tulsa, Harrisburg, Reno, and Louisville have been among the cities doing so in 2017, while both Fresno and Las Vegas have made similar plans for 2018.
Nashville SC’s agreement to use First Tennessee Park is good for the 2018 season. More from The Tennessean:
“We will make sure the pitch condition is paramount for both sports and that the players for the Sounds and the players for Nashville SC have the proper environments to play their games,” said Court Jeske, CEO of Nashville SC.
Nashville SC’s stadium agreement is with the Sounds and does not directly involve Metro government. It is limited to 2018, meaning a new contract would need to be reached for Nashville SC to continue playing at First Tennessee Park beyond next year.
Jeske declined to discuss details of the agreement, including finances.
He said the organization “looked at all the options” in Nashville before deciding First Tennessee Park would be the right fit. Nashville SC wants to look at the results of team’s first year before deciding stadium plans beyond 2018.
First Tennessee Park opened in 2015, and replaced Greer Stadium as the home of the Sounds. The site of the facility has a distinct history, as it was once occupied by Sulphur Dull, the longtime home to baseball in Nashville. Our sister site Ballpark Digest covered First Tennessee Park during its first season.