LP Field passed a critical hurdle to hosting World Cup soccer matches. The city’s top officials gathered around a TV at the stadium Tuesday awaiting the announcement.
Nashville is one of the cities included in the US bid to host the World Cup in either 2018 or 2022. US Soccer has whittled the list of cities to 18.
Nashville Mayor Karl Dean says he was nervous before the announcement and takes the news as a national vote of confidence in the city.
“So if there’s ever any question about whether we’re unique, whether we’re special, we are. I think of the cities up there, we’re one of the smaller ones. But we’re a city on the rise, and I say this, our best days our still ahead of us. And this affirms it.”
Kansas City, Indianapolis and Tampa Bay are among the other mid-size cities included in the World Cup application. Several peer cities of Nashville were among those eliminated from consideration, Charlotte and Jacksonville. The nearest city to Nashville still in the running is Atlanta.
Tourism officials say being chosen as a site would be one of the biggest draws in the city’s history.
The World Cup officials require a city to block out 20,000 hotel rooms for a solid month. Convention and Visitors Bureau president Butch Spiridon says that’s most of the 33,000 hotel rooms in the Nashville area.
“You’re talking about numbers we’ve never attempted to comprehend before, all in a good way.”
The soccer matches would be played at LP Field, which would add temporary seating to its 67,000 permanent seats. To make way for the World Cup, the CMA music festival has agreed to find another venue since both events occur in the month of June.
Nashville is one of 18 cities that will be included in the World Cup bid. If the US is chosen, not all of the sites in the application will end up hosting matches. So Nashville officials still have some selling left to do when FIFA World Cup representatives come for a site visit in the fall.
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