The first professional tenant of the new Joe Davis Stadium in Huntsville will be a MLS Next Pro team, which will be affiliated with the Nashville Soccer Club. The announcement came on Tuesday from the city of Huntsville and the Nashville Soccer Club (SC)
Joe Davis Stadium, which was the home of the Huntsville Stars for many years, is being renovated into a 6,000-seat stadium built to hold competitions in soccer, high school football, ultimate frisbee, rugby and lacrosse. It’s expected to be completed in May of 2023. The Huntsville team is expected to begin play next year.
“Soccer has consistently been one of the most popular and fastest-growing sports in our region,” Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle said in a press release. “When the city decided to renovate Joe Davis Stadium and convert its playing field to multi-use fields, we hoped pro soccer would find a way here. Today, we are proud to deliver this exciting sports amenity to our community.”
MLS Next Pro, according to the release, is a new league committed to driving a new era of North American soccer. It will offer opportunities for players, coaches, referees and sports business professionals.
“When we started building our MLS team in Nashville we talked a lot about the key ingredients that made Nashville a perfect soccer city: great energy, strong business community and a real civic pride,” said Nashville SC CEO Ian Ayre in the release. “It’s quite obvious in spending time in Huntsville that the same raw ingredients exist here. We could not be more excited about bringing our MLS NEXT Pro team to Huntsville and the amazing stadium project. There will be a lot of heavy lifting to make it all happen, but with lots of experience and a strong local partnership we are in the best possible position to make this project a huge success.”
Announcements regarding team name, brand and schedule will occur in the coming months.
To connect with the author of this story, or to comment, email steve.irvine@1819news.com.
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