Nashville Football Club was a soccer organization based in

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and ...

. Founded in 2013, the team played in the

National Premier Soccer League The National Premier Soccer League (NPSL) is an American men's soccer league. The NPSL is a semi-professional league, comprising some teams that have paid players and some that are entirely amateur. The league is officially affiliated to the Uni ...

(NPSL), a national amateur league at the fourth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid, in the Southeast Conference. The club disbanded after the 2016 season.

History

The team was founded by a supporters group that intended to form a team as a fan owned group. Club president Chris Jones cited existing fan-owned clubs as inspiration for NFC's foundation, in particular English club F.C. United of Manchester. In February 2014, the two groups merged to form a single club for the 2014 NPSL season. The club had two teams participating in the Middle Tennessee Soccer Alliance, Nashville's largest competitive adult league, and had partnered with the TN State Soccer Association (TSSA), an organization with over 20,000 registered players in the middle Tennessee area alone. On May 24, 2014, Nashville FC held its first ever home match at

Vanderbilt Stadium FirstBank Stadium (formerly Dudley Field and Vanderbilt Stadium) is a football stadium located in Nashville, Tennessee. Completed in 1922 as the first stadium in the South to be used exclusively for college football, it is the home of the Van ...

, defeating the

Atlanta Silverbacks Reserves Atlanta Soccer Club was an American soccer team based in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 2007 as Atlanta FC, it became the reserve team of the Atlanta Silverbacks in 2011, and licensed the name of the first team when it folded in 2016. On January ...

3–1 in front of a crowd of nearly 2,000 fans. After a maiden season in which fourth place in the Southeastern Conference garnered the club a playoff spot, Nashville was eliminated at the Conference Semi-final stage by

Chattanooga FC Chattanooga Football Club is an American professional soccer team based in Chattanooga, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 2009, the team began play in the National Independent Soccer Association (NISA) in Spring 2020. Prior to joining the NIS ...

, who finished top of the Conference and went on to lose in the Championship match. The club had ambitions of climbing the American Soccer Pyramid, with the reported target an entry into the third-tier

United Soccer League United Soccer League (USL), formerly known as United Soccer Leagues, is a soccer league in the United States and Canada. It organizes several men's and women's leagues, both professional and amateur. Men's leagues currently organized are the ...

(USL) by 2017, and then ascension into the Division II North American Soccer League by 2020. However, in 2016, the United Soccer League awarded a franchise to a separate ownership group in Nashville. Nashville FC subsequently sold its team name, logo, and color scheme to the new USL franchise, which became known as

Nashville SC Nashville Soccer Club is a Major League Soccer team based in Nashville, Tennessee. The team began play in the league in 2020 as a continuation of the USL club of the same name and plays its home matches at Geodis Park. It is principally owned ...

, in exchange for a 1 percent equity stake in the USL team and a voting seat on its board. The NPSL Nashville FC disbanded after the 2016 season. The city was awarded a new franchise in the league, called Inter Nashville FC.

Stadium

Nashville FC played at

beginning in 2015 after quickly outgrowing the Vanderbilt Soccer/Lacrosse Complex in their inaugural season. When the Triple-A Nashville Sounds baseball team announced plans to move to the new First Tennessee Park, Nashville FC stated their aim to reconfigure the

Herschel Greer Stadium Herschel Greer Stadium was a Minor League Baseball park in Nashville, Tennessee, on the grounds of Fort Negley, an American Civil War fortification, approximately south of the city's downtown district. The facility closed at the end of the 2 ...

complex for soccer use, following the previous example of the Portland Timbers' renovation of Providence Park, but in Nashville's case this did not occur.

Club identity

Rivalry

Nashville's main rivals were fellow Tennessee club

, based 135 miles away. In addition, the four Tennessee clubs in the NPSL (

, Knoxville Force, Memphis City FC, and Nashville FC) competed for a rivalry trophy called the " Volunteer Shield". The Volunteer Shield was presented at the end of the season to the supporters of the club that took the most points in games against one another, with a medallion added to the trophy commemorating the year.

Colors and crest

The club's colors were chosen from the

Flag of Nashville, Tennessee The flag of Nashville, Tennessee, consists of the city's seal on a white disc surrounded by a field of blue, with a strip of gold on the Flag terminology#Description of standard flag parts and terms, fly. According to the resolution adopting the ...

. The club's crest was a roundel. The overall shape and formation of the circular "N" along with the small center circle was to represent a spinning record, paying respect to the club's "Music City" heritage. The fleur-di-lis came from the city seal and represents the original French settlers of Nashville. The divide represented the numerous Civil War battles that took place in the area.

Record

Year-by-year

References

{{reflist, refs

External links

Nashville FC websiteWilliamson Source website
2013 establishments in Tennessee 2016 disestablishments in Tennessee Association football clubs established in 2013 Association football clubs disestablished in 2016 Soccer clubs in Tennessee Sports in Nashville, Tennessee