Nashville SC inches closer to Nissan Stadium sellout – Nashville Post

The projected attendance for Nashville SC’s Major League Soccer debut against Atlanta United on Saturday at Nissan Stadium keeps surging.

On Wednesday, club CEO Ian Ayre announced that over 50,000 tickets have already been sold and more seats in the 300 level have been opened due to the high demand. Ayre stated that a complete is a realistic possibility come game time.

“It grows every day,” Ayre told the Post. “There’s no question that that building will be absolutely filled with people on February the 29^th because the demand is really high. It’s going to be a great show.

“I’m not surprised that we’re heading toward filling the place because it’s an exciting day. And Nashville has shown, at least as long as I’ve been here, when there’s a big, historic opportunity to be a part of, people come out. Hopefully we get some people who turn up on the 29^th who have never been to a soccer (match) and decide it’s something they want to go to on a regular basis.”

While Nashville SC likely won’t break Atlanta United’s single-game regular season MLS attendance record of 72,548 people, there is still a chance the club can break the current Tennessee soccer attendance record of 56,232 people set back in July 2017 when Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur played at Nissan Stadium.

Nissan Stadium’s maximum capacity is 69,143 seats, and if the club did indeed reach that sellout number, it would rank as the ninth-highest attended MLS regular season match in league history.

“Right now, (demand) is right about where we thought it would be,” Ayre continued. “We’ve always had big expectations, and that may sound a little arrogant, but it’s because I really believe it’s people like John Ingram and the people before him believed in soccer in Nashville.

“It’s that type of city with a changing landscape of people with newer and younger. I think the MLS said that soccer is a sport for a ‘new America,’ and I think that’s really true. It’s a new Nashville in many ways. There’s new buildings, new people and a new energy.”