Oct. 5 was officially “Nashville Soccer Club Day.”
Mayor Freddie O’Connell made the proclamation in a ceremony outside Geodis Park, where Nashville SC players, coaches, executives and fans celebrated the club’s first-ever championship. Nashville defeated Austin FC 2-1 in the U.S. Open Cup final at Q2 Stadium on Oct. 1, winning the 111th edition of the nation’s oldest and longest-running soccer competition. Four days later, NSC was able to bring the trophy back to its city.
“For a kid who grew up in this town playing soccer, we used to watch World Cup highlights in soccer camp during the summers,” O’Connell said. “I could never have imagined that a few people with an idea would get it going and it would have a snowball effect, and some folks who thought about a castle would someday build it.”
The castle is Geodis Park, the largest soccer-specific stadium in the United States. The idea was Nashville FC, which was founded in 2013 as a supporters-owned club, would work its way up from the amateur levels of the American soccer pyramid.
When the United Soccer League awarded Nashville a franchise in 2016, Nashville FC sold its name, logo and color scheme to the new franchise. A year later, John Ingram, who had just led a successful push to land an MLS expansion team in Nashville, purchased a majority stake in the USL team. In 2018, Nashville SC took the field in the USL. In 2020, it made its MLS debut. In 2025, it became the first major professional sports team in Tennessee to win a title.
“I want to thank all of you,” Ingram, NSC’s owner, said to the crowd gathered outside the stadium. “This was a leap of faith. Nashville has had a soccer history, but it was not a deep history. It was not a wide history. And there was a leap of faith that if we did this, that people would really support it.”
Support it, Nashville has. The idea of the U.S. Open Cup being the first title in state history is a contentious one in some corners — the Nashville Predators won the NHL’s Presidents’ Trophy in 2018, while the Predators and Tennessee Titans have won their respective conference championships — but there seemed to be no hard feelings at the ceremony. Titans mascot T-Rac and Predators mascot Gnash were in attendance, as were Vanderbilt’s Mr. Commodore and Austin Peay’s Governor.
“I said at the beginning, I want to do something in Nashville, I want to do something with Nashville, and I want to do something for Nashville,” Ingram said. “On behalf of all of us, isn’t it great to win a trophy?”
Toward the end of the celebration, after Ingram, coach B.J. Callaghan and players addressed the crowd, it was finally time to hoist that trophy. Forward Hany Mukhtar and defender Walker Zimmerman did the honors, though Mukhtar, who scored the opening goal against Austin FC, took his time to make it clear: This was a trophy for all of Nashville.
“You guys welcomed every single player with open arms,” Mukhtar said. “We come from all over the world, but you guys give us a second home, and that is something very special. Without the fans, football is nothing. Without you guys, we couldn’t have achieved that. We thank you, the whole team, from the bottom of our heart.”
Jacob Shames can be reached by email at jshames@gannett.com and on X/Twitter @Jacob_Shames.
