The decision to build a state-of-the-art, 30,000-spectator stadium for Nashville Soccer Club, a Major League Soccer expansion team, in Nashville was always likely to raise a few eyebrows. The other “football” in the home of country music and all things Americana? How was that going to work? The answer was connection.
From the beginning, the club recognized the importance of creating connective tissue between itself and its fans, the community at large, and the partners it chose to work with.
The stadium, known as Geodis Park, sits in Nashville’s historic Fairgrounds district. Mindful of the area’s heritage, the club purposely chose brick, steel and wood materials that integrated with the surrounding community. Additionally, the team’s colors of yellow and blue were a conscious throwback to a previous amateur team that played in the city.
“We have the biggest house in the neighborhood,” says Ian Ayre, Nashville Soccer Club CEO and president. “We wanted it to fit with the people and the neighborhood itself.”
Other things were intentional, too – like the choice of technology partner.
“When we started talking to C Spire, what we found early on was communality,” says Ayre. Much like players with different skills sets playing on the same team, the club’s expressed desire to put its fans first aligned with the Customer Inspired ethos from which C Spire takes its name.
“We're not another company that just has shown up in Nashville,” says Danielle Dedrick, account manager at C Spire. “We're 100 percent invested in this city and this team.”
The utilization of C Spire engineering know-how and solutions was extensive, ranging from infrastructure deployment in office and training facilities to comprehensive support of match-day operations. The latter involved providing fans access to blazing-fast in-stadium WiFi; the facilitation of seamless ticketing and concessions; secure data collection and backup; and the ability to monitor and control every screen or access point inside the stadium. It's a lot of moving parts, and when the game starts, it’s all alive and kicking at once, with more than 50 vendors and up to 30,000 fans all wanting a piece of the action at the same time.
“Match days are critical,” says Caleb Primm, Nashville Soccer Club’s director of general operations. “We rely on C Spire a lot. They kind of feel like family.”
Within hours of the game finishing, Ayre and his team have detailed metrics on everything that has just happened: what gates the fans in came through, how they moved around the stadium, where they shopped, what they bought, how much they spent and how they paid for it, and everything is driven by technology.
“The other side is sports performance,” says Nick Timko, Nashville Soccer Club’s director of partnership activation. “How are we able to use advanced technology to collect data about our team to ensure that we're gaining a competitive advantage on our rivals?”
From in-game player fitness management to metrics on potential new players, the capacity to capture and analyze data is fundamental to the club’s success. “Sports are all about speed,” says Risher Robertson, C Spire regional VP for sales, Tennessee. “It's extremely important for Nashville Soccer Club to have all that data, right there, at their fingertips.”
With the club now established as a Major League Soccer mainstay, its ambitions can turn to what’s next. Ayre and his team know that continued success on and off the field hinges on the club’s ability to evolve and stay agile, and above all, remain on the cutting edge of new and innovative technology. As its go-to technology playmaker, C Spire will be with them every step of the way.
“If I had to sum up our relationship with C Spire in one word it would be 'connected,' says Ayre. “They’re the glue that connects the whole thing.”
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