Why Nashville SC didn’t apply to host the US Open Cup Round of 16 (and why the Louisville City game must be June 20)

Nashville SC is headed to Louisville. What is the answer to the two topics posed in the title?

The Date

The second question here is actually easier to answer, so let’s tackle it first. The “June 16-20 window” being thrown about online (including by LCFC) for the next US Open Cup match is not accurate. The date for all Open Cup matches is expected to be Wednesday, except for a few exceptions that are explicitly spelled out in the rules.

Game is subject to being moved up a day if chosen by U.S. Soccer to be broadcast nationally or if one of the participating teams has a league game scheduled for the following Friday.

I guess theoretically, if ESPN wants to carry the game and it’s moved to Tuesday, I’ll gladly be wrong and that’s awesome. I suspect they don’t intend to cover a game between two USL sides when there are plenty of MLS options available (unless they want to follow a Cinderella story… but in that case they would have started with coverage of fourth-round games between MLS and USL sides). Neither team has a Friday game, so that clause can’t trigger a date change.

So what’s with an even earlier date in the “window?”

Home team may choose June 16 or 17 if visiting team has at least two rest days on each side of chosen date. Election must be made within an hour of being named host.

Both Nashville SC and Louisville City FC have USL regular-season games June 16 (and both at home), so that’s not an option unless both are rescheduled for a different date. Screwing up the schedules of four different teams with minimal benefit – if any benefit at all – isn’t worth the effort here.

Thus, unless we’re seeing national television, June 20 is the only option. That’s a good thing for Nashville SC. While both teams have June 16 games, Louisville also plays June 23, whereas the Boys in Gold have a couple extra days off before hosting Indy Eleven June 16. There will be a less delicate balance in managing the roster, rest, etc. with that extra time. Louisville (which is already pretty banged up) won’t have the luxury of knowing it can play everyone available and let them have five days off before playing again.

Venue

Per US Open Cup rules of the competition, each participating team may submit only two hosting venues. Since Nashville has played in two different facilities, it’s clear what their two submissions were: Vanderbilt Soccer and Lacrosse Complex, and Dudley Field at Vanderbilt Football Stadium.

“First Tennessee Park and Nissan Stadium are not available June 20” is not a consideration here. The consideration is that they were both unavailable for the second- and third-round games (which NSC hosted at Vandy Soccer) and the fourth-round game (you may have heard they knocked off an MLS team there last night). There is no option for adding a third different venue. Anything other than the neighbors on Jess Neely Drive was off the table.

So then, that leaves us with a slightly different question: “Why didn’t Nashville SC apply for Vandy Football and/or Vandy Soccer for the fifth round?” From the participants’ handbook:

A team interested in hosting must name its possible home venues (limited to two) by submitting a Venue Declaration Form by the published deadline. The form is based on the stadium requirements set forth in the U.S. Open Cup Policy Manual.

You can see in the parenthetical why our two previously-discussed venues were the only ones available to NSC. Unfortunately, the “Policy Manual” is not publicly available – at least as far as I can find, if you know otherwise hit me up – so a bit of speculation is required.

Vanderbilt Soccer and Lacrosse Complex doesn’t meet attendance requirements for Round Four and beyond. This is an extremely easy assumption to make, and I presume it to be accurate.

Vanderbilt Football Stadium has permanent football lines and/or a crowned field. This is a little more speculative, but I’m guessing the field requirements get more stringent with each round (not just at major gaps between rounds, such as “pro teams enter the competition” and “MLS teams enter the competition”), so what was OK for Round Four is not for Round Five. There are other options here (the corners looked pretty tight – perhaps the dimensions weren’t wide enough), but it certainly seems as though something about Dudley Field itself doesn’t pass muster for the fifth round.

Now, maybe that’s not quite the case, and Vandy’s Stadium was submitted by Nashville SC, but when the other three teams in the group for the draw had better hosting situations (i.e. “football lines are not prohibited, but if other options don’t have football lines, a stadium with lines will not be chosen over it”), Nashville’s bid to host Round Five was denied.

Either way, see y’all at Lynn Stadium June 20.