Architecture firm Populous, which is no stranger to the sports and soccer worlds for its stadium designs, has been selected for a contract to design the MLS stadium in Nashville, slated for the Fairgrounds. The contract is subject to approval from Metro Council, and final details have yet to be publicized (though a $12 million value was approved by the Nashville Sports Authority).
Populous has designed plenty of high-profile soccer stadia in recent years, including Tottenham Hotspur’s upcoming stadium, slated to debut in the 2018-19 season, Lyon’s Groupama Stadium, and the conversion of Queen Elizabeth Olympic Stadium from an all-purpose track facility to a soccer ground (occupied by West Ham United).
On the domestic front, Populous was the design firm behind Sporting Kansas City’s Children’s Mercy Park, generally regarded amongst the best Major League Soccer facilities in the country:
While no two design projects are exactly alike – and Populous’s results have run the gamut from traditional to fully modern – there are some consistent features among the soccer stadiums we’ve seen in recent years.
The majority of them are open-air but have covered seating (two aspects that are going to be almost certain inclusions in the Nashville design). Plenty of them have sweeping, flowing exterior design elements tying the stadium itself into a big-picture connection with the area surrounding it (Incheon 2014 being the most obvious example among the above). All of them are purpose-built, and given Nashville’s desire for the stadium to be more than just a soccer venue – also the cornerstone of a new commercial/residential district, including the 10-acre parcel in the initial stadium proposal – there will be plenty of engagement in determining exactly how to meet the needs of the city and team.
Club and Country 