Nashville SC to host Juneteenth-eve watch part at Elizabeth Park, Backline SC adding Black-led SG The Mixtape

Nashville SC photo from file/Courtesy MSC

Extremely cool initiative by Nashville Soccer Club, with a Juneteenth (eve) watch party for this weekend’s game against New York Red Bulls. From Club release:

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (June 14, 2021) – To kick-off the Juneteenth holiday weekend, Nashville Soccer Club announced today it will be hosting a special Juneteenth Community Watch Party on Friday, June 18 at Elizabeth Park in the heart of North Nashville, one of the city’s most storied communities and an area rich in African American history.

In conjunction with Metro Government of Nashville and Davidson County Parks & Recreation and District 21 Councilman Brandon Taylor, the Juneteenth Community Watch Party will bring together soccer fans and residents of North Nashville to celebrate the Juneteenth holiday and the history, contributions, and resilience of the community. 

Starting at 6 p.m. CT, the event will feature a live broadcast of the Nashville SC match as the Boys in Gold take on the New York Red Bulls at Red Bull Arena at 7 p.m. CT. The event will also feature the club’s IMPACT Soccer program, music, food, soccer games, giveaways, and a host of vendors providing essential community resources. 

To mark the occasion, The Backline Supporters’ Collective will launch the club’s newest, and first black-led Supporters Group, The Mixtape. 

Nashville SC release

These are… the sorts of things that NSC hadn’t historically done a good job with, and I must admit being very impressed with some of the ability to start building bridges to make up for past oversights from the front office (in fairness, many of those oversights came with a mostly-different front office during the USL era).

I’ve long stumped for the club to promote SGs that are designed to appeal to underrepresented voices in the fanbase – and the fact that before last year “Latin American” was one of those underrepresented umbrella categories says a lot about how far they’ve been at times – and I’m excited to see another step in that direction with the Mixtape. Most importantly, though, getting into the community and giving the club exposure to people who can’t afford tickets or may not be the high-spending target audience for club gear… that’s a win.