Major League Soccer Commissioner Don Garber, at times glowing about Music City, said Friday that Nashville went from an afterthought to "pretty high on the list" among 12 cities in the hunt for four MLS expansion spots.

He also underscored the importance that Nashville secure financing for a soccer-specific stadium, making clear that no city would be approved without a stadium plan intact.

Garber, making his first trip to Nashville since it emerged on the MLS expansion scene, said Nashville was "never on anybody's list" for MLS soccer before it submitted an application for a team last December. He said MLS was, in fact, surprised to even receive a bid from Nashville and that Nashville "was not at the top."

But in short time, he said Nashville has changed the minds of league officials. Above all, he pointed to what he called a "committed ownership group" led by billionaire Nashville businessman John Ingram, who has teamed with businessman Bill Hagerty.

"Over the last six months, Nashville has really risen pretty high on the list," Garber said at a Friday news conference at the Thompson Hotel with Ingram and Hagerty on hand.

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Garber is in Nashville this weekend to review Nashville's MLS expansion bid firsthand. He arrived Friday and will be at Nissan Stadium on Saturday as the U.S. takes on Panama in a CONCACAF Gold Cup match.

Garber declined to say where Nashville ranks among the cities in contention but threw strong praise its way, pointing to its economic growth and influx of millennials, creative-types and new Americans.

"Nashville is very much like Major League Soccer: It's a city on the rise," Garber said.

"When we think about expansion in North America, there's an incredible energy here and there's an empowerment of the millennial market, and there's a creative community," he added. "There's the strength of the entertainment and music business and there's a great public-private approach to getting things done. That character of the city is very much about our league. We think of ourselves as a league for new America and we think of Nashville as a city for a new America, and it's been represented as we've been driving around today."

Garber said he spent time Friday afternoon touring The Fairgrounds Nashville and surrounding Wedgewood-Houston neighborhood — a rapidly changing area south of downtown that he called by its newfound nickname "We-Ho." The 117-acre city-owned fairgrounds is where Mayor Megan Barry and Ingram hope to get a stadium built for an MLS team. Talks between the two parties on financing are ongoing.

Others cities in play for the four the MLS expansion spots the league wants to fill are San Antonio, San Diego, Detroit, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Raleigh/Durham, N.C., Charlotte, N.C., Sacramento, Calif., Tampa/St. Petersburg, Fla., Phoenix and Indianapolis.

Garber has said that MLS hopes to announce two expansion cities, the league's 25th and 26th teams, in December. It's unclear when the next two cities would be announced.

Early on in the process, Nashville was considered an underdog, largely because it is the smallest market of the 12. But setbacks elsewhere have seemed to boost Nashville's chances — especially if Ingram and Barry's administration are able to secure a public-private stadium financing plan later this year.

Voters in St. Louis rejected a plan to fund an MLS soccer stadium in April, San Diego's city council punted a referendum to November 2018, and a plan in Charlotte has failed to gain traction in its city council.

"If a very promising market can't have a stadium, they're not going to be an MLS expansion team," Garber said Friday. "If Nashville's able to achieve that, it's going to be a very positive aspect for their bid.

"When we founded the league, soccer stadiums were not part of the original plan. The plan was to play in NFL stadiums," he said. "Now, we realize there's no reason to go into a market until you get that locked up."

Saturday's Gold Cup game presents Ingram and his partners a key opportunity to show Nashville has a thriving soccer community. Their goal is to set the record for the largest crowd ever to watch a soccer match in Tennessee — perhaps as many as 50,000 spectators.

"I'm thrilled to be out marketing Nashville," Ingram said. "Nashville's got a very strong history with major league sports. Obviously, we're all thrilled with what the Predators have done and think the Titans are teed up to have a great go. And we think that Nashville can be a very successful market for MLS as well."

Ingram recently bought controlling rights to Nashville Soccer Club, the United Soccer League franchise that is set to begin play in 2018. The USL team would turn into the MLS club if Nashville is awarded an MLS franchise.

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Barry is out of town for the weekend to attend a mayor's conference, but Garber is to meet with Metro's Chief Operating Officer Rich Riebleling, a top aide of Barry, during his trip. He's also expected to meet with Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam.

On Friday, he also sat down with Vanderbilt University Chancellor Nicholas Zeppos and Vice Chancellor David Williams, who have been open to the idea of sharing a future stadium at the fairground that would be used for both MLS and Vanderbilt football.

"To hear the head of the university talk abut MLS with a sense of interest and almost pride that perhaps we would come to his city and help drive energy for their student population and for their faculty and create more value, if you will, for what Nashville means around the world — that's stuff that really matters to people in our league," Garber said.

Ingram, a member of Vanderbilt's Board of Trustees, said the university is still reviewing its stadium options and hasn't made a decision.

Barry's administration has said they hope to have a funding package for an MLS stadium at the Metro-owned Fairgrounds Nashville this fall. Barry hasn't discussed potential financial arrangements, but has called for a "private-public partnership" with an emphasis on the private sector.

Metro is exploring the feasibility of two locations at the fairgrounds, which is also home to auto racing, flea markets and the annual state fair. The long-neglected site would require major upgrades to accommodate a new stadium, but Garber said he's open to the proposal.

"We pride ourselves in being a league that required a lot of vision to get where we are today, so it doesn't frighten me that you're looking at a site that has been around for generations and now the city — not even related to us — is thinking about its repurpose," Garber said.

"If MLS can be a part of that in a way that satisfies what ownership is looking for and what other partners they might and whatever requirement and issues we might have, it's not something that we would look down upon. But it's so early."

In the mayor's recently proposed 2017-18 capital improvements budget, Barry's administration has listed $150 million in proposed revenue bonds for a new municipal soccer facility. It marks an increase over the $50 million earmarked for a soccer stadium in last year's capital improvements budget.

Any stadium proposal for the fairgrounds would require both approval from the Metro Board of Fair Commissioners and Metro Council.

Garber was adamant that setbacks elsewhere on the stadium front would not delay the league's expansion decision in December.

"We are very confident we'll have two that we'll be deciding on," he said.

Reach Joey Garrison at 615-259-8236, jgarrison@tennessean.com and on Twitter @joeygarrison.