Joey Garrison

USA Today Network - Tennessee

Separate efforts to bring pro soccer to Middle Tennessee are now united behind the same goal — making Nashville a Major League Soccer city.

David Dill, co-owner of a local investor group called DMD Soccer that in May was awarded a United Soccer League franchise known as Nashville SC, is now also lending his help to Nashville’s bid for an MLS expansion team.

Dill, president and chief operating officer of LifePoint Health, is one of five new additions to a steering committee led by Nashville businessman Bill Hagerty that is working to put Nashville in position to compete for a franchise in MLS's next round of expansion.

The Hagerty-led Nashville MLS Organizing Committee announced the additions, including Dill, who has been been named a committee organizer.

“As we all have the same goal of seeing the highest tier of professional soccer here in Nashville, it makes sense for me to take a leadership role in the MLS Organizing Committee,” Dill said in a statement. “Nashville SC is very committed to the USL, but we also want to do all we can to support bringing the MLS to Nashville.”

Toby Compton, president of ABC of Greater Tennessee and former executive director of the Nashville Sports Authority, also has joined the Nashville MLS Steering Committee as an organizer.

Other new members of the steering committee are Hans Hobson, executive director of the Tennessee State Soccer Association; Howard Gentry, Davidson County Criminal Court clerk, a former Nashville vice mayor and former TSU athletics director; and Scott Ramsey, president and CEO of the Nashville Sports Council. Organizers are involved in the day-to-day activities related to the MLS bid while members act as advisers.

The USL is considered two tiers below MLS, the highest level of professional soccer in the United States.

Nashville SC, which includes co-owners Chris Redhage and Marcus Whitney, is slated to begin play in the USL in the spring of 2018. The organization has not secured stadium plans, however.

Eleven of the current 29 teams in the USL are owned by MLS teams. Ten others are affiliated with MLS clubs. Demonstrating a successful USL team could help Nashville's chances of landing a future MLS team and provide a path.

Hagerty, former commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development, said he’s happy to have Dill on board as an organizer. Hagerty, who has been alongside former ECD chief of staff Will Alexander on the MLS front, had previously extended an open invitation for Dill’s DMD Soccer to join Nashville's MLS expansion bid.

“All of us have the same goal of putting major league soccer here, and I think they’re going to be playing an important part of generating a lot support and showing Nashville as a real and professional soccer city," Hagerty said.

Hagerty said he envisions DMD Soccer probably being a part of Nashville's MLS ownership group if Nashville is awarded an MLS team. He called the USL's Nashville SC team “a natural affiliate” of a future MLS team.

In the meantime, he said the enthusiasm and growth of Nashville SC would help support the MLS push by showing that Nashville is a place where pro soccer can thrive.

Hagerty said he expects Major League Soccer to provide a timeline and parameters for the next wave of MLS expansion sometime this fall.

He said he’s had “really good conversations” with prospective investors of an MLS team in Nashville and also has brought in architects to look at stadium ideas. He declined to reveal possible MLS stadium locations in Nashville that his group has explored.

Hagerty in August announced the creation of the now 27-member Nashville MLS Organizing Steering Committee, which includes top executives from some of Nashville's corporate giants: HCA, Bridgestone Americas, Nissan North America and Ryman Hospitality Properties, the Tennessee Titans and the Nashville Predators

“We’re continuing to gain momentum as we move along,” Hagerty said of the latest committee members. “We’ve got a great group of people who have great depth in the sports community here in Nashville.”

MLS, which has 20 clubs, plans to expand to 22 in 2017 with the addition of teams in Atlanta and Minneapolis-St. Paul. A second franchise in Los Angeles and Miami would bring the number to a stated goal of 24 teams by the end of 2020. MLS Commissioner Don Garber has outlined plans to then expand to 28 teams in what he's said may be the league's final round of expansion.

Hagerty and other Nashville MLS Steering Committee members hope to compete for one of those four spots.

Reach Joey Garrison at 615-259-8236 and on Twitter @joeygarrison.