Cookeville Lawmaker Helped Bring MLS Team To Nashville

Major League Soccer announced Wednesday that an expansion team will be locating in Nashville.

Cookeville State Representative Ryan Williams said he helped support the idea of getting an expansion team last year by carrying a bill in General Assembly.

A group hired to help bring an MLS team to Nashville contacted Williams after learning about his passion for soccer and his previous collegiate career at Carson Newman University.

“This is actually pretty miraculous in as quick that it’s happened,” Williams said. “It was about a year ago when I got the first call asking me to carry a bill to allow for a franchise to come to Tennessee because they couldn’t fund a stadium unless the laws were changed.”

The bill, which passed the General Assembly, extends special sales tax allocations to a municipality with a sports authority and a Major League Soccer franchise. A law that only applied to other minor and professional sports franchises before the bill passed.