May 22 – The new Nashville MLS franchise that will start play in the 202 season has named former Liverpool chief executive Ian Ayre as its chief executive officer.
“We are committed to bringing world-class soccer to Nashville, as evidenced by the appointment of Ian as our CEO,” said John Ingram, lead owner, Nashville MLS. “Ian understands our vision for Nashville MLS and has the skill and experience to bring the best in soccer to our city.”
Ayre spent 10 years at Liverpool, leading the club through the acquisition by the Fenway Sports Group and served on UEFA’s Competitions Committee in 2017. He has a background in football and sports media rights having been a director in the satellite and technology company Pace Micro Technology during the growth of multi-channel television distribution.
The owners of that business also owned Huddersfield Town and in 2000 Ayre was instrumental in the 72 Football League clubs putting their digital rights into a common operating platform – Premium TV Limited. Ayre became managing director of that business that eventually folded but which saw current digital media powerhouse Perform come out of its ashes.
More recently Ayre had a brief spell as managing director at 1860 Munich.
“To take what is essentially a blank sheet of paper and build an entire club is an amazing challenge, and one I am hugely excited about,” said Ayre.
First on the list of challenges will be to oversee the building of the team’s new, 27,500-seat stadium at The Fairgrounds, Nashville.
Nashville has a growing footprint in football (soccer) in the US, with a newly launched team competing in the second division USL, and CONCACAF having announced the city will host games in the 2019 Gold Cup.
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