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MLS set to announce Nashville has been granted an expansion franchise

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MLS has scheduled an announcement in the city of Nashville on Wednesday, one where the league is expected to formally declare that the city has been granted an expansion franchise.

In attendance will be MLS commissioner Don Garber, Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam, Nashville Mayor Megan Berry, and Nashville Soccer Holdings head John Ingram.

If Nashville is chosen, as expected, it would see the successful completion of a bid that was considered a long shot when the 12 expansion candidates were announced back in January.

But Nashville has ticked off all the necessary boxes, and had the most complete bid out of a group of four finalists that included Cincinnati, Detroit, and Sacramento.

Ingram was brought in to lead the investment group, with the Wilf family, owners of the NFL's Minnesota Vikings, joining him later to supply additional financial heft.

The investor group than secured $225 million in public financing from the city of Nashville to be used towards the construction of a $275m stadium to be built on the Fairgrounds Nashville. The city also showed strong support for one-off events like last summer's Gold Cup.

The organization will field a team in the second-tier USL next season.

A lawsuit aiming to stop the use of the Fairgrounds as a site for the stadium was dismissed on Monday.

Conspicuous by its absence in the league's press release was any mention of which city will fill the other expansion slot that MLS has said will be granted this month.

With Nashville set to be named, the race for the last spot is widely viewed as a two-city race between Cincinnati and Sacramento.

In terms of when Nashville will begin play, that is still to be determined with the fate of Miami's expansion effort and the completion of Nashville's stadium among the complicating factors.

But with LAFC joining MLS in 2018, and giving the league an odd number of teams, there will be momentum to bring Nashville on board as quickly as possible, with the 2020 season the most likely scenario.