GET THE DETAILS ON HOW TUESDAY'S EXPANSION DRAFT WORKS
NASHVILLE – With nine players already in the fold and many more on the way, Nashville Soccer Club is ready to take the next step in its Major League Soccer journey.
Nashville SC is building its roster for its inaugural MLS season in 2020, and it will mark a major milestone in that process on Tuesday, November 19 during the MLS Expansion Draft.
The club will celebrate the occasion with a party at Ole Red® Nashville on Tuesday. The party gets started at 4:00 p.m. with the draft getting underway at 4:30 p.m. CT. For those who can’t make it downtown, the draft will be streamed live on MLSSoccer.com.
Here’s all you need to know about the MLS Expansion Draft process:
Where: Ole Red® Nashville
When: Tuesday, Nov. 19 at 4:00 p.m. CT
Who: CEO Ian Ayre, GM Mike Jacobs, Head Coach Gary Smith, , plus special celebrity guests
Live Stream: MLSSoccer.com starting at 4:30 p.m. CT
Who Can Nashville Pick?
Nashville and fellow expansion side Inter Miami CF will receive lists of available players from Major League Soccer. The lists will be released to the public on Saturday. On Tuesday, both Nashville and Miami will each be able to select up to five players from that unprotected list during the Expansion Draft.
Current MLS clubs will be able to protect 12 players on their rosters from the Expansion Draft. Five clubs (D.C. United, Vancouver Whitecaps FC, FC Dallas, Houston Dynamo and New York Red Bulls) are completely exempt from the draft after having a player selected by FC Cincinnati in 2018.
For all of the other clubs, they must pick up to 12 players across their Senior, Supplemental and Reserve rosters to protect. Players with contracts that expire at the end of 2019 and players who have had their options declined are part of the draft and not automatically protected. If a player has a no-trade clause in his contract, his club must protect him and he will count as one of the 12 protected players.
Generation adidas players who have not been graduated by the end of the 2019 season, and Homegrown Players (aged 25 and under) are automatically protected. Designated Players are not automatically protected.
Who Will Nashville Pick?
Inter Miami CF owns the first pick in the Expansion Draft, having won the coin flip at the Expansion Priority Draft back in October. After Miami makes its first pick, Nashville will follow, and the two will alternate until each has picked its five players. The clubs will have three minutes to make their selections during the live show.
While each team will be able to add each of the five players to its inaugural roster, history indicates that not all of the five players picked will end up playing for the expansion clubs. Since MLS switched to this format for expansion drafts in 2016, every expansion team has traded at least one Expansion Draft pick to other clubs in exchange for other players or assets.
Jacobs told NashvilleSC.com that he will be seeking players that provide the most value, whether that’s by joining the club directly from the draft or being traded for other assets.
“We’re trying to see which players are most valuable,” he said. “Because that value is not just who we think we can get for our team, but it’s who we think we can acquire and trade to somebody else for more value. The Expansion Draft for us is all about acquiring as much value as we can in drafting players, drafting players for other teams and acquiring assets to get future players.”
Click here for more information on Nashville SC’s Expansion Draft party at Ole Red® Nashville.
