In Nashville SC's wildly challenging expansion year, 'We've more than survived' | Estes

If the first steps are the hardest, as they say, then the soccer teams playing Friday night at Nissan Stadium will have nothing to worry about.

Surely, it'll never again be as difficult as Year 1.

Credit to Nashville SC and Inter Miami. That the MLS’ two 2020 expansion teams made it into this opening-round Eastern Conference playoff game would have defied odds even in a normal season.

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But this year? Ridiculous. Short of some type of tragic catastrophe, this year has been as challenging — in many ways, but financially in particular — as any major-league expansion team could ever expect right out the gate.

Perhaps a bit bruised, they’re still standing as MLS’ postseason begins.

“We got through things,” Nashville SC majority owner John Ingram said Thursday. “I’m not saying this hasn’t been harder than expected, because it has been. But to have found our way through it, to have done well enough to be hosting a first-round match, it just makes me say about everybody associated with Nashville SC: Well done.”

Nashville wouldn’t have landed an MLS team had it not been for Ingram, a businessman with deep pockets, deep ties to the city and a desire to build it a big-league soccer franchise, sparkling new stadium and all. His involvement made the difference in Nashville's successful MLS bid.

Wasn’t on a whim. Ingram’s devotion to the club is sincere. While that wasn’t being debated before 2020, it surely can’t be questioned moving forward. Not now.

Not after protracted negotiations with Mayor John Cooper early in the year delayed construction of Nashville SC’s new Fairgrounds stadium, resulting in at least $54 million in additional costs for Ingram and the team.

Not after the COVID-19 pandemic. Costly for any sports franchise, but Nashville SC was just getting off the ground, just building a following.

After two games, its inaugural MLS season was delayed for months, and when games did start back, Nashville SC couldn’t sell tickets. Fans couldn't attend until weeks later, even then it was at greatly reduced capacities, obviously limiting first-year revenue for the club.

More:Nashville SC wingers Randall Leal, David Accam return in time for MLS Playoffs opener

“It’s the hand we were dealt,” Ingram said. “I’m not going to cry about it. We’re going to press forward. … I’m proud we didn’t lay anybody off. We cut some folks back, but really, mostly up at the top. I like to believe that we’ve been resilient and persevered. I always, the rest of the things that I do, want to play for the long run. And I think we’ve tried to do that here and not do anything that would hurt us long-term. If that meant some more losses or some more pain for us, then so be it.

“I feel pretty gratified that I think we made the right decision.”

During those first games back, Ingram would sit with CEO Ian Ayre and feel as if they were the only people in the stadium. “If either one of us shouted something down at the field,” Ingram said, “everybody in the place would hear.”

It was a shame that spectators weren’t allowed in for much of this odd season, because something else happened for Nashville SC: The team was pretty good.

Far better than expectations in Year 1, Nashville took points from 16 of its 23 league games. It clinched a playoff spot in an expanded field with weeks to spare. As the East’s No. 7 seed, Nashville will host No. 10 seed Miami in Friday’s play-in contest to decide a spot in the league’s final 16.

Some dramatic, extended playoff run for Nashville isn't impossible, though it'd be a longshot. Really, Nashville has been viewed like that all season anyway.

And its owner is proud of a team that has overachieved. Ingram credited Ayre, general manager Mike Jacobs and coach Gary Smith for the club’s roster-building efforts: “I think you’ve got to look and say, ‘You know, they picked pretty well, especially for an expansion year.’”

Ingram said he sees his role “as more curator than Jerry Jones. I want to build something that’s sustainable and something that will be competitive and fade more into the background.”

So would Ingram have done all this again if he’d known how difficult 2020 would be? “There’s certainly moments where you’d say, ‘I’m not sure,’” he replied with a laugh.

Ah, only kidding.

“I’m somebody that believes that ultimately, what doesn’t kill you can make you stronger and better,” Ingram said. “This has tried to kill all of us, I mean, literally and figurately, right? We’ve more than survived.

“We’ll take that.”

Reach Gentry Estes at gestes@tennessean.com and on Twitter @Gentry_Estes.