Early on a sunny Saturday morning, Pierre Moossa stood on a balcony overlooking Broadway, surveying the scene and all those people.
“It’s a special place,” he said.
A coordinating producer for NBC, Moossa has overseen the network’s coverage of the English Premier League from the beginning in 2013, when it first attained American broadcast rights. He’s done the traveling road show before, only this edition hit differently. Moossa attended Vanderbilt University, graduating in 1999 with a degree in civil engineering.
Don't let that engineering degree fool you. Moossa's passion, and profession, is television. What was transpiring below him on Broadway, ostensibly, was a made-for-TV event. That was evident in the “Premier League Mornings Live” crew broadcasting remotely for hours, analyzing highlights and soccer matches from England, fans visible on air while clustered behind the stage, holding signs and scarves and whatever else.
Up close, this was a lot more than just TV. It was a fan festival, with tents and big screens and games and mascots and live music and a bunch of folks wearing jerseys and team gear. Some were supporters of prominent clubs like Liverpool, Arsenal or Manchester United.
Others, your average American sports fan probably wouldn't recognize. The fans here, though, they would.
That's what this was about.
Wasn't about one match or one team or even solely about the Premier League. This was a blending of cultures and common interest, a convention for devotees of a global sport. When something like that percolates in Nashville on that section of lower Broadway, it’s a happening.
It was in 2017 when the Nashville Predators made the Stanley Cup Final. When thousands attended watch parties near Bridgestone Arena, that was hockey’s moment in this city. A couple of years later, pro football had its Nashville experience. The NFL still buzzes about the league’s 2019 draft that lured more than half a million people.
Not to equate those showcases with a random, regular-season weekend being played an ocean away, but in its own way and for its own fans, this weekend represents soccer’s big moment on Broadway.
“This is ultimately our way of thanking the fans who are such a big part of it,” Moossa said. “Some people call it Disneyland for the football fans. To see all these people and let them get to see and touch and experience the Premier League and see how excited they are, it's always cool.”
The two-day Premier League Fan Fest, accompanying coverage of 10 matches on Saturday and Sunday, was the ninth for the league and NBC Sports. Previously, they’d done this in New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Washington, D.C., Miami, Philadelphia, Orlando and Austin, Texas.
None featured a larger crowd than Nashville.
Saturday's attendance of 8,894 was a single-day best for the event, according to NBC Sports.
“Nashville is a phenomenal sports town, collegiate and professional, and has proven to be an incredible host for fans," said Lyndsay Signor, senior VP of consumer engagement for NBC Sports. "Nashville has allowed us to create a space on iconic Broadway to celebrate the core Premier League fan who loves watching every week and the new fan who has never experienced what fan fest has to offer."
During Saturday’s broadcast, host Rebecca Lowe recounted some of the previous stops and remarked for viewers at home – but more so for those standing behind her in attendance: “I can tell you Nashville is right up there.”
Lowe and her on-air NBC Sports colleagues – analysts Robbie Earle, Robbie Mustoe and former U.S. national team goalkeeper Tim Howard – kept watch of games. They also mixed in with the crowd between segments.
“I’ve had two dream jobs,” Howard said. “I've been able to play in the Premier League and play for the national team. And I've said very publicly that working for NBC in this role is a dream come true. It’s the best of the best in terms of production.”
Consider those words a pat on the back for Moossa and his associates. From the beginning, NBC’s goal was to make its Premier League coverage as authentic as possible. Initially, Moossa said, the focus naturally was on experiences in England, where matches were taking place. But the longer they went, the more “we realized we actually should focus on what everybody here in the United States is focusing on,” he said.
“And that led us to this.”
And this is unique: A truly American take on Europe's preeminent league. The fan fest's first attendee was waiting at 12:30 a.m. Saturday to get in, Moossa said, and “there were lines around the block” in advance of the day’s opening game overseas, which started at 6:30 a.m. in Nashville. A similar setup awaited Sunday.
Meanwhile, Moossa was reverting to his youth, planning for a Saturday night in his college city. Visitors from the Premier League had told him they were eager to experience Nashville. His mind settled on the Station Inn.
“So that’s where I’m going to take them,” he said, “and they are going to love it.”
Reach Tennessean sports columnist Gentry Estes at gestes@tennessean.com and on the X platform (formerly known as Twitter) @Gentry_Estes.
