Los Angeles Angels shortstop Andrelton Simmons has decided to opt out of the remainder of the season, with only five games left in the regular season and his team all but eliminated from postseason contention.

Simmons informed the Angels of his decision Tuesday, the team said in a statement. Neither side has specified a reason for his decision.

In a statement released through his agency, ISE, Simmons said, "Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association developed an environment and system that empowered players and provided us the opportunity to decide on whether to play or opt out of the season. At this moment, I feel this is the best decision for me and for my family. We don't know what the future holds, but we would like to sincerely thank the Angels organization and Angels fans for welcoming and making us feel at home."

Simmons, a pending free agent, is a four-time Gold Glove Award winner and a career .269/.317/.379 hitter through nine seasons in the major leagues. The 31-year-old accounted for the first major move by Billy Eppler as Angels general manager, when Eppler acquired Simmons from the Atlanta Braves in a high-profile trade involving top pitching prospect Sean Newcomb in November 2015.

Manager Joe Maddon acknowledged Tuesday afternoon that he was caught by surprise when Eppler told him about Simmons' decision. Maddon said he texted Simmons but hadn't yet heard back.

"I've really enjoyed this guy a lot," Maddon said. "I'm a big fan. This guy is a good baseball player, and I've enjoyed the conversations, too. It's just unfortunate. He's really a big part of what we're doing right now."

Simmons missed some time because of an ankle sprain earlier this season and batted .297/.346/.356 with zero home runs in 127 plate appearances. He recently expressed a desire to re-sign with the Angels in the offseason but was noncommittal about the chances of that happening, saying: "I can't pay myself to play here, so it's not my decision."

"This year has presented unique challenges for many reasons, and the Angels respect Andrelton's decision," the team said in Tuesday's statement.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The world 5000m record-holder and the world 3000m leader have been named on the Uganda team for the half-marathon in Gdynia

Joshua Cheptegei and Jacob Kiplimo have been announced as part of the Uganda team for the World Athletics Half Marathon Championships in Gdynia, Poland, on October 17.

Both will be making their debut at the half-marathon distance but have shown impressive form on the track recently and will go into the event as strong medal hopes.

READ MORE: Joshua Cheptegei smashes world 5000m record in Monaco

World 10,000m champion Cheptegei, who also won global cross country gold last year, stormed to a world 5000m record in Monaco last month, clocking 12:35.36, while Kiplimo won the 5000m in Ostrava in a 12:48.63 PB and then clocked a world-leading 3000m PB of 7:26.64 in Rome.

Joining them on the men’s team in Gdynia are Moses Kibet, Stephen Kissa and Abel Chebet, while the women’s team features Ugandan record-holder Juliet Chekwel together with Doreen Chemutai, Doreen Chesang and Rachael Zena Chebet.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — As he returns to Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course this weekend, IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship team co-owner Mike Shank will have a much better view of his home track than in his first visits.

Shank initially came to the natural-terrain circuit in Lexington, Ohio, as a pre-teen, tagging along with his father who competed in a Fiat 124 Spider in Sports Car Club of America F Production class events. It wasn’t a free ride for the younger Shank, who literally was put to work headfirst inside the tiny sports car.

“They would stuff me by my ankles down in the foot well area and I would clean the pedals out,” Shank laughed. “That’s the true story, too, that’s not BS. That’s how we got going and how I kind of grew up around cars. I was happy to do that. It was what they were letting me do.”

Nearly five decades later, the Ohio native now sits atop the timing stand as a team owner and race strategist for the No. 86 Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian Acura NSX GT3. The car and its full-time drivers also lead the WeatherTech Championship GT Daytona standings heading into Sunday’s Acura Sports Car Challenge at Mid-Ohio.

The No. 86 is fresh off its first victory of 2020 — the six-hour TireRack.com Grand Prix at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta (Ga.) on Sept. 5. It marked the fourth podium finish in five outings, allowing co-drivers Mario Farnbacher and Matt McMurry to build a 12-point margin in the GTD championship. The No. 86 boasts a 14-point edge over the No. 14 AIM Vasser Sullivan Lexus, while Acura has an eight-point advantage on Lexus in the manufacturer chase.

The Mid-Ohio weekend takes on a meaning of its own for Meyer Shank Racing. It’s the track where Shank’s passion for the sport was born and curated. The team is based in Pataskala, Ohio, just 70 miles south of the track. Partner and manufacturer Acura is title sponsor of the event and considers it a home race as well, since Honda of America Manufacturing’s flagship production plant is in nearby Marysville, Ohio.

Bringing home a win for his team and Acura is paramount for Shank, who has had back-to-back runner-up finishes at Mid-Ohio the past two years – including last year when the No. 86 led 85 of the 114 laps but lost the lead to the No. 14 Lexus with 20 minutes remaining and fell 0.598 seconds shy of victory.

In some ways, Shank believes Mid-Ohio owes the team some good fortune.

“Of all the success the team has had over the years, we’ve never had a ton up there,” he said. “I’d really like to fix that before I’m done. We’ll see how it goes.”

Shank’s drivers understand the significance of Mid-Ohio as well.

“It’s the home race for Acura and for Meyer Shank Racing, so it’s a big weekend all around,” said Farnbacher. “We’re really hoping to give the team its first win at Mid-Ohio. Last year we came close, so I’m hoping we can change that this weekend.”

McMurry will make his team debut at Mid-Ohio this weekend after his first career victory in the WeatherTech Championship came in Lexington last year racing in the Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) category. He is also coming off an eighth-place finish last weekend in LMP2 at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

“I’m looking forward to getting back in the Acura, especially at Mid-Ohio because it’s such a special track for Mike and the team,” McMurry said. “Mario and I have a good rhythm going. We are leading the championship right now, but that doesn’t change our focus heading into the next few events. We’ll try to get as many points as we can, and a win would be awesome to give to Mike.”

HAUBSTADT, Ind. — In the midst of his victory lane celebration Saturday night at Tri-State Speedway, Kendall Ruble practically had to pinch himself to ensure he wasn’t dreaming.

The 23-year-old had just put the finishing touches on his first AMSOIL USAC National Sprint Car Series triumph, fending off an early attack by Kyle Cummins and a late charge from Chase Stockon to secure the Haubstadt Hustler title and its $10,000 prize.

It was a moment Ruble had worked his entire career for, and he knew to savor it.

“You don’t know what you’re going to feel until it happens, but man … I had to soak it in,” he told Sprint Car & Midget. “That night, the win … everything was such a long time coming, especially at Haubstadt.”

Ruble won his heat, started fourth in the feature and won the 30-lapper, but he admitted his night started off on a sour note that few people may have picked up on at the time.

“We had a pretty good car all night, but in hot laps and the heat race, we were actually down a cylinder,” Ruble explained. “I’m not sure if it was a spark plug or a spark plug wire, but we changed both and it fixed the issues. It’s funny, though, because I think being down on power actually helped us out, believe it or not. Being down that cylinder took us down on horsepower, and that saved us because we had so much more traction. We weren’t spinning our tires or anything through those times, and I think it actually made us go a little bit faster.

“It was easier to control the car at that point, but we got things right by feature time and I just had a good feeling about how things might go for us.”

That positive mojo was evident from the opening lap, when Ruble stormed from fourth to second in less than half a lap before stalking Stockon in the early going.

“I knew my car was good on the bottom and that’s something I’ve stuck to in all the time I’ve been racing at Haubstadt,” said Ruble, who considers himself a Tri-State Speedway regular. “You can be fast by keeping your momentum up on the top there, but if your car is set up to come off the corner well, you can make a lot of time on the bottom. That’s where I felt like we were good all night long.”

Ruble dogged Stockon through slower traffic in the middle stages of the race but struggled to pass cars as well as Stockon could and had to settle back in – making a shock adjustment in the process — before finally making his move with 10 to go.

Ruble pitched his car to the bottom of turns one and two, while Stockon ran wide and just grazed the outside wall, allowing the Vincennes University graduate to blast past and assume command of the race.

After that, the only nervous moment for the young Hoosier came with six to go, when he and Cummins made contact in traffic that led to Cummins spinning from second with Ruble retaining the lead.

“Cummins was really fast on the top, even though he was having a throttle linkage issue, I think,” Ruble noted. “He’d let off the gas and his motor wouldn’t go beyond probably 3,500 RPM. I’m sure that was pretty tough to drive … but we got into more lapped traffic and I got behind a slower car that made a move I wasn’t expecting. It pushed me way up the track and Kyle was right there, showing his nose.

“He got under me going down the back straightaway, before that slower car got in front of him and kind of blocked him off,” Ruble added. “That got him all out of whack and I came around on his outside before we touched a little bit going into three.

“He got the worst end of it, but it was a racing deal, I think.”

To continue reading, advance to the next page.

Luis Suarez's move to Atletico Madrid is back on after the striker's legal team reached an agreement in principle to terminate his contract with Barcelona, sources told ESPN.

A new deal had to be struck after Barca back-pedalled on the original agreement made on Monday when it emerged Suarez was close to signing for Atletico.

- Stream ESPN FC Daily on ESPN+ (U.S. only)

The original terms would have allowed Suarez to leave for free in exchange for the Uruguay international giving up a percentage of the final year of his contracted salary at Camp Nou. In addition, he would not have been allowed to join certain clubs stipulated in the agreement.

Atletico did not feature among those clubs he could join, leading Barca to backtrack when it emerged their third-highest scorer of all time could potentially join a La Liga title rival for nothing.

Suarez, 33, was furious and sources told ESPN he was prepared to speak out on the issue, but that will not be necessary following further developments on Tuesday.

Sources were unable to confirm the exact terms of the new agreement, but some reports say Atletico will not pay Barca an initial fee for Suarez and instead will pay a number of performance-related variables.

New coach Ronald Koeman told Suarez he was not in his plans when he took over last month. He has not been involved in any of Barca's three preseason friendlies as negotiations continued over the termination of his contract.

He turned down the chance to join Inter Miami and become the highest-ever earner in Major League Soccer history, while a move to Juventus also fell through.

Suarez's switch to Juve was dependent on him obtaining Italian citizenship, which unravelled on Tuesday when it emerged a language exam taken in Perugia last week is under investigation from prosecutors amid irregularities.

The Barca forward is not under investigation himself.

Atletico had always been waiting in the wings, with coach Diego Simeone particularly keen to bring him in. Alvaro Morata's loan move to Juve, confirmed on Tuesday, opened up room on the wage bill to sign Suarez.

The move draws parallels with David Villa's switch from Barca to Atletico in 2013. With Villa up front, Simeone's side won the La Liga title and reached the Champions League final.

Suarez is set to leave Barca after six successful years at the club. He's scored 198 goals since signing from Liverpool for around €75 million in 2014.

NASHVILLE -- The parking lot at Nissan Stadium had long since cleared out, but superfan Clay Trainum was in no hurry to leave. Hours earlier, Nashville SC had made its MLS debut, losing to Atlanta United 2-1. The result wasn't what Trainum wanted, but defeat did little to take the shine off the day. NSC held its own against an Atlanta team that at the time was thought to be one of the league's powerhouses.

An announced crowd of 59,069 cheered on the home side, a record for a soccer match in the state of Tennessee, and the team's most vocal supporters stood in the south stand for the entirety of the match. There was a chill in the air, but Trainum was enjoying the final embers of the day, one that for him was years in the making.

"The team did well. The fans did well," Trainum said. "But this isn't the end. This is the beginning."

- MLS announces schedule for remainder of 2020 season
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It's staggering how much the hopes and dreams for the team, its fans and the city have been sidetracked since that February night. Nashville has taken its share of hits over the years, from the reservoir collapse of 1912 to the flood of 2010, the latter of which remains a "where were you when ..." moment that saw Nashville come together, even as the tragedy gained little in the way of national attention.

But the past five months have delivered body blow after body blow. Less than 48 hours after NSC's inaugural MLS match, a tornado ripped through the Nashville area, killing at least 24 people and injuring more 200. The COVID-19 pandemic then upended life to an even greater degree. The Metro Nashville Health Department has reported 257 confirmed COVID-19 deaths and more than 27,000 cases.

NSC wasn't immune. The team was forced to withdraw from the MLS is Back tournament because of a cluster of positive COVID-19 tests among the players. Most poignantly, Nashville SC CEO Ian Ayre lost his mother, Beryl, to the virus in April.

Then there were the nationwide protests surrounding the death of George Floyd, which affected Nashville, and the subsequent protests of the killing of Jacob Blake. Although Nashville played on the day of a player-led walkout on Aug. 26, defender Jalil Anibaba, a founding member of the advocacy group Black Players for Change, has continued to speak out against racial injustice.

"At this point in time, it's about unity," Anibaba said the day of the walkout. "We'll continue to show that through our conversations internally but also through our actions."

The sport has since returned, with Nashville hosting three matches, albeit without fans. All of this has served to hit a pause button on so much of what NSC was trying to accomplish -- namely gaining a toehold in Nashville's consciousness.

"We had this kind of prizefighter moment, where we felt like every time we stood tall, we got knocked down and had to get up again," Ayre said. "It's been not what anyone would have wanted or expected, but I'm a big believer that you learn a lot in the most difficult times."

In Nashville, the NHL's Predators have blazed a path for how an expansion team in an unfamiliar sport can get its hooks into a sporting populace in which football -- the American kind -- remains king. Sellouts at Bridgestone remain the norm for the Preds, but replicating that success will be difficult, especially in a city with much more to it than bachelorette parties and country music.

"There is an energy in and about the city that I don't think people from outside really notice," said Newton Dominey, the president of the Roadies, one of the NSC supporters groups. "I think it's because country music has been the absolute top of the flagpole for so long that people, I guess, just haven't noticed the other things. We're a tech city. We're a healthcare city. It gets a lot more rock and roll than country. And Nashville throws a helluva party. It is a party city. 'Nash-Vegas' is real."

Bringing soccer back to the Music City

In some respects, NSC is emblematic of the challenges facing the city. The breakneck pace of growth has slowed a bit in recent years -- but only just. During a five-minute cab ride between downtown hotels, the number of construction cranes dotting the skyline easily runs into double digits, lending credence to the joke that the cranes are Tennessee's unofficial state bird. Yet not everyone has been able to take part in the city's growth. Pre-COVID-19, according to a 2018 estimate by the U.S. Census Bureau, the city's poverty rate was at about 16%.

Odessa Kelly is the executive director of Stand Up Nashville, a coalition of community and labor groups that helped negotiate a community benefits agreement relating to NSC's stadium project. At Woolworth on Fifth -- the epicenter for Nashville's civil rights movement in the 1960s and where some of the first sit-ins took place -- Kelly mused on how the city has grown.

"Development has had the largest positive and negative impact on the city," she said. "Nashville traditionally has been a blue-collar town where people are willing to work hard and can have a good quality of life here. Now we have so many people who are working full-time jobs or working two or three jobs and can't afford to live in the city. The people who are making Nashville, they can't afford to stay in the city that they're growing."

Soccer is lauded the world over as the people's game. Can Nashville SC build bridges between old and new and from community to community?

Initially, Ayre seems like an odd choice to lead that effort, with his Liverpudlian accent making him seem out of place in the American South. But growing up in Liverpool -- plus his stint as managing director at Premier League giants Liverpool FC -- gave him an up-close perspective on how deep connections can run between team and city. Sure, LFC has a head start of more than 100 years on Nashville SC, but Ayre is determined to try.

Three days before Nashville's opener in February, Ayre was in a New York City hotel attending the league's media day. The buildup to Saturday's match was such that he joked, "I can't wait for Sunday," the better to get into the rhythm of the season and find out what kind of team he had.

"It's almost like building the motor car, and Saturday's the first time you get to drive it," he said. "But you gotta keep tuning it and getting better."

Ayre sees some similarities between his adopted hometown and the Liverpool of his youth. Nashville might be an entertainment city, but selling Nashville SC has meant engaging in all manner of meet-and-greets with potential fans, whether 10 people in a bar or 1,000 at an event. In the process, he has discovered a hardworking ethos largely out of view of the glitzier environs.

"That's the Nashville way," he said of the number of meetings he has had. "Look me in the eye. Come and tell me honestly what you're trying to do and who you want to be and the team wants to be, and come and tell me why I should show up.

"People aren't impressed with shiny, celebrity status. Nobody gives us a chance because we maybe don't have the most world-famous coach or player at this point in time, but we have a plan."

Execution of that plan is in part the responsibility of GM Mike Jacobs. Behind his desk at the team's temporary offices at Currey Ingram Academy, he has a message written on a white board: "Mitigate Risk."

"I just want to make sure we're more educated than everybody else," he said. "It doesn't mean we're not going to take chances, but have them be more educated chances rather than a guessing game."

That is borne out in the team he has assembled. Much of Nashville's hopes, at least in the attacking half of the field, rest on German attacking midfielder Hany Mukhtar and Costa Rican winger Randall Leal. Neither is a household name. But combined with MLS veterans such as Dax McCarty and Walker Zimmerman, Jacobs' hope was to lay a foundation that he can build on.

"I think that kind of makeup of our team appeals to a whole group, different ethnicities, different styles," he said. "I think for us, on the field we wanted to resemble new Nashville and old Nashville. We wanted to have the entertainment factor of something special with this blue-collar gritty mentality also."

Six months on, Nashville has found its feet on the field, even amid the forced exit from MLS is Back. NSC finds itself ninth in the Eastern Conference, with a record of 3-5-3. In the generously expanded playoff format in which 10 of 14 teams from the East will qualify, that's enough to be among the playoff places. But the lack of offensive firepower has been a significant weakness, so much so that Nashville recently signed Benfica forward Jhonder Cadiz on loan.

Will it be enough? For NSC to reach the postseason, it likely will need to be.

A team built in Nashville

When MLS announced 12 candidates for an expansion franchise in January 2017, Nashville's odds of securing one of the two slots seemed long. The city soon caught up and could boast the golden triad of fan base, deep-pocketed owners and stadium plan, but it reinforced the impression that Nashville was late to the soccer party. The reality is that Nashville has its own rather tortured soccer history.

Trainum and I met at a bar called The Centennial in The Nations neighborhood. It makes for an apt venue, given the extent to which old and new collide. Amid new buildings that contain cafes and coffee houses, an abandoned grain silo rises with a mural of longtime West Nashville resident Lee Estes. It speaks to how the city's denizens don't want the past to disappear too quickly.

Closer to the ground is another, less conspicuous mural. Patrick Swayze's "Point Break"-era visage adorns an outer wall of The Centennial, where every Aug. 18 they celebrate St. Patrick Swayze's Day.

As about 15 West Ham fans celebrate a 3-1 win over Southampton, Trainum -- the city's unofficial soccer historian -- and I settle at a table in the back. With the care that one might expect for the original copy of the Declaration of Independence, Trainum cradles the game program from the first match of the Nashville Diamonds, who in 1982 played a solitary season in the American Soccer League. At the time, the NASL had already begun its long, steady descent toward oblivion, and the ASL was suffering as well.

"They won that first game against the Carolina Lightning, they won their last game against Georgia Generals via forfeit, and in between, they went 1-21-4," Trainum said of the Diamonds. "Yeah, they were real, real bad."

The Nashville Metros lasted longer, existing in a variety of lower-tier leagues from 1990 until 2012 and spending their final years in the USL's Premier Development League. That team disappeared with nary a word spoken. "The Metros didn't even get an obituary because we found out the Metros died when they weren't on the schedule for the PDL," Trainum said.

As was the case in many American cities, the sport proved hard to kill off entirely. A Metros fan named Chris Jones -- now serving as NSC's director of fan engagement -- started figuring out how a new team could be formed. He decided to form a nonprofit social club that ran a soccer team "because that's what we were."

"We just went to Twitter and had zero plan and nothing really other than, 'The city deserves it,'" he said via telephone. "And people started chiming in, people who I'd never met before. And I figured, let's all meet up and just kind of talk through it. And the next day, we're meeting and having discussions of names, colors, all that stuff."

Jones ended up getting more than 1,000 contributions of $75 each from 26 different countries. The money was put toward operating costs, such as stadium rental and uniforms, and Nashville FC was born. "It was definitely something that was just kind of a passion project, just something to do during coffee breaks and lunch hours, stuffing flat-rate envelopes [of tickets] at midnight," he said. "My wife's saying, 'That better be cleaned up in the morning before we go to school.'"

After merging with another club, Atlas FC, Nashville FC landed in the National Premier Soccer League, and it existed in the de facto fourth tier of soccer for three seasons. The question for NFC then became: How far can we go with this?

It's a question more fraught than one might suspect. There are soccer fans in the U.S. for whom anything connected to MLS (and its very corporate structure) is to be shunned. No doubt, some fans dropped out along the way, but the NFC members agreed to press on.

"We kind of had this Kumbaya moment that, 'OK, professional soccer is going to happen here,'" Jones said. "We can either be a part of the conversation, or we can just keep doing what we're doing, and someone else is gonna make it happen. And so our members said, 'Let's pursue it, see what it looks like, what the costs are.'"

That eventually meant a move into the USL and a name change to Nashville SC, with new investors coming on board in the form of Marcus Whitney, David Dill and Chris Redhage. That in turn drew the interest of local businessman John Ingram and later the Wilf family, owners of the NFL's Minnesota Vikings, who paved the way to MLS.

Underpinning it all was a grassroots community that provided an invaluable foundation.

Soccer Moses

On a damp Monday morning, the man they call "Soccer Moses" can be found at his one-chair barbershop, The Handsomizer. His real name is Stephen Mason; rock fans might recognize him as the guitarist in the band Jars of Clay. Mason readily admits that he's the living embodiment of another of Nashville's jokes, that being when you ask someone what they do for a living, they respond, "I'm a musician and ..." or "I'm a songwriter and ..."

Mason caught the soccer bug when he attended an Arsenal game at Highbury in 1997, but his connection to NSC goes back to the team's first year in the USL, when his wife, Jude -- an English-born devout Watford fan -- gave him a season ticket for Christmas. His notoriety has increased in the time since he attended NSC's opener dressed as Moses, displaying a sign that said, "Let My People Goal." The inspiration came from JT Daly, the frontman for the band Paper Route, who while in Ireland shouted the phrase in a pub after watching Nigeria's Victor Moses score against Argentina at the 2018 World Cup.

"I think he probably drank for free the rest of the day," Mason said.

About three days before the Nashville match, in the middle of cutting someone's hair, Mason was discussing how he should put the phrase on a shirt. Then he got the idea to dress up as Moses and bring in a banner with the catchphrase instead.

We'll keep doing our best, Soccer Moses. #EveryoneN

pic.twitter.com/EZ6iLDWrQr

— Nashville SC (@NashvilleSC) March 1, 2020

It wasn't the first time Mason dressed up for an NSC match, either. He has shown up as a miner, and when October rolled around, he donned a costume that made it look like he was sitting on someone's shoulders. "Trainum would suggest that while I do like soccer, he thinks I actually like cosplay," Mason quipped.

Jude chimed in, "It's not true, but it's close enough to be funny. I said, 'You're gonna go. You're gonna get on the big screen. Are you sure you want to become the Moses guy? This could stick.'"

She was right. "It's like 'Anchorman' -- you know, that escalated quickly," Mason said. "This might be the Ministry of Soccer Moses."

The quest for a home

Mason is perfectly positioned to witness the construction of a new soccer cathedral. Across the street from his shop are the Nashville Fairgrounds, site of NSC's proposed 30,000-seat soccer stadium. The project involves a redevelopment component, a relocated Expo event space, new mixed-use retail and residential buildings, and an upgraded Fairgrounds Speedway capable of hosting NASCAR events. The community benefits agreement negotiated by Stand Up Nashville requires the redevelopment portion to pay a minimum wage of $15.15 an hour and provide affordable housing and daycare for those working on the project.

It was the CBA that helped provide some momentum within the Metro Council, allowing more of the surrounding community to have a stake in the project.

The neighborhood surrounding the stadium site hasn't really taken part in Nashville's renaissance. Mason hopes that will begin to change, even though he knows not everyone will want to come along for the ride.

"What's important for us, I think, as people really passionate about seeing Nashville SC come into its own, is to know that not everybody is going to be excited about some of that," Mason said. "That growth is going to be difficult for some folks, and I think the Fairgrounds for me represents an opportunity for us to -- as best as anyone can right now -- partner together and be supportive, be compassionate, be excited and participate because man, there's so much going on at the Fairgrounds."

It makes for another clash of old and new Nashville, a divide epitomized by the group Save Our Fairgrounds. SOF has fought the project at every stage and has provided a twist on the pro- versus anti-development argument. The group is led by Duane Dominey (a distant relation of Newton Dominey, head of NSC fan group the Roadies), a former Metro Council member who contends that the building of the stadium violates Nashville's city charter and that because building a soccer stadium is not among the listed uses of the property, any change must go to a voter referendum.

SOF says its aim is to protect the site's current uses, such as the State Fair and a monthly flea market, and it fears that if NSC is allowed control over the site's schedule, other events will be pushed out. SOF has filed a lawsuit to protect those uses.

"I'm not opposed to soccer," Dominey said. "I'm opposed to soccer at the Fairgrounds."

Save Our Fairgrounds' opposition echoes much of what is going on in Miami with the stadium development for David Beckham's MLS franchise -- namely, that public land should not be handed over to private, for-profit interests. There have been accusations that SOF's motivations have racial overtones, which the group hotly denies. SOF emphasizes that public land is being given away. (NSC is responsible for $13 million in debt service to the city's sports authority.)

"Is this a land deal or a soccer deal?" asked Rick Williams, another of the group's leaders. The much-lauded CBA is derided as "unenforceable" and a way of giving Metro Councilmembers political cover. SOF's plan is to keep the project tied up in the courts for years. The suit went to trial earlier this month.

Ayre dismisses the litigation as "a bit like background noise." Demolition has gone ahead, and NSC doesn't anticipate that the lawsuit will impact the project, with the stadium scheduled to open in May 2022. The club's supporters are clear about what side of the old versus new divide they stand on.

"They're in the way," Newton Dominey, the Roadies president, said of SOF. "And instead of trying to be partners, they're obstacles."

An opening day success ... now what?

About two hours before kickoff of the team's inaugural match in February, the east parking lot at Nissan Stadium is a hive of activity. Newton Dominey has sold about 50 Roadies memberships in the past hour. Ingram, NSC's majority owner, is floating and speaks about how "gratifying" the day is.

That joy and optimism have trickled down to the fans, though not all. "I think, at least in terms of marketing and accessing a lot of communities, especially working-class communities, I think the club has failed to do that in a lot of ways," Scott Kopfler says. "I think there are people that love soccer and that want to be a part of what's going on and almost aren't kind of shown the right way by the club."

Some inroads have been made, however. "La Brigada de Oro" ("The Golden Brigade"), one of the club's supporters groups that caters to Latinx fans, is putting on a show in the form of dancers in Aztec dress. "We've been waiting for this game for the longest time already, so we're so excited to see all these people right here with us," says Gabby Acosta, who founded the group with her husband, Abel.

"Cheer for the same team. Cheer for the same passion that we have with the football. This is us, and we hope we can see more people come to every game."

When asked if the club has done enough with outreach to minority communities, she hesitates. She lauds the effort of Newton Dominey and the Roadies, who helped get the group up and running, but believes that NSC can do more.

"Our people sometimes feel like, 'OK, this is futbol, but they see -- and I'm sorry to say it this way -- they see more Caucasian people than Hispanic people, so they feel like, 'OK, well, you know what? This is not us,'" she says. "We need to bring something else. So that's why we started up La Brigada de Oro. And this is what we have already."

That day, Acosta and her fellow NSC fans were more than ready, despite the result. What they couldn't have anticipated was just how long they would have to wait for the party atmosphere to return, as the hiatus has proven long indeed. Although fans of MLS teams such as FC Dallas, Sporting Kansas City and Orlando City have been able to attend games -- albeit with much reduced capacity -- Nashville's fans haven't.

The end is now in sight. On Thursday, Nashville Mayor John Cooper and the NFL's Tennessee Titans announced that a limited number of fans could begin attending Titans games starting Oct. 4. The expectation is that once MLS's schedule is ironed out, NSC will soon be able to follow suit, though that news has come too late for some, at least for this season. Newton Dominey and Trainum said they have opted out of attending more games in 2020, applying their season-ticket money to the 2021 campaign instead. Not even the possibility of a playoff game will sway them. The atmosphere just wouldn't be the same, they say.

"I've waited six months," Trainum said. "I can wait a few more."

Mason is of similar mind, though he hasn't completely decided. One thing that is certain is that Soccer Moses won't be making an appearance under the current conditions.

"It's a case of the 'Already' and 'Not yet,'" Mason said. "There's still the longing of what we tasted and what's to come."

MS Dhoni batting at No. 7 against Rajasthan Royals was an "absolute miscalculation" according to former India batsman and two-time IPL-winning captain Gautam Gambhir. In a sharp criticism of the Chennai Super Kings captain on ESPNcricinfo's T20 Time Out, Gambhir said Dhoni ought to have led from the front, and that no other captain whose primary skill was with the bat would have got away with batting as low in a chase of 217.

Dhoni came in during the 14th over of the Super Kings' chase, with his team needing 103 off 38 balls and a struggling Faf du Plessis on 17 off 18 balls at the other end.

"I was a bit surprised to be honest," Gambhir said. "MS Dhoni batting at No. 7? And sending [Ruturaj] Gaikwad before him, Sam Curran before him. Makes no sense to me. In fact you should be leading from the front. And this is not what you call leading from the front. Batting at No. 7 when you're chasing what... 213 [217]? The game was over. Faf was probably the lone warrior.

"Yes, you can talk about MS Dhoni's last over [when he hit three sixes], but it was of no use to be honest. It was just all personal runs."

"There is nothing wrong if you end up getting out early, at least start leading from the front, trying to inspire the team as well." Gautam Gambhir on MS Dhoni

Dhoni's first apparent attempt at hitting a six came in the last over of Super Kings' innings, which had begun with them needing 38 to win. Dhoni went on to his three sixes in that over, but, till then, he seemed content largely patting it around. Both Dhoni and coach Stephen Fleming said he was just looking to ease into the tournament, given that his last competitive game before this IPL was in the World Cup semi-final last year.

"See, if someone else would have done this, some other [batsman] captain had batted No. 7, he would have got a lot of flak. It is MS Dhoni - probably why people don't talk about it," Gambhir said. "When you don't have Suresh Raina, you're making people believe that Sam Curran is better than you. You're making people believe that Ruturaj Gaikwad, Curran, Kedar Jadhav, Faf du Plessis, M Vijay, all these guys, are better than you."

In response to what the Super Kings had expected when they sent Curran, Gaikwad, and Jadhav ahead of Dhoni, Fleming said, simply, "good things".

"MS is a specialist at the end of the innings, always has been," Fleming said. "Curran was there to try and hit us and keep us in the game at that point when we were falling behind. He's got good hitting power like we saw. Ruturaj... it was his first game and we wanted to get him into the game, into the order. We wanted to be aggressive, we've got a long batting order and we're just trying to use our resources smartly."

In Gambhir's opinion, that approach was not a prudent one, and left him questioning if there was solid "intent to win the game". "There is nothing wrong if you end up getting out early, at least start leading from the front, trying to inspire the team as well," Gambhir said. "What you did in the last over, probably if you'd done that coming in at No. 4 or 5, alongside Faf, you could have made a game out of it. But probably there was no such intent to make a game out of it.

"I thought that after the [first] six overs, they had literally given up on the game. And probably MS was trying to get back into that match rhythm of batting till the end and get some runs under his belt so he can actually play these kind of innings in the coming games.

"You've got to be in the present, try and win each game possible. I thought there was no intent to win the game and they were never there in the chase. You can talk about Faf's innings, but Faf initially was struggling big time. So I thought it was absolute miscalculation, probably not the right captaincy as well. This is not how you ask someone like MS to lead the side."

Billy Donovan has agreed to a deal to become the next coach of the Chicago Bulls, sources tell ESPN.

Chicago Bulls executive VP of Basketball Operations Arturas Karnisovas aggressively pursued Donovan in the aftermath of Donovan's leaving the Oklahoma City Thunder after five seasons, sources said, selling Donovan on a partnership and vision for a talented young roster and chance to lead one of the league's anchor franchises.

Donovan's representative, Oliver Winterbone of Wasserman Media Group, finalized the deal with Chicago officials on Tuesday, sources said.

Karnisovas and GM Marc Eversley believed Donovan was the best coach available in the marketplace, and his track record in Oklahoma City --- including five straight trips to the playoffs in the Western Conference - fit for the Bulls. Donovan, 56, was the National Basketball Coach's Association's Co-Coach of the Year with Milwaukee's Mike Budenholzer for 2019-2020. The NBA's coaches vote on the award. Karnisovas dismissed former coach Jim Boylen in May, and talked with a number of candidates before extending the offer to Donovan.

In five seasons, Donovan advanced to the Western Conference Finals in his first season with Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook and reached the playoffs in each of the next four years. Donovan was 243-157 (.608) as Thunder coach. Donovan signed an initial five year deal with the Thunder upon arriving from the University of Florida, where he had won two national championships.

Bianca Andreescu will miss her third Grand Slam of 2020 after pulling out of the French Open to focus on recovering from a knee injury before a busy 2021.

The world number seven said she will now miss the rest of the season.

"As hard as it was to come to this conclusion, I have so much to look forward to in 2021, including the Olympics," said the Canadian.

"I want to use this time to focus on my game so I can come back stronger and better than ever."

Andreescu said she will be able to focus on her "health and training" for the remainder of 2020.

After winning her first Grand Slam at Flushing Meadows in 2019, Andreescu missed the Australian Open early this year with the knee injury and, after Wimbledon was postponed, she also withdrew from this month's US Open.

Qualifying for the French Open has started at Roland Garros in Paris, with the men's and women's main draw beginning on 27 September.

ABINGDON, Va. — Alex Prunty made a name for himself by winning three late model championships at Slinger (Wis.) Speedway.

Now, he has his sights set on the high banks of Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway for the Pinty’s U.S. Short Track Nationals presented by Vore’s Welding and Steel, Sept. 25-26.

A native of Wisconsin, Prunty is teaming up with with Highlands Motorsports to drive the No. 96 Ford Mustang in the 100-lap super late model portion of the U.S. Short Track Nationals.

The Abingdon-based team has enjoyed success in the past at the event, with Josh Reeves winning the pro late model race in 2018.

Prunty has a strong family racing legacy. His father, Daniel and three uncles, have combined to win 11 titles at Slinger Speedway over the last 30 years. Alex Prunty started racing super late models in 2016, winning his first championship in 2018 and won the National Short Track Championship at Rockford (Ill.) Speedway in 2017-2018.

“I’m very excited having the opportunity with Highlands Motorsports to race in the U.S. Short Track Nationals,” said the 27-year-old Prunty. “Just knowing the history of NASCAR racing at Bristol Motor Speedway over the years and all the legendary drivers who have competed there, it’s going to be a very special deal and I’m looking forward to it. It’s going to really be a stacked field with a lot of very talented super late model drivers.

“I’ll have Josh Reeves serving as crew chief and overseeing preparation of the race car in the shop leading into the event. Josh knows what it takes to win at Bristol and that in itself is huge.”