by Timothy Belin
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA -- April 4, 2025
Birmingham Legion FC announced Tuesday the hire of Nick Hall as the club’s first-ever Chief Business Officer. A veteran of the sports industry, Hall spent the past 16 years working various management positions in minor league baseball before transitioning to soccer with MLS’ St. Louis SC.
Originally from Tennessee, Hall said he was excited to be moving back to the South, where it feels like home.
“[It’s a] really special opportunity,” Hall said. “The direction soccer is headed as a sport, nationally but then also the excitement that is happening in our region right now, kind of made it a no brainer to be able to help out and see what we can do here.”
Though his official titles at his previous stops, which saw him work in Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and Missouri, were varied, Hall put that down to organizational structure rather than any meaningful difference in responsibilities. In Birmingham, his primary role will focus on running the day-to-day business operations, including marketing, community relations and growing the Legion FC brand.
Hall’s appointment comes at the end of a 10-month search for the club’s first CBO, and he said he was eager to get going and show everyone they found the right man for the job.
“It’s honestly an honor, being able to talk through everything with Jay [Heaps, CEO] and James [Outland, chairman] and the board,” Hall said. “The trust that they’ve already put into me has been awesome, it’s been a great process so far.
“It’s something that I hold very highly and take very seriously,” he added. “And it’s on my priority list of making sure everybody knows that it’s going to be an excellent decision, because we’re going to do some great things.”
Though Hall has only been in the job one week, he said he’s already been taking in as much information as he can to truly hit the ground running. He compared the experience to “drinking through a fire hose,” but said it had been fascinating to hear the community’s feedback and figure out how he can go about addressing their concerns.
One of his primary objectives, he said, will be the fan experience at Protective Stadium. Hall said his passion is making as many people have a great time as possible, and he wants to bring back the excitement and passion for Legion games that the club experienced in its first few years.
Since the move to Protective Stadium in 2022, the home atmosphere has been a struggle for the Legion, which averaged just shy of 5,000 fans in the 47,100-seater stadium in 2024.
For the first two home games of 2025, that number has taken a dive down to 3,243, with on-field struggles unlikely to help the cause.
“My goal is to increase attendance, and the way that we’re going to increase attendance is by putting on an awesome show,” Hall said. “Our goal is to give fans many reasons to come out to games and start limiting the reasons not to. The biggest thing is that I think if we can increase attendance, it’ll be a snowball effect because people want to go to games with a hundred of their closest friends as opposed to a couple. And so the plan, the playbook right now is that we are going to be the best show in town.”
In the official press release, the club highlighted Hall’s tenure with both St. Louis and his previous role as the Executive Vice-President of the Fredericksburg Nationals, both of which saw him oversee new stadium developments. With many in Birmingham asking for a soccer-specific venue for the team, some fans read into this as a promise for the future.
However, Legion’s new CBO said there isn’t currently any plans for a stadium change.
Hall said the club enjoys a positive relationship with both the city and the Birmingham Jefferson Convention Complex — the owner and operator of Protective Stadium — and his focus as a result is to grow the brand and work on the fan experience where they are.
“The focus right now is growing the brand through marketing, getting people excited to be at those Legion games and working on that fan experience, to make Legion games the things that we want to do on the weekends,” Hall said.
With Hall’s appointment, the Legion also announced a change in role for Jay Heaps, previously president and general manager. As Hall takes on some of Heaps’ responsibilities on the business side, Heaps will transition to a new role concerned more directly with on-field performance.
The press release described the change as an “expansion” of Heaps’ role, making him CEO and Chief Soccer Officer.
“Nick’s hire will allow me as the Chief Soccer Officer to enhance focus on soccer operations and first-team performance,” Heaps said in a video released to the club’s social media accounts. “We will continue to invest in youth development and build out a data- and video-analytics team that will help with player signings and scouting. And most importantly, will allow us to improve the on-field results.
A message from Chief Soccer Officer & CEO Jay Heaps.
— Birmingham Legion FC (@bhmlegion) April 3, 2025
“Those results have not been good enough,” Heaps continued. “Injuries have impacted us, however we are not going to use that as an excuse. Ownership, front office, coaching staff and players are all committed to doing the work to make the necessary changes to get the results back to our standard.”
Hall said he was looking forward to establishing a strong working relationship with Heaps, whom he said he had “a ton of respect for.” He said his goal is for them to develop a great partnership that can help elevate both the business and soccer side of the club.
"My big thing in my entire career so far has been making the show, making the atmosphere of games top notch," Hall said. "I want to be sure that when fans come, they have an amazing time, regardless of what's going on inside the stadium. That they're leaving and all they're thinking about is when we're going to come back next. Because if we can start packing the house, the casual fan is going to have more and more fun every single time they come."
The club has a bye this weekend, but Hall said he is excited to get to his first game when the team returns to Protective Stadium at 4 p.m. April 13.
“I’ll be out there,” he said. “I think people will learn I love to talk, I love to listen. And so I will be out there, so come on out on April 13th, say hi to me and then tell me how I can help out the Legion, how I can help out the fans, and we’ll go from there.”