Breaking News Titans and City of Nashville Want to Finish New Stadium by 2026

Yeeeeaaah this kind of makes me think about the battery where the Braves play now. My wife and I stayed at the Omni and you walk out the back door of the hotel and you are right in everything, its like middle class white people Heaven.

 

Gillette like that also. Has several local restaurants, hotel, bars and a shopping mall all connected.

 

From my sources, I think the Titans were indeed as recently as the end of last year thinking that they were going to be just fine making upgrades to the existing building and keep playing outdoor football. What changed was when they finally got the price tag on what adding another 20-30 years of life on the existing structure was going to cost. And when the numbers came in, it wasn't pretty.

The existing stadium cost about $300m to build back in the late 90s. Since then millions have been spent on regular maintenance, major maintenance, many new field resods, new scoreboards and a host of other features. It was a nice place for a small-to-mid-market city on the move and Bud Adams didn't want to build a domed stadium nor did anyone back then want to pay for it. There was enough political turmoil back then when the whole thing went up for a county-wide referendum.

But best practices in stadium construction doesn't stand still and if the same place was being built today, they would do many things differently. Steel instead of reinforced concrete.....easier access ways, better drainage, etc. But getting it all up to best practices now would cost north of $600m and possibly much more. All of a sudden, spending $1.5B on a new place with a moving roof doesn't seem so ridiculous.

Of course, there are a lot of problems to solve. First, I'd doubt that they would trade the spot they have now. It's prime real estate and makes walking from hotels to events extremely easy. Moving to the metals recycling property would just cost even more money since even though the business was sold last year, Billionaire Carl Icahn still owns the land and he's looking to get paid. That and anybody that builds there may have lots of EPA-related cleanup of the land, slowing down the process further. One thing for sure though....the Titans would not be in favor of another pro sports team moving to that spot (read: MLB) since they want to be the only thing happening on the east bank in terms of sports.

There are other buildings in the general area that would need to be removed like the two old hotel properties. And the city has the Juvenile Justice Center which would built in the 90s right before the stadium was built. Although the building is still young for Metro buildings, the JJC is terrible in that construction flaws and the 2010 flood have rendered the building obsolete even now. My wife used to manage all of the city's buildings (except MNPS) including construction and maintenance and the JJC was always a source of trouble. It's not an "if" but "when" that building will seek a new home. And for those who think that all cities are poorly managed, Nashville is actually pretty good. My wife took pride in doing more with less and that happened a lot, even though she spent a significant chunk of the city budget annually.

Speaking of spending money, if you've never looked at the city's budget, you should....it's not a page-turner but it is interesting if you care about the city and its future. One thing that would have to happen is that the city issued bonds to pay for Nissan Stadium and i think there are still 7-8 years left on those notes. Any new building would have to have that existing debt rolled into the new cost.

A new building is a lot of money. But there is also a lot of opportunity. Bridgestone Arena went from being a "we hope people will use this thing and do shows here" to one of the biggest cash cows we have. Before COVID, the building was one of the most utilized large indoor venues IN THE WORLD. The question the city and the Adams ownership group are asking are how much more utilized can the stadium be if they could operate all year round for non football events? Nissan Stadium can't do large concerts after October. How many events have been rained out? (like the CMAs) How many more people would go to Titans games if the weather experience was always pleasant? And what events could you do that are iffy now or impossible? World Cup? (especially with the dedicated soccer stadium nearby) NCAA Final Four? NFL Combine or a return of the Draft? Dare I mention the Super Bowl?

 

too bad Titan FO hates Titan fans

 

This is what they did at Foxboro. I lived in Beantown at the time and it was cool sitting in the nosebleeds in old Foxboro as Gillette was being built right next door.

 

Similar thing in Indianapolis too I think or pretty close, one block over maybe

 

They ain’t doing chit with the impending recession. Just a load of hype to distract fans from same oke Titans one and done.

 

Not football, but Citi Field in Queens was built right next to the old Shea Stadium.

 

The new stadium in Atlanta was built right next to the Georgia Dome too. Where the GA Dome was is now a green space for tailgating and events right next to the stadium.

 

Yeah I’m sorry but I just don’t see this happening. Not getting started in the next few years at least. 10 years down the road…maybe. I’d love to be wrong on this but I just don’t see it happening right now.