Titans exploring new stadium in Nashville

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The Titans were in talks with Nashville about renovations to Nissan Stadium, but they may be getting an entirely new home instead.

In a recent appearance on WNSR, via Terry McCormick of TitansInsider.com, Butch Spyridon of the Nashville Convention and Visitors Bureau said that talks about renovations resulted in plans that would run to a cost of around $600 million. A Titans spokespersonn told Nate Rau of Axios that the price tag is actually estimated at nearly double that amount and that “we need to take a step back and re-evaluate if a stadium renovation is the most responsible option forward and explore other paths.”

The spokesperson notes that the stadium’s structural frame “needs to be largely replaced with steel” and that “mechanical, plumbing, and electrical systems need to be completely replaced.” Nashville Mayor John Cooper confirmed “revised cost estimates require us to closely review whether a new stadium would be a better long-term financial decision.”

Talks between the team and the city are reportedly progressing well, but moving from renovations to a new stadium raises issues that will need to be ironed out. Among them is whether the stadium will have a roof, which would cost more while also putting the city in the running for bigger events like the Super Bowl and Final Four in the future. The financing for any building is another significant question that would have to be answered before moving forward in Nashville.

50 responses to “Titans exploring new stadium in Nashville

  1. Thanks Titans for finding a whole new method to the “new stadium” grift by professional teams: Telling the public that the costs of renovating are so outrageous that building a new stadium is the “responsible” path forward. This might be the new gold standard for teams moving forward.

  2. The stadium opened in 1999.. 23 years ago… so now we are in an age where teams need a new stadium every 25 years?

    If the owners of the Titans had to pay for the stadium themselves.. they would quickly change course and say “we can squeeze another 15 years out of this baby easy!”

  3. Soon to be heard news- Titans now in the running with Buffalo looking at St Louis, San Diego San Antonio, etc as place to relocate their team.

  4. One thing for sure, the Titans are not moving. I saw full stadium week after week all season long. Plenty of support here, verses, say LA?

  5. Yet that dump called the Superdome has been overhauled who knows how many times and its lasted like 50 years.

  6. All the owners are crooks making the taxpayers pay for their little hobbies. Sell the team or move it

  7. One thing for sure, the Titans are not moving. I saw full stadium week after week all season long. Plenty of support here, verses, say LA?
    _________________________________________________

    The stadium was full in Houston too until Bud Adams announced he was moving the team. So fan support has little to do with this. It’s all about politics and greed. If Nashville doesn’t eventually give ownership what they want they will start looking elsewhere. It’s how the cookie crumples in most major sports leagues in this country.

  8. This is the Adams family’s MO. Bud demanded and received renovations to the Astrodome on taxpayers’ dime to the tune of $300 million, IIRC. Then, just a few years later, Bud demand a new stadium. The county said no, which is why they are now the Tennessee Titans.

  9. Not as crazy as it sounds for a couple of reasons.

    Nashville is on fire and the land across the bridge where the current stadium sits…and all its parking…..would be gobbled up developers faster than you vintage Pac Man game. (Unless they build it on the same site and go over and play at Vandy for a few years)

    Secondly, the city has all the attractions, the weather and the hotel rooms to get a Super Bowl…maybe get into the rotation. But they’d need new digs.

  10. That Nashville stadium is close-by to Music Row and the downtown entertainment district. Where would a new stadium be? Way out yonder?

  11. If public entities help finance stadiums, how about adopting a new financial model. Public financing is a loan, secured by a variable rate mortgage for a term based on the anticipated life of the stadium, with the loan at prevailing interest rates. If the team is sold or moved, it is treated as an act of default and the loan comes due.

  12. Houston & Cleveland are great football towns & strongly supported the Oilers & Browns. Its about the owners getting paid well to move the teams. Fan support has little to do with it. That being said, quit hustling these communities for new stadiums every 25 years. It’s pathetic.

  13. Nashville is complicated in terms of its status as an NFL city? Was Nashville worthy of a franchise 25 years ago? Honestly nope. Now, the population has exploded to the point that they are more in line size-wise with other NFL cities.

    In the end, Bud Adams moved to Nashville because of all the huge corporate entities who are major players in the city-Nissan, Dell, etc. There are a hell of a lot more of them now than there even was when the team moved there. The team is not going to move anytime soon. Even if they did, other teams would be beating down the door to move there simply for the huge corporate sponsorships availability-all of which are money direct into the owners pockets.

  14. “The spokesperson notes that the stadium’s structural frame “needs to be largely replaced with steel…”

    Umm… what did they build it out of the first time around?

  15. if you have the capital and can meet the regulations you can open anything from a dry cleaners to a commercial airline. but yet no one, not even the richest people on the planet can buy an NFL franchise unless one is put up for sale. the NFL (all pro leagues) are closed systems. why? because federal laws from a long time ago (basically WW2) protect these leagues. so stop complaining. if you want teams to pay for stadiums, true openness in ownership, hirings, etc then demand your Congresspeople vote to remove the protections and allow a free market (but that’s an uphill battle given the politicians are heavily funded by the leagues to not change the federal laws). otherwise, the complaints above are no different than 20 yrs ago and 20 yrs from now.

  16. Nope … nothing wrong this stadium. Adams family can spend their own money on another one. They need to buy up the land from PSC Metals and develop it.

  17. Watch out Nashville….. As any long time Houstonian can tell you, you may not like how this story ends. Guess you better hope that the apple did fall far from the tree.

  18. People saying St. Loius are hilarious. That lawsuit all but guarantees they’ll never see another NFL franchise.

  19. Also, St Louis has already failed a couple of times to hold on to a team. It’s a baseball city, that’s all.. no NFL team is going to move to St Louis.

  20. Titans ownership gonna fleece fans. That stadium is only 25 years old.. I promise you if owners paid for it instead of taxpayers it would be in perfect condition…

  21. The current stadium location is perfect. You walk across the bridge and hit all the bars, clubs and other attractions. They just find a way to work out a reasonable renovation that doesn’t screw the Nashville taxpayers.

  22. I was there for Bills v Titans Monday night game this past season. Stadium was great and you cannot beat the location. Something tells me local taxpayers are about to be fleeced.

  23. That would be rich if the Titans moved back to Houston and took back the name Oilers. Of course then the Texans would have to move to Tennessee and become the Tennessee Texans. The name would be crazy but STILL better than the Washington Commanders. Only in the NFL.

  24. I live in Nashville, I’ve been to that stadium more than a handful of times. It sucks. It’s laughable compared to other stadiums I’ve been to that are downright gorgeous.

  25. bigbadbills says:
    February 17, 2022 at 7:38 pm
    Toronto Titans
    —————————————————————————————————-Toronto? 40 years of people mentioning Toronto and the NFL. Not gonna happen. Ever.

  26. The Titans owners just came back from the Super Bowl and were clearly jealous of the fancy new stadium in LA. Now they’re demanding a new stadium and threatening Nashville for a shiny new palace at the taxpayers’ expense

  27. Some of the comments on PFT are kinda crazy. Why would the Titans want to leave Nashville? It’s a rapidly growing metropolitan area, there are countless Fortune 500 companies in the area, the only real competition at the moment for sports dollars are the Predators, and from 1999-2014, they sold out every game. From 2015-current, they’ve sold over 62,000 tickets per game, minus the COVID season.

    Amy Adams seems to really like Middle Tennessee and even bought a mansion in the Green Hills neighborhood. She’s bringing old Oilers legends to Nashville and placing them into the ring of honor.

    The Titans aren’t going anywhere.

    Final thought, I currently live in Houston (from Nashville) and see Texans fans all the time wearing Oilers gear. It’s time to move on. The Oilers are in Nashville and have absolutely nothing to do with the Texans. Warren Moon and several former Oiler players have embraced Nashville as their NFL home now. You don’t see people in Baltimore dressed in Colts gear. You don’t see people in Cleveland wearing the logo of the Rams, and you don’t see people in Chicago wearing the Cardinals gear. It’s time to let it go.

  28. It would be nice to see the Tennessean to do deep dive on whether the stadium is a safety hazard if its crumbling and unstable after 20 years. The contractor should be in jail.

  29. The stadium simply needs renovation. It was designed by the same company that did Raymond James in Tampa…which was renovated top to bottom and inside out between 3 and 5 years ago. The Bucs owners put about $170M into the renovation and the taxapayers did about $25 million. I have been to Nissan in 2019 and it’s overdue a facelift, but has amazing potential too, and it’s in a fabulous location right on the river in Nashvile. Why waste the money doing something like the Cowboys or Rams have…where SoFi was $5B! This needs to be for the fans, not a playpen for the rich.

  30. Just renovate it. And the cost of a retractable roof is 2/3 the cost of a new stadium, and is simply not worth it. Who is saying you have to have a roof to host the Super Bowl? That is bogus. New York hosted it a few years back. Yes, it was chilly, but this is football…a game created to play outside.

  31. Buford’s Bucs says:
    February 18, 2022 at 4:53 am
    Just renovate it. And the cost of a retractable roof is 2/3 the cost of a new stadium, and is simply not worth it. Who is saying you have to have a roof to host the Super Bowl? That is bogus. New York hosted it a few years back. Yes, it was chilly, but this is football…a game created to play outside.
    ______________

    There comes a point when the cost of renovation becomes too high vis-a-vis the cost of new construction. This is true for all buildings, including your own home. Replacing the structural frame as well as the mechanical, plumbing, and electrical systems is a huge expense. Why not put that money into a new facility that encompasses all of the latest amenities?

    Regarding a roof, it has nothing to with whether football can be played outside. People spending thousands of dollars for tickets do not want to sit out in the freezing cold.

  32. Publicly funded stadiums are a losing proposition. The city of Cincinnati is going to be facing the same conundrum here very soon. Paul Brown Stadium is the same age as Nissan Stadium (opened in 1999). It cost $500 million to complete, which was mostly taxpayer funded and was hotly contested by the residents of Cincinnati. Now that the Bengals have produced a Super Bowl appearance and a team that could be capable of more appearances at the very least, they’re going to want a new stadium as their lease expires in 3 years. The Bengals are the northern most NFL team without an indoor practice facility, which could be solved if they get a new stadium with a retractable dome. Trouble is, there’s no more land on the riverfront to build another stadium, which the Bengals would want. Stadium deals suck.

  33. Has there been an unbiased study on the true economic impact having an NFL team is besides prestige for the city/region? Even in big markets if a team performs poorly for a while they will start to lose their fan base.
    The locations that are financed by the city/state unless they are used for other events they are just white elephants. I believe in “you need to spend money to make money” which applies to the whatever level of government is financing the stadium project. I love football as much as anyone else but if I have to pay $1000-$2000 a year more in property taxes or a sales tax. If that $1,000 is returning $200 I’d rather that money go to building a new school, improving the VA or something with a return.

  34. The spokesperson notes that the stadium’s structural frame “needs to be largely replaced with steel” and that “mechanical, plumbing, and electrical systems need to be completely replaced.”

    _____

    He makes it sound like a rats nest. Who built the stadium anyway, sounds like they did a really lousy job if its this bad after just 25 years.

  35. sidelinecameraman says:
    February 18, 2022 at 7:41 am
    Has there been an unbiased study on the true economic impact having an NFL team is besides prestige for the city/region? Even in big markets if a team performs poorly for a while they will start to lose their fan base.
    The locations that are financed by the city/state unless they are used for other events they are just white elephants….
    ____________

    All new stadiums are used for events other than football. In addition, the area around a new stadium is always developed with multiple businesses that provide jobs and tax revenue. Any legitimate economic study will include those facts.

    The people who constantly complain about public funding consistently fail to acknowledge the impact of the ancillary businesses and jobs that are created by a new stadium.

  36. sidelinecameraman says:
    February 18, 2022 at 7:41 am
    I love football as much as anyone else but if I have to pay $1000-$2000 a year more in property taxes or a sales tax. If that $1,000 is returning $200 I’d rather that money go to building a new school, improving the VA or something with a return.
    ____________

    $1,000-2,000 more in property or sales taxes is a massive exegeration. Most people do not pay anywhere close to $1,000 total in property taxes per year. Any increase in such taxes would be less than one percent of the current rate

    With regard to building a new school, the no tax crowd already opposes such efforts. They are much more interested in censoring history and banning books than they are in improving education.

  37. Why would the Titans want to leave Nashville? It’s a rapidly growing metropolitan area …
    ___________________________________________________________________________

    I remember saying the same thing when I first heard the rumor that the Oilers could leave Houston for a MUCH smaller market like Nashville. Again, it’s not about that. It’s about politics and greed. If the daughter of Bud starts behaving like her father did in Houston, and the city of Nashville doesn’t give in, she will look elsewhere.

    As for people in Houston wearing Oilers gear, the Oilers meant a LOT to those fans and the Texans just haven’t been able to do the same. I lived in Houston during the Luv Ya Blue era and it’s a shame that Houston Oiler alum have to “embrace” Nashville because most of the fans out there have no history with them or really care. The Texans organization should embrace them but that’s just another area where the Texans have failed the city and the fans of Houston.

  38. gotitan says:
    February 17, 2022 at 4:16 pm
    One thing for sure, the Titans are not moving. I saw full stadium week after week all season long. Plenty of support here, verses, say LA?

    ——————————————————————————————

    I agree. I’ve been there twice in the past decade and both times the stadium was full….with Eagles fans! Seriously though, Nashville is a huge attraction for visiting fans. That’s not a knock on the Titan’s fan base, but just recognizing that a a really popular tourist city is great place for an NFL franchise. They’re not going anywhere.

  39. didnt the stadium SEVERELY FLOOD A YEAR AGO OR MORE WITH THE BIG STORMS DOWN SOUTH, I remember they had pics and videos of the football field COMPLETELY FLOODED since it near the river

  40. In 2010 the stadium went underwater. We had water EVERYWHERE. It’s going to happen again. Nashville is a town predicated on entertainment and visitors and the existing stadium is a bit of a mess so I’m not shocked they are talking about a new building. I will be shocked if it gets support from the taxpayers though. These folks are anti-everything in TN. Infrastructure be damned, let alone this… They voted down a pretty smalltime public bus system like it was cancer a few years ago. Devs are getting rich here. Tax them!

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