by Jon Styf
The Tennessee Titans are expected to make about $270 million off personal seat licenses, an amount that will go toward the team’s contribution to a new projected $2.1 billion stadium set to open in fall 2027.
The projection was revealed through a $25 million sales tax estimate on Nashville’s 9.25% state and local sales tax during Wednesday’s work session of the Metro Nashville Sports Authority. The team will be giving current Nissan Stadium PSL holders a full credit for their current PSL toward the price of a PSL at the new stadium.
The Titans are scheduled to contribute $840 million to the stadium project from the sale of personal seat licenses, a $200 million NFL loan and private financing.
The sales tax from the PSLs, which state law allows the sports authority to retain for the stadium, will then be part of $42 million of Metro Nashville funds that would be set aside for work at the current Nissan Stadium as it remains the Titans’ home until it is demolished within 120 days of a new stadium opening.
“We don’t know what that will be necessarily, and it is what it is,” Metro Nashville Bond Counsel Jeff Oldham told the sports authority board. “If it’s less, it’s less. If it’s more, it’s more.”
Previously, the stadium was said to potentially open in 2026, but Titans representatives and Metro staff confirmed the 2027 projection at Wednesday’s meeting.
Oldham joined Nashville Deputy Mayor Sam Wilcox and Director of Finance Kelly Flannery to begin discussing the details of the final documents for the stadium proposal to the sports authority board.
The Metro Nashville Council has a joint meeting with the East Bank Stadium Committee scheduled to explain details of the project financing at 4:30 p.m. on March 27 while a final council vote is expected April 18.
During the meeting, Flannery revealed Goldman Sachs would be the underwriter for the bond proposal and Metro Nashville will need to backstop a portion of the $760 million in revenue bonds for stadium construction.
If the documents are approved and the new stadium financing arrives, then the lease for the current Nissan Stadium will have its “first-class” clause for maintenance and capital projects removed and it will instead become a player and patron safety standard for the remainder the current stadium is open.
Metro Nashville will commit to reimbursing the Titans for up to $42 million of work on the current Nissan Stadium for the remainder of its life. That includes the $25 million in PSL sales tax, the collection of three more $1 million payments from the Metro Nashville general fund, $5.9 million in a current sports authority fund and up to $8.1 million from a new sales tax fund that will also be used to pay off the $760 million in revenue bonds.
That fund is expected to collect $2.9 billion in taxes over the 30 years of a new lease to pay off the revenue bonds and pay toward a Capital Repairs Fund for future capital projects at a new stadium.
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Jon Styf is an award-winning editor and reporter of The Center Square who has worked in Illinois, Texas, Wisconsin, Florida and Michigan in local newsrooms over the past 20 years, working for Shaw Media, Hearst and several other companies.
Photo “Tennessee Titans” by Tennessee Titans.
So exiting PSL owners are going to get screwed. The who concept of PSL’s is an insult. I would never pay for such a thing. Some folks just have more money than sense.