The Tennessee Titans want a new stadium, switching gears from modernizing Nissan Stadium to making plans to build a new one in the lot next door. It is currently unclear how the team plans to raise the money to pay for it.
The Titans’ president, Burke Nihill, talked about the team’s goals for a new stadium at a Thursday Metro Nashville Sports Authority Finance Committee meeting. The Titans are reportedly working with Metro Nashville officials on the design and costs for a new stadium, which would be located in the parking lots outside the current Nissan Stadium.
“We’re trying to move wisely but with a sense of urgency,” he said. “There’s a path forward that, if we have alignment by the fall, we could have a new stadium open by 2026. It’s aggressive, but we believe it’s in play.”
As is typical for team executives to do when they want new stadiums, Nihill discussed the flaws in the current one. He said, “This is a very basic building in the eyes of the NFL. This is one of the bottom 20% of buildings in the NFL built before 9/11. Security enhancements adopted by the NFL haven’t been added.”
The Titans president said at the meeting that he believes that reaching a deal for the new stadium and figuring out how to pay for it will take more than a year. He estimates that construction should take a little over two-and-a-half years.
Estimated costs for all potential parties involved have not yet been revealed. The Titans are expected to ask Metro Nashville taxpayers to kick in money for the stadium, the amounts of which are unknown. Direct economic impact benefits to an area are typically part of the argument made for citizens funding stadiums.
The Tennessee Star previously reported that former Nashville Mayor Phil Bredesen admitted in 1997 after a referendum approved taxpayer funding for what would become Nissan Stadium, that direct economic impact benefits couldn’t justify taxpayer funding for a football stadium. Bredesen said in June of 1997, “I can’t justify building a football stadium on direct economic impact. The professors who make a living pooh-poohing that are right.”
Nissan Stadium, which opened in 1999, Nashville taxpayers footed the bill topping $144 million, with a guarantee of $70 million in net sales of personal seat licenses.
– – –
Aaron Gulbransen is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected]. Follow Aaron on GETTR.
The billionaires that own these teams never, never ever pay for these Trojan horses. The taxpayers always end up paying and paying and never get the promised benefits!
Totals don’t deserve a new stadium! They are too “woke” politically and deserve nothing just like the entire NFL! They play for their “woke” overpaid salary- not for the love of the game!
Defund the entire NFL!!
I’ll agree to a taxpayer-funded new stadium for the Titans – right after they win a Super Bowl. That should keep our money safe.
Here’s a thought, how about focusing on how you can lower crime in the city? Then there’s the pot holes that can wreck your car on the interstates. Tax breaks would always be a better option to ponder. Whether the titans ever win a super bowl or remain the mediocre team they seem destined to be, has no bearing on the most important issues that face society on a daily basis. If they want a new stadium, by all means they should have it. But let those who own the team pay the price. Surely they can get by on millions of dollars in their bank accounts as opposed to billions….and possibly those who attend the games will gladly donate as well. Just don’t increase the tax burden on all those who stand to suffer most or could care less if another season comes and goes by.
If we need need a new stadium, it time look to the future, there are talks of Major League Baseball. We already Built a new soccer stadium. Why can’t the City find a new location big enough to create a sport complex similar to the Kansas City Chiefs and Royal complex. It has great accessibility and plenty of parking. Build a complex that all Tennessee can be proud of we need to quit catering to the Bars downtown but to the people of Nashville. The present Nissan stadium could be used as a college field for Vanderbilt, TSU and others not to mention high school playoff and outdoor concerts.
That sounds like a very bad deal for Nashville. Nashville’s property tax rate is already 94% higher than Brentwood.
34% property tax increase last time, right?! Wait! I thought ALL those residual benefits from all the teams / venues / stadiums… were gonna be cash cows… something isn’t adding up… hummm… now more for billionaire owners and multi millionaire players??! Well, they say there’s one born every minute, so maybe it will work yet again.
I can not find any benefit at all to me of having the Titans in Nashville. Let them go wherever they can find some other suckas to finance their business. I had to finance mine without any help from government. LGB
“This is a very basic building in the eyes of the NFL”
Then let Goodell write a check.
NFL went woke and there is a price tag to turning everything to sh**. Taxpayers haven’t been reimbursed for the 1st stadium, so it is a pattern…..
Unreal. The Superdome and Lambeau Field are still rocking. The same goes for Wrigley Field. Atlanta should have ran a MARTA line to Turner Field field. But instead they just created traffic in Cobb County. Being originally from Atlanta, I can see the writing on the walls. Soon, this place will be one big parking lot. The Nashville Metro area would be better served by light rail run by cheap TVA electricity. I would imagine with the inflation setting in, most people will choose to watch games on television. Why CSX and Metro can’t work a deal with commuter rail lines is beyond me?
Good lord….who do you think will pay for it? The taxpayers end up paying for everything. All those special grant’s and state loans are tax payer money. All the incentives, like a TIF, just means taxpayers give the Titans a God knows how big of a tax free loan today to maybe be paid with taxes 20 years from now. No matter how you slice the pie, taxpayers pay for the stadium.
Oh come on now, you all know where they’re going to get it. First, they’ll sit on Santa Lee’s lap, that should be good for $500-600 million, especially if the stadium looks like a big blue oval from the sky! And, you all know that watching the scoreboard helps kids learn how to cipher, right! Then, a quick visit to the tooth fairy, Mayor Cooper. Now I really don’t want to know what’s really under THAT pillow, but I bet all you all Manchester, Liverpool, and Arsenal fans, all 10 of you, can pull another half-a-billion “quid” out from the old Coop! Heck, the homeless can wait another decade or two.
And just like that the Titans, I mean “you and me”, are 1/2 way there. Throw in a bunch of nebulous terms like “tax increment financing”, (TIF), and “public/private partnership” (PPP), AND, let a quasi-governmental agency like the Sports Authority, and “boom” you’ve got a brand new showcase stadium!
And did you hear that they want this new stadium ready for 2026, because, drum roll please, they want it available for the SOCCER World Cup in 2026! Weren’t we told not that long ago that Nissan Stadium isn’t any good for SOCCER and therefore “we” need a new SOCCER stadium!
Maybe the Nashville SOCCER team should be called the Nashville Sheeple!
In a time of hyper-inflation, the desired position for anyone is ‘low’ debt, or better yet, if possible, NO debt. One does NOT want to borrow money via an adjustable-rate loan at a relatively low rate of interest, and then because of hyper-inflation, soon find himself paying a rate of interest multiples higher. (Trying buying anything on credit and paying 10%, 12%, 16%, 20%, or more interest.) To take an extreme illustration, try borrowing $2,000,000 and then suddenly finding yourself required to pay 20% interest—$400,000 a year—without reducing the principal amount of the loan by a single penny. Very few people can do this, and the experience has to devastating for anyone who is required to try.
The citizens of a government—any government, local or State—should not be placed in the position of having to pay (i.e., borrow money to pay for) for the ‘toys’ (like a new multiple millions of dollars professional football team stadium) of a multi-millionaire (or maybe even a billionaire) owner in a time of hyper-inflation. If the ‘for profit’ entity is so foolish as to want such a new ‘toy’ in a time of hyper-inflation, it should do it on its own ‘dime.’