Can Nashville support a pro women’s sports team, the local sports authority wants to know.
John Loar may be pushing Major League Baseball to place an expansion team in Nashville. But the Metro Nashville Sports Authority isn’t waiting for Major League Baseball’s lockout to end and MLB resolving its Oakland and Tampa Bay stadium problems in its pursuit of getting another franchise into town. It appears the authority wants a women’s professional team which would be far cheaper than an MLB team and would be able to use existing facilities. To that end, the Sports Authority is working with CAA ICON in an effort to find out whether there would be local interest for a women’s pro sports team. The Metro Nashville Sports Authority’s Women’s Sports Initiative Strategic Assessment has invested $75,000 into a study that includes distributing questionnaires to survey the community along with conducting focus groups and corporate interviews to get answers. The surveys are being distributed by local colleges, businesses and pro franchises and the findings will be presented on January 12th to the Metro Nashville Sports Authority’s ad hoc committee.
The Metro Nashville Sports Authority is seeking to find out exactly what local Nashville area sports consumers’ interest level is for a women’s professional team. The authority also wants to know if local sports customers have attended any women’s college sports events in the last 10 years and which local women’s college teams they support and whether they would support a pro women’s sports team in Nashville. The authority wants to know what the interest level locally is in six women’s pro sports leagues. The WNBA, Premier Hockey Federation, National Women’s Soccer League, softball, volleyball outdoor/indoor and women’s indoor arena football. Nashville has hosted a handful of women’s sports events over the past decade. Meanwhile Loar’s Nashville Stars concept is moving ahead as Music City Baseball is looking for a stadium site for a Major League Baseball expansion team.
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