It’s time to get a modern NFL facility.
The National Football League’s Tennessee Titans franchise ownership has gone from renovating a 23-year-old stadium to a why renovate when we could build a whole new football facility complete with all sorts of revenue generating possibilities. It seems the 23-year-old stadium is just a basic facility and according to Titans President Burke Nihill, ‘”this is one of the bottom 20 percent of buildings in the NFL built before 9/11. Security enhancements adopted by the NFL haven’t been added.” Initially, Nashville political leaders seemed to support the notion of spending $600 million in fixing up the aging stadium but that plan seemed to turn on a dime and a new stadium plan suddenly appeared. The $600 million figure was too low and the real cost of getting the work done was closer to $1.2 billion. With a number that high, why not spend an extra hundreds of million dollars for a spanking new facility that could come with a roof.
The stadium will apparently be a stand-alone structure with no village filled with retail businesses and housing surrounding it. There seems to be a mixed-use development plan on land near the present stadium. That would include riverfront parks, green space, housing, offices, retail stores and restaurants. Interestingly enough the planned Titans stadium would seat less people which means a tighter supply and an excuse to raise tickets if there is a demand although Nihill didn’t spell it out that way. “The modern NFL buildings don’t just try to dump in as many seats as you can up to the corners of the building. What (the league wants) is high character spaces. They like the idea of higher character and less seating. For Super Bowls, they used to have a standard of 75,000 seats. They don’t have that standard anymore.” Who pays for the building remains unanswered.
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Evan can be reached at evan_weiner@hotmail.com
