A new stadium is on tap.
The National Football League’s latest stop on the public money for a stadium tour is in Nashville where Tennessee Governor Bill Lee is looking for public money streams to build a new Tennessee Titans stadium. Titans 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 be a Titans stand-alone structure with no Titans-related 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. Politicians think that out of towners and visitors to Nashville who use the city’s hotel and motel rooms should pay for some of the stadium. The Nashville hotel-motel tax is 6% and there is a political solution that would allow local officials to raise the tax up to 7%. A one percent increase could generate $10 million annually. Politicians are looking for other revenue streams to build the Nashville stadium.
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