PALM BEACH, Fla. – Titans President and Chief Executive Officer Burke Nihill has a lot on his plate here at the NFL owners meetings, and back in Nashville.
During a break in sessions this week, Nihill discussed a number of topics, including the city's quest for all league events, including the Super Bowl, progress at new Nissan Stadium, the search for the team's next radio play-by-play person, and more.
Let's roll through the nuggets:
-The Titans and the city of Nashville remain interested in hosting a Super Bowl in the near future, Nihill said.
"The Super Bowl is awarded through 2028, when it will be hosted in Atlanta," Nihill said. "We're putting our best foot forward for 2029. Now that doesn't mean that it will be the right time for the NFL to bring the event to Nashville in 2029. But we will continue to showcase the stadium, and all that Nashville has to offer with league officials, and we'll be ready as soon as they want to bring it to Nashville."
-In addition to the Super Bowl, Nihill said both the franchise and city are interested in hosting all of the league's events, from another NFL Draft to the Pro Bowl to the NFL Combine.
"We talk to the NFL about all the events that are capable of moving," Nihill said. "So that includes the Pro Bowl, even the Combine, which has expressed an interest to move at some point. For now, our focus is the Super Bowl above those other events. But we will remain in contact with all of them because the (2019 NFL Draft) was a special event and I've heard from plenty of Tennesseans who did not make the trip downtown in 2019 and they're hoping they'll get a second chance at that at some point."
-Nihill provided an update on new Nissan Stadium.
The construction just passed one-million-man hours on site, and at this point the crew is up to 800 people a day, Nihill said.
The concrete phase of the project is being finished, and it's now moving on to steel.
"We're still on time to open in February of 2027," Nihill said. "In terms of PSL and suite sales, we remain humbled by the response and demand. We expected to go on sale with our premium PSLs in June of 2024 and be on sale through February of 2025, and we sold through the premium inventory by the middle of August (2024). We've since moved on to Phase 2, and Phase 3 just opened up. More and more fans are getting their phone call to come to Titans House and choose their next seats. It's really been a gratifying process."
-Nihill said the team is closing in on making a hire for the team's radio play-by-play job.
After former Titans play-by-play man Mike Keith departed for the University of Tennessee, the team began a search that included a large number of candidates.
After initially narrowing the list to 10 to 15 candidates, the team reduced that number further, and three of them were brought in for in-person interviews.
The team is now down to a few finalists.
"We had a lot of interest from all over the country, from some really seasoned veterans of the National Football League to high school kids who wanted to shoot their shot," Nihill said. "We wanted to listen to every broadcast reel that was sent in."
An announcement is expected in the coming weeks.
-Nihill wanted to bring more light to the team's 2025 NFL Draft Party at Nissan Stadium, scheduled for Thursday, April 24th, starting at 5:30 p.m.
The event will be free. Parking lots open at 4:30, and stage entertainment will begin at 6:15 p.m.
Those wishing to attend must claim a free ticket through SeatGeek. CLICK HERE. Attendees must have a ticket to enter the event. Limited parking is available for Season Ticket Members to purchase through SeatGeek for $5 (all proceeds will go to the Titans Foundation).
"We're going to have a few things we're doing the week of the draft," Nihill said, "but that will be the main one. It's a draft that's particularly exciting for the team and our fans and last year's event was really well received by our fans, so we're leaning back into it and will do it better than ever. So, I'm really excited for fans to enjoy the stadium and be together on a special night for the team."
