NASHVILLE – A new stadium is coming to downtown Nashville, and it will serve as home to the Tennessee Titans, and other big events.
Last month, a vote by the Metro Nashville City Council sealed the deal for the new enclosed stadium, which is expected to be open in 2027.
This week, president and CEO Burke Nihill discussed what's next, from PSLs to parking this fall to the building itself.
On Thursday, the Titans announced TVS will serve as Architect of Record (AOR) on the new stadium project team after the Metropolitan Sports Authority approved the selection at its board meeting.
"It's happening," Nihill said. "The Sports Authority and Metro City Council both needed to approve the terms of the transaction … and now we have a lot of work to do, of course, to make sure we are building the right building and it's constructed properly and is a building that is going to be durable and flexible to last decades and decades and decades.
"But it is happening. In 2027, those doors open for Titans football and other events."
Burke said "it's been a long journey" to get to this point, and it started with 2018 email when the franchise began searching for a "better way forward" with an aging Nissan Stadium needing costly repairs, and the possibility of building a new stadium.
Ultimately the decision was made to build a new stadium, which will allow Nashville and the Titans to bid for Super Bowls, Final Fours, College Football Playoff games and more.
"It's going to a beautiful world-class facility for Titans fans, and for everyone who comes to that stadium for concerts and soccer games (and more)," Nihill said. "The world's biggest events, it's very reasonable to be believing they'll be coming to Nashville starting in 2027."
Nihill said groundbreaking on the new building – which will be built east of Nissan Stadium – is expected to begin early-to-mid 2024, following the 2023-2024 NFL season.
TVS, headquartered in Atlanta, is an award-winning architecture and interior design firm with experience working on major projects in the Nashville area, having served as AOR for Nashville's Music City Center. TVS also worked on Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
TVS will work in tandem with the Design Architect (MANICA) to lead the design team through the completion of the stadium design and through the administration of construction activity.
Nihill said the look of the stadium will be similar to the renderings released earlier by MANICA.
"It is going to be a beautiful, one-of-a-kind, Nashville character building," Nihill said. "We want every experience in the building to be a world-class experience, whether it is a premium experience or whether it's a getting-in-the-door experience, and that means something different today, and looking ahead for the next few decades, than it did back in the 1990s when the original Nissan Stadium was built. There's different fan expectations, different opportunities to deliver things that are unique to Nashville. So, we are knee-deep into it … and we are excited to continue to dig in and ultimately deliver something that is incredible for Nashville."
The Titans recently sent a survey to PSL (Permanent Seat Licenses) holders to gather information on what the market wants to see in a new stadium, from seating products like how many seats are in a certain area, to what is an appropriate pricing from a PSL perspective and an annual seating price perspective.
The new stadium will feature a translucent roof with a capacity of approximately 60,000.
Nihill said a PSL Experience Center will be built in Germantown, and it's expected to open in March 2024. Fans will have a technology experience where they'll be able to see what their seats would look like, and it's where the PSL transactions will take place.
"We are very interested to get that information back so we can continue to work toward finalizing the design of the building and thinking about the next steps," Nihill said of the survey.
"We do get a lot of questions from PSL holders about what is next, and 'When will I have an opportunity to purchase a PSL in the new building?' and 'What will the process look like?', and unfortunately it is still a little bit of an unsatisfying answer," Nihill said. "The answer is we're hard at work figuring that out, and it will probably be later this year before we really have a defined process and we know more and can answer those questions will a level of specificity," Nihill said. "We are taking our time to make sure we are making the right decisions and we are coming up with the right plans and the right processes."
Nihill said parking for games at Nissan Stadium this fall will not be impacted, although he said some areas around the stadium could be impacted by pre-construction, infrastructure-type work like moving water and sewer lines.
In time, the city will have a stadium to be proud of, one that impacts the community around it as well.
"It is clearly not at all too big to be dreaming about Super Bowls and Final Fours," Nihill said. "The idea of those things coming to Nashville is exciting. I think Nashville and the state of Tennessee are going to be incredibly proud of the final product. … I'm excited to watch this building come out of the ground."
