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Nashville as MLB Expansion/Relocation Market


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56 minutes ago, PruneTracy said:

Looking at the available space, and having toured the stadium during and after construction, I'm not convinced that First Tennessee Park couldn't be expanded to a 25,000- to 30,000-seat stadium, especially one heavy on premium seating and event space. (I'm actually not convinced it couldn't be expanded to a full-size MLB stadium, but smaller is obviously easier).

The expansion would require most of the upper deck and luxury boxes to be reconfigured, as well as the corporate offices and other back-of-house space behind the concourse. The resultant product would also be of a very unusual configuration, although with the 90s and 00s trend of manufactured quirkiness in ballpark design, I'm not sure this is a negative. On the other hand, the city would get a ballpark in a desirable location (neighborhood, history, and skyline views) for less cost than a new one built elsewhere.

I would agree with you but for whatever reason they've claimed it is not expandable. Maybe something about the site or engineering of current structure.

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10 hours ago, satalac said:

Plus this guy wanting to bring a team here is just jumping from market to market trying to get his hands on a team. 

I agree.  However, I'd like to point out that the Titans have never had local ownership, and the NHL was brought to Nashville by an out-of-town owner.  But I still agree with your point.

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2 hours ago, jmtunafish said:

I agree.  However, I'd like to point out that the Titans have never had local ownership, and the NHL was brought to Nashville by an out-of-town owner.  But I still agree with your point.

I'd also say that up until 2-3 years ago, the Adams were extremely hands-off in their ownership of the Titans and even more apathetic about it than anything. Amy Adams Strunk has done a much better job of giving a damn since she stepped up, but they aren't great examples of out-of-town owners being passionate for the city. 

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21 hours ago, jmtunafish said:

I agree.  However, I'd like to point out that the Titans have never had local ownership, and the NHL was brought to Nashville by an out-of-town owner.  But I still agree with your point.

It's not local ownership that I'm concerned about, it's ownership that will be successful. With the Adams ownership, we were getting an owner that helped start the NFL as we know it today.  Craig Leipold did have his struggles, but I believe anyone trying to bring hockey to a new southern market at that time would have had the same struggles. Maybe John Loar will be successful, but I haven't seen anything that convinces me. Typically when you see people try and get things going at multiple different markets unsuccessfully it's due to that person not really realizing what that market wants or needs. Not saying it's impossible, I just don't see it panning out anytime soon. I'll be happy to eat crow if he makes it work though.

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I just think this is going to be too much for tax payers to swallow.
All you hear anymore is about budget shortfalls, school district needs, lack of a mass transit... then the MLS stadium and the inevitable "pay up or lose the Titans" stadium ultimatum in a few years.  Personally I would rather get that MLS stadium finished and talk about a new football stadium before thinking about baseball.

Given that... how realistic would it be to put the baseball team in a different part of Mid TN?  Back "in the day", the mayor of Franklin (Tom Miller) entertained the idea of having the Sounds in Franklin.  

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19 minutes ago, TheRaglander said:

Given that... how realistic would it be to put the baseball team in a different part of Mid TN?  Back "in the day", the mayor of Franklin (Tom Miller) entertained the idea of having the Sounds in Franklin.  

I'd say that falls back to no mass transit, it's already a nightmare getting down South during the night rush hour. Games would add even more traffic to an already busy corridor.

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17 minutes ago, TheRaglander said:

I just think this is going to be too much for tax payers to swallow.
All you hear anymore is about budget shortfalls, school district needs, lack of a mass transit... then the MLS stadium and the inevitable "pay up or lose the Titans" stadium ultimatum in a few years.  Personally I would rather get that MLS stadium finished and talk about a new football stadium before thinking about baseball.

Given that... how realistic would it be to put the baseball team in a different part of Mid TN?  Back "in the day", the mayor of Franklin (Tom Miller) entertained the idea of having the Sounds in Franklin.  

Yeah, that's why I really think MLB coming to Nashville is a 10 year play. I think most reasonable people would agree.

The Titans stadium battle will be very interesting though. 

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12 minutes ago, PaulChinetti said:

After the deal Ingram made with the city for the MLS stadium, I doubt the Titans are looking forward to that battle. 

I'm hoping they just dump the money into the current stadium It has good bones. It just needs a makeover. 

Something like this for the roof area. Give the concourses and new paint job and some other upgrades. I'd like to see something down around the parking lots too, maybe dedicated restroom facilities or something like that. 

 

 

There's a difference between Nashville and Miami though. All that type of roof would do at Nissan is make those later in Fall, early winter, NFL games even colder by blocking out the sun. 

I think we need a dome - as we will finally have the critical mass of hotels to host a Super Bowl type event. But I don't know if a path to a dome exists. I guess we'll see in 5 years or so.

 

 

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There was one really cold game this year. The others I would have welcomed a shade, especially the earlier ones, and a shield from the rain.

And with the climate as it is, we aren't going to be getting more colder days, only warmer ones. But I agree, the dome would give us options for more things but that would probably require a new stadium which I don't think the city would stomach, unless the Titans go on a super bowl winning streak.

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One option would be for the Adams family to really step up in a big way and pay for the bulk of a new  retractable roof stadium.  Jerry Jones paid  $700 million of the $1.2 billion cost of AT&T Stadium in Arlington, TX (also known as "Jerry's World").   It has a much larger capacity (base of 80,000, but can get as many as 100,000 under the roof) than the Titans would need.  My guess is the Titans would shoot for about 65,000---the same as Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, which was built a decade ago for $720 million.  My estimate is that a comparable coliseum in Nashville would run about $1 billion now. 

The Adams' family net worth in 2014 was $1.3 billion (that's the latest figure I could find)---so I surmise that it has grown since then.   Also, the Titans' franchise is worth $2.05 billion. By having a much bigger stake in the underwriting, they could also have a much greater share in profits of events at the stadium.  Jones has done an excellent job of keeping AT&T Stadium quite busy with major events besides just Cowboy games. 

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I was googling about "MLB to Nashville" and seen that John Loar is from the Bay area.   I would love to still the A's from Oakland with there storied history over getting an expansion team with no history.  Him being from the Bay area I wonder if he has been in contact with the A's franchise  about a possible relocation with the struggles they've had in Oakland?

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Not to mention if he's from the bay area he's probably a Giants fan if he's a fan of anyone.  To make the bay area a one team Metro; despite what experts say I think San Fransisco, San Jose and Oakland is the same dang town.  It becomes a possible win/win for him and a big win for us!  I'd take the A's any day over the Rays or an expansion team.  The A's have a rich history and them to town would be enough for me to disown my Tigers.  I'm not sure the Rays or an expansion team would make me abandon my life long team like the A's would.  Heck I would have probably dropped the Cowboys had the Oilers named them selves NASHVILLE rather than TENNESSEE...  Who can root for a football team named Tennessee?

Edited by L'burgnative
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9 hours ago, L'burgnative said:

Not to mention if he's from the bay area he's probably a Giants fan if he's a fan of anyone.  To make the bay area a one team Metro; despite what experts say I think San Fransisco, San Jose and Oakland is the same dang town.  It becomes a possible win/win for him and a big win for us!  I'd take the A's any day over the Rays or an expansion team.  The A's have a rich history and them to town would be enough for me to disown my Tigers.  I'm not sure the Rays or an expansion team would make me abandon my life long team like the A's would.  Heck I would have probably dropped the Cowboys had the Oilers named them selves NASHVILLE rather than TENNESSEE...  Who can root for a football team named Tennessee?

Politics. There was State of Tennessee money in the stadium build, as I recall, and they required the team to be called the 'Tennessee' Oilers (later Titans),  :tw_cookie:

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11 hours ago, L'burgnative said:

Not to mention if he's from the bay area he's probably a Giants fan if he's a fan of anyone.  To make the bay area a one team Metro; despite what experts say I think San Fransisco, San Jose and Oakland is the same dang town.  It becomes a possible win/win for him and a big win for us!  I'd take the A's any day over the Rays or an expansion team.  The A's have a rich history and them to town would be enough for me to disown my Tigers.  I'm not sure the Rays or an expansion team would make me abandon my life long team like the A's would.  Heck I would have probably dropped the Cowboys had the Oilers named them selves NASHVILLE rather than TENNESSEE...  Who can root for a football team named Tennessee?

I will say this though..... if the Rays somehow relocated here that would mean LOTS of Red Sox and Yankee visits, always makes for good baseball

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