When they moved to Nashville, the Tennessee Titans had a new stadium ready for the 1999 NFL season. It would not be an accurate description to call this an archaic and old playing surface in dire need of a touch-up. Technically, at 24 years old, Nissan Stadium wouldn’t even be able to rent a car by itself!
And yet, here the Titans are, securing a record $1.2 billion in public funding for a new stadium after the Metro Nashville City Council voted 26-12 to approve it Tuesday night. Note: The total cost is $2.1 billion, which means the public is paying more than any Titans authority. Such an exorbitant mark surpasses what the Bills are doing to (extort) the good people of New York for $850 million (with a total of $1.5 billion) for their future new digs.
When the Titans’ stadium is officially finished for 2027, a combination of Nashville sports authority funds (about $760 million) and Tennessee state bonds ($500 million) will make the Titans’ new stadium the most expensive publicly funded in NFL history.
After recapping this, all I have to ask is: Why?
Why aren’t the Titans and wealthy owner Amy Adams Strunk footing this entire bill? Why isn’t the NFL getting in on the action? What could possibly justify a billion-dollar-plus price tag for the people of Nashville and the state of Tennessee paying that much collectively for sports?
I know I’m a sportswriter. I understand that these games have a special meaning to folks, and I don’t want to sully that entirely. But communities need investments in endeavors that matter: infrastructure, education, housing, and the like. Not grown men fighting over an oblong ball in a fancy stadium that isn’t necessary and is likely primarily being built to attract a Super Bowl, first and foremost.
Even if a new Titans stadium brings “revenue” to downtown Nashville and an eventual Super Bowl, all of that is so ambiguous at face value. It’s unclear how much that commercial funding would even fare as an investment for the people residing in the biggest city in Tennessee.
The Titans do not need a new stadium. The Titans do not need the public to foot the majority of the bill. But I suppose that’s how the NFL and their teams work in these situations: Operate with shameless greed at the actual expense of their fans.