All that Nashville and Titans ownership need to do is dot the Is and cross the Ts.
It is very likely sometime in the next few months that the National Football League’s Tennessee Titans ownership will be getting its wish. A new Nashville stadium to replace the current stadium which was opened in 1999. The Titans ownership initially wanted to renovate the stadium but then the ownership concluded that for a few hundred million dollars more, a new stadium could be built. Local politicians will finish negotiations with Titans management and will eventually announce the date a shovel will be put into the ground and the start of the construction of the facility. The proposed stadium will cost at least $2.1 billion and with inflation that price will go up. The stadium could open in 2026 and the first big event in the building could be the 2027 WrestleMania event. The stadium will be the recipient of the largest public subsidy ever for an NFL stadium surpassing Las Vegas and Buffalo’s subsidies.
Who is paying the $2.1 billion? The project could end up costing Nashville taxpayers more than $760 million. The deal needs government approval which is why there were public hearings. Titans ownership will kick in $840 million with that money coming from personal seat licensing sales and a National Football League loan. Another $1.3 billion will come from the pockets of Tennessee taxpayers, many of whom will never set foot in the stadium. Tennessee legislators have approved the allocation of $500 million in bonds to the project. The local $760 million needed to complete the stadium would be funded by Metro Sports Authority revenue bonds backed by a new 1% countywide hotel occupancy tax, in-stadium sales taxes and half of the state and local sales tax revenues from a planned 130-acre stadium-village with the stadium as the anchor. Is it a worthwhile investment for less than a dozen set events a year? Nashville politicians think so.
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