When will the Nashvillians remember?
Posted 9:03 AM ET | Comments 7
Question!!!!! When will the Nashvillians remember that they (the taxpayers) paid Bud Adams to bring a football team here that cost 18 times more than what it will cost to keep the Preds here? Refer to the excerpt below.
"A deal between the Houston Oilers and Nashville was announced in November 1995. The stadium would seat 67,000, with 120 luxury suites and 9,600 premium seats. Adams would not only not have to lay out a dime to build the new facility, but he would also receive a $28 million relocation fee and garner 100 percent of stadium-related revenues. The state would kick in $55 million in construction bonds and $12 million more for road improvements. Nashville would fork over $144 million and had to guarantee $70 million in net sales of personal seat licenses, giving fans the option to buy tickets."
Yet, the people of Nashville complain that the Preds are asking for the taxpayers to supplement their business model. What are the taxpayers doing for the Houston-Tennessee-Oilers-Titans?!?!?!?!? Not only are they supplementing the business model for the football team but, they are making Bud Adams a richer man! What does Bud Adams do to repay Nashville? He pulls the plug on the Nashville Kats, again! Wow, aren't we stupid as Nashvillians! We just allow this to happen without saying a word but, we throw a tirade about the Preds asking for a fraction of the deal that we give the Houston-Tennessee-Oilers-Titans as well as Nissan, Dell, and other companies that the taxpayers have gotten on their knees for. Oh yeah, by the way, Dell is cutting jobs (sending them to foreign soil) and Nissan headquarters is going to Williamson County yet the subsidies come from Davidson County. Wow, that all makes perfect sense!
Let this stick in your head. Nashville will not get a main tenant to fill the Sommet Center (H.O.P., G.E.C., Nashville Arena) if the Preds leave town. Thus leading to small downtown businesses, that depend on those nights of heavy traffic, closing up and the owners going home to their families trying to figure out how they are going to get by now that their source of income is gone.
I think the largest lack of support (attendance) for the Preds is because of the great uncertainty that surrounds the team. Ignorance of the game called Hockey scares the typical football fan away and they just never give it a chance. Give Hockey a Chance Nashville! It takes more than 10 years to develop a nontraditional market. Hockey is growing here. The local sheets of ice, Centennial Sportsplex and Southern Ice Arena, are turning youth away because the leagues are already full and there is no other places to play. These are the future Predator season ticket holders. In 1998, Nashville started their journey. I was 21 and a college student. I will be 30 in December, I am now a season ticket holder (and have been since 2001-2002 season). I had to graduate from college and get my own income so that I could support the Preds by purchasing season tickets for myself and my family. The bottom line is that Nashville needs more time to develop! Give it a chance Nashville!
I am confident that if a deal, that promises to keep the Preds in Nashville for an extended period of time, gets done soon this season can turn out to be a success. IF no deal gets done I think it will be a season of struggles and a season of heartache and a season of good-byes. Good-bye play-off run, good-bye star players (what's left of them), and good-bye Predators. We'll catch you on the tube in Kansas City or Hamilton, Ont.
"A deal between the Houston Oilers and Nashville was announced in November 1995. The stadium would seat 67,000, with 120 luxury suites and 9,600 premium seats. Adams would not only not have to lay out a dime to build the new facility, but he would also receive a $28 million relocation fee and garner 100 percent of stadium-related revenues. The state would kick in $55 million in construction bonds and $12 million more for road improvements. Nashville would fork over $144 million and had to guarantee $70 million in net sales of personal seat licenses, giving fans the option to buy tickets."
Yet, the people of Nashville complain that the Preds are asking for the taxpayers to supplement their business model. What are the taxpayers doing for the Houston-Tennessee-Oilers-Titans?!?!?!?!? Not only are they supplementing the business model for the football team but, they are making Bud Adams a richer man! What does Bud Adams do to repay Nashville? He pulls the plug on the Nashville Kats, again! Wow, aren't we stupid as Nashvillians! We just allow this to happen without saying a word but, we throw a tirade about the Preds asking for a fraction of the deal that we give the Houston-Tennessee-Oilers-Titans as well as Nissan, Dell, and other companies that the taxpayers have gotten on their knees for. Oh yeah, by the way, Dell is cutting jobs (sending them to foreign soil) and Nissan headquarters is going to Williamson County yet the subsidies come from Davidson County. Wow, that all makes perfect sense!
Let this stick in your head. Nashville will not get a main tenant to fill the Sommet Center (H.O.P., G.E.C., Nashville Arena) if the Preds leave town. Thus leading to small downtown businesses, that depend on those nights of heavy traffic, closing up and the owners going home to their families trying to figure out how they are going to get by now that their source of income is gone.
I think the largest lack of support (attendance) for the Preds is because of the great uncertainty that surrounds the team. Ignorance of the game called Hockey scares the typical football fan away and they just never give it a chance. Give Hockey a Chance Nashville! It takes more than 10 years to develop a nontraditional market. Hockey is growing here. The local sheets of ice, Centennial Sportsplex and Southern Ice Arena, are turning youth away because the leagues are already full and there is no other places to play. These are the future Predator season ticket holders. In 1998, Nashville started their journey. I was 21 and a college student. I will be 30 in December, I am now a season ticket holder (and have been since 2001-2002 season). I had to graduate from college and get my own income so that I could support the Preds by purchasing season tickets for myself and my family. The bottom line is that Nashville needs more time to develop! Give it a chance Nashville!
I am confident that if a deal, that promises to keep the Preds in Nashville for an extended period of time, gets done soon this season can turn out to be a success. IF no deal gets done I think it will be a season of struggles and a season of heartache and a season of good-byes. Good-bye play-off run, good-bye star players (what's left of them), and good-bye Predators. We'll catch you on the tube in Kansas City or Hamilton, Ont.
Great article man
People here in Nashville see the world through football colored lenses...it will, unfortunately, always be that way.
Thanks, arwilson529!Predjoe, Unfortunately, I tend to agree with you. But, believe it or not, I used to be one of those guys! All it took was a Preds game and a dare 6 years ago and I was turned into a Preds fan for life! There is hope on the horizon but, we have to keep building the youth hockey leagues. That is where our future is. It's up to us to keep the flame going until they are old enough to support this thing themselves.See you at the rink!
As a long time fan, I have never understood why the Tennessean has not shown any true support for the Preds, while suckling the TITans for all they can get. The NHL will never get the exposure the NFL enjoys, but are the people of Middle Tennessee so myopic that they can't see the added global exposure that the Preds have brought us? The fan support is not as pathetic as some in the media make it out to be, but it can be better. The real issue is to get the local media to maybe give a little positive backing, and maybe then the corporate market will realize that supporting the Preds makes good business sense as well. The best thing we as fans can do is to support those businesses that support the Preds and let them know that's why you are spending money with them.
This is a great article! You speak the true words of a fan of hockey! I don't even live in Nashville. I live in Chattanooga but love to travel up to Nashville as many times as I can to watch the Predators! A lot of my friends (just like I used to be) are big football fans and ignored hockey (I was raised that way too), but now things are different. I love hockey and watch and follow it religiously, play fantasy hockey, and got my friends and family into the sport! A few of my friends and I have even joined a inline hockey league down here! The Predators are making more of an impact on this state then people think. Just like you said, give it time!
Good read and great assessment. I know a few local die hard football fans that I think are actually afraid to come to a hockey game. Why? Because deep down inside they know that football cannot even come close to hockey and that scares them. There is no sport as great as hockey. Period.
I can't understand why more football fans won't give hockey a chance. Everything you have in football, you have more in hockey, Hitting, speed, beautiful plays, with the only exception down-time. Football has too much down-time. Hockey is non-stop fast action from beginning to the end. I think the rules of hockey are what's intimidating for football fans. They can't comprehend icing, two-line passes, slashing, off-sides. Maybe if we question football fans intelligence it may give them the gumption to come out and give it a try. OBTW, Happy Thanksgiving!