‘Made for Nashville’: Tennessee Titans unveil new Nissan Stadium look
The Titans shared another glimpse of its new stadium.
Courtesy of The Tennessee Titans, Nashville Tennessean
All eyes in Nashville have been firmly set on the East Bank of the Cumberland River since fall of 2022. There are deep layers of planning to build out the 550 acres stretching from River North to a scrap yard south of I-24, but the main attraction is the new Nissan Stadium.
Tennessee Titans CEO Burke Nihill plays a hands-on role in the $2.1 billion project, which is just over four months into its construction. He said Tuesday that he wants as many Nashville residents to feel invested in the new stadium as possible, referring to it as “the people’s house.”
Nihill took the stage at Oracle’s “Business Grows Here Nashville” conference Tuesday to explain his vision and goals for Nissan Stadium 2.0, including shorter concession lines, more community events throughout the year and its overall place in the East Bank development.
Here’s what Nihill had to say:
Fewer seats, but more crowd efficiency: ‘Data-informed war room’
While the current Nissan Stadium contains 69,000 seats, the new stadium set to open in 2027 will have an estimated 60,000-person capacity. Nihill said it will operate more efficiently and is intentionally designed for the consumer’s experience.
“Every little design element from getting through security, getting to your seat, getting concessions — how can we, just with a little bit more thought and a little bit more grit into the design, differentiate it?” Nihill said.
For example, he said 35 seconds should be the average transaction time at concessions, and fans should never have to wait in line for half of an NFL quarter to use the restroom.
“We’re lowering capacity for a couple of reasons, yet we’re going to have almost twice the number of bathrooms in the building,” Nihill said.
When the new stadium opens, a team will be dedicated to tracking the flow of traffic around the building and detecting any pain points. The idea is that Nissan Stadium employees will be able to see if one particular bathroom has a longer line than others and will help direct fans to shorter lines.
“You can’t see how a building is being used until it’s being used,” Nihill said. “We’re going to have this data-informed war room in the stadium tracking all of this in real time.”
No ‘spaceship’ architecture, unlike Allegiant and So-Fi
When talk of a new Titans stadium began, the natural comparison was to look at the other two newest NFL stadiums: the Las Vegas Raiders’ Allegiant Stadium and the Los Angeles Rams and Chargers’ So-Fi Stadium. Both opened in 2020.
Nihill said the Titans knew from the start that their stadium wouldn’t have a “spaceship feel” like Allegiant and So-Fi.
“Here, those buildings make no sense because they don’t represent the city,” Nihill said. “What we tried to do is think about that defiance, that creativity, and build something that is unique to Nashville.”
That’s how the design team landed on the Ryman Auditorium as inspiration for the stadium.
Also, while many NFL stadiums including Allegiant and So-Fi, are located in suburbs or just outside of the city they represent, Nissan is just across the river from downtown.
“We’re building in the middle of the city,” Nihill said. “This isn’t the Titans’ home stadium. This is the people’s house.”
19,000 jobs, $33.7 billion economic impact
The stadium building itself will create an approximate 19,000 jobs, and in the next 30 years, the new Nissan Stadium’s economic impact will be close to $34 billion, according to a tourism industry study.
Nihill said the goal is to get as many Nashville locals involved with the stadium as possible.
“The more opportunity we provide for people to be working on the stadium project, there’s a sense of ownership,” he said.
He recalled growing up in Chicago, and every time his father would drive him past a building where his grandfather had done electrical work, he would point and say: “That’s Grandpa’s building.”
He wants Nashville locals to feel that way about the stadium.
A ‘new town center’ — not a new downtown
Nihill expects almost 365 days of activity in the stadium per year, whether that’s hosting educational events for kids, business conferences by Oracle and other Nashville companies or a Taylor Swift concert.
In a good year, Nihill said there are between 20 to 30 major events like Titans games and concerts in the current stadium. But when the new stadium opens, that number will rise closer to 50.
Once the entire East Bank development is completed, the stadium will be neighbored by green spaces, retail, apartments and offices — a very different setting from the current parking lots and industrial buildings.
“One of the ways we’ve referred to it is the new town center. That’s town center, different from downtown,” Nihill said. “It’s going to be a hallmark for our city.”
Hadley Hitson covers trending business, dining and health care for The Tennessean. She can be reached at hhitson@gannett.com. To support her work, subscribe to The Tennessean.