Titans officials and local leaders donned hardhats and dug shovels into the dirt Thursday at the official groundbreaking of the future Nissan Stadium.
“Beneath our feet will be more than a stadium,” said Cathy Bender, chair of the Metro Sports Authority Board. "It will be a sports sanctuary, a beacon of sports facilities and a crown jewel of the NFL.”
Titans president and CEO Burke Nihill
Citizens will start to notice on-the-ground progress by April or May. According to Burke Nihill, Titans president and CEO, a full building should be visible by the 2025 season, with the interior build-out to be completed so the future stadium can be used starting in the 2027 season.
“This stadium will be made by and made for this community,” Nihill said. “Your stadium will proudly represent the character, the soul, the diversity and the audacity of Nashville and Tennessee.”
Titans controlling owner Amy Adams Strunk told the story of how her late father Bud Adams moved the then-Oilers to Tennessee.
“But even with all that foresight, I don’t think my father could’ve dreamed of just how right he was,” Strunk said.
Mayor Freddie O’Connell said the groundbreaking not only was for the stadium but also represented the beginning of work to create a new East Bank. The mayor mentioned his recent filing of legislation with the Metro Council to move forward on the rest of the East Bank project, which will feature affordable housing, transportation and a new home for the Tennessee Performing Arts Center. He and others recognized the work of former Mayor John Cooper and his administration.
“His team did so much work that led to this day, including the important vision that will endure in Imagine East Bank, a plan that continues to drive our efforts to complement this new facility surrounded by great new urban neighborhoods,” O’Connell said.
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The future stadium is expected to have a direct spending impact of $20.9 billion, with an estimated total economic impact of $33.7 billion in the Nashville economy over the next 30 years. The stadium itself will support about 4,925 annual full- and part-time jobs.
“It is for the fans all across this state," said Gov. Bill Lee at the groundbreaking. "It is for the people that will benefit that might never even come to this stadium but will benefit from the opportunities that are created and the impact that it has on the view that the rest of the world has of our city and of our state."
A version of this article was first published by our sister publication, the Nashville Post.
