Ideal sites for MLS Stadium (Hypothetical) (Germantown, Lafayette: neighborhoods, amphitheatre, high school)

[lakegirlfromwilson]

I thought I would float this idea out there. If Nashville were to get a MLS team, where would the team build a stadium? Would they build downtown? Williamson County? Would they build out in Antioch, where the fanbase would be large?

What are your thoughts?

[brentwoodgirl]

My thoughts are not Williamson County. The school already has trouble finding land here for new schools, no need to add additional competition (or additional traffic).

Antioch already has the Preds practice arena and Scott Hamilton skate school, another sports venue might be good.

[funtraveler1]

Building it in the suburbs would be a killer. Both of our teams have the best location in each respective league (or atleast top 5). I'd say put it near the Nissan, tear down all the industrial bs (it's an eyesore).

I'm glad this thread was made, and with recent news it really heightens our chances of getting a team.

NHL, NFL, MLS, Triple A Baseball, College sports, high school sports (Tennessee is a top 10 state for both basketball and football recruiting), etc. This gonna be a pretty good sports town.

[lakegirlfromwilson]

Originally Posted by funtraveler1

Both of our teams have the best location in each respective league (or atleast top 5). I'd say put it near the Nissan, tear down all the industrial bs (it's an eyesore).

Could the city's traffic grid handle another sports team downtown? Traffic is already terrible down there.

I would like to see a team downtown but very very very worried the traffic would be terrible, especially if multiple games were going on at once. (i.e Sounds and MLS game or Titans and MLS game). The interstate loop in downtown just wouldn't be able to handle a sounds game and a MLS game at 6pm on a weekday. The Titans exhibition games that are on weekdays are a traffic disaster already.

Honestly, I would be totally down with Antioch. Maybe they could put it in where the old Starcourse (Sp)Amphitheatre was.

Imagine this scenario on Friday:
1. Concert at Bridgestone
2. Opry at Rhyman
3. Sounds game
4. Event at Ascend Amphitheatre
5, MLS game

*Traffic would be nightmare

[jabogitlu]

I would like to see a team downtown but very very very worried the traffic would be terrible, especially if multiple games were going on at once. (i.e Sounds and MLS game or Titans and MLS game). The interstate loop in downtown just wouldn't be able to handle a sounds game and a MLS game at 6pm on a weekday. The Titans exhibition games that are on weekdays are a traffic disaster already.

Nashville traffic is already a nightmare. Spreading around your assets metro-wide is what has contributed to your city's problems already. Building everything closer together to allow folks to walk, bike, or (for most people) riding the bus and trains (forthcoming) is the best way to solve your traffic problems. The days of driving two people to a car and parking adjacent and cheaply are over... Nashville's growing too much for that.

[yank283]

The old Greer Stadium would be perfect.

[Drake744]

It's common for MLS stadiums to be built in suburban areas. Off the top of my head I know Denver, Dallas, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Jose and Los Angeles all play in suburbs. I'm sure there are more. The only one that comes to mind that plays directly downtown is Seattle and they share a stadium with the Seahawks so there's no scheduling conflict there. They're next to the Mariners MLB stadium but they make it work fine.

Either way I think the MLS could work well here, and I wouldn't worry too much about potential traffic issues. These things work their way out and even if there is some big traffic tie up caused by a stadium, it would be relatively rare and several years away at the earliest.

[DonCorleone]

I think there's value in looking at what other MLS cities have done, but I think Nashville's current sports culture is one that would demand the venue be built in the general vicinity of downtown. It's centrally located, infrastructure is already there, and more importantly, people here are conditioned to go downtown for major events like sports, concerts, festivals. A new team would almost certainly want a new facility, which would rule out Greer as it currently sits (though total demolition and rebuild might work). Sharing with the Titans would be economically feasible but I don't think it would be a wise long term decision. To me, building in some of the underdeveloped areas of SoBro would make some sense...perhaps towards the interstate near Lafayette. It would expand the development of that area all the way to the edge of the loop and create some fill in zones for other development to come in (its heading that way already).

The best area to me would be to put a new facility where Steiner Liff (or whatever corporate conglomeration now owns it is called) currently sits. The city has been talking about acquiring that area for well over a decade or more. The parking can be shared by the MLS and Titans. It could spur an entire new riverfront development area. It would require out of the box thinking and a huge financial commitment (which is why it's pie in the sky) but to me that's the best place to put it.

[Hey_Hey]

This isn't going anywhere other than downtown or the immediately surrounding neighborhoods. The days of suburban stadiums are largely gone. Many of the existing MLS stadiums were build 15-20 years ago and were suburban. Even those, however, weren't "suburban" to the extent that Antioch or Cool Springs is suburban (Columbus Crew, Chicago Fire, etc).

Currently, Orlando and Atlanta are building stadiums downtown. LA is building once just outside downtown adjacent to the USC campus (very urban), Minnesota is constructing one in a downtown adjacent neighborhood in St Paul. Washington DC is building one in an urban neighborhood in DC.

Downtown can handle the traffic much, much better than any suburban location, even when there are multiple events. If you put a 20-30,000 seat stadium in Cool Springs or Antioch then there will be massive traffic jams for every game. If you put that same number of people Downtown on a Saturday afternoon the traffic increase will be imperceptible a block or two from the stadium. The traffic capacity in and around downtown is massive relative to suburban locations.

I was downtown for a concert during the time that TDOT was completely Fast Fix 8 and had the south loop closed down. I was at the Eric Church concert at the amphitheater, there was a Sounds game, a Shania Twain concert at Bridgestone, and Dolly Parton had a concert at the Ryman. Of course, Lower Broadway was also packed as always with tourists and other visitors. All told there were around 45,000 concert/sports attendees with the closest interstate completely shut down. People were still able to get out, and if it weren't for the interstate being closed it wouldn't have been bad at all.

The mistake is assuming that spreading something out leads to less congestion. It is actually opposite. When an event is at the periphery of the metro area then the average travel distance goes up for attendees and total miles travelled on roadways is more. The other, arguably more important, reason for having it downtown is that there simply isn't a sense of place when you are in the burbs of Nashville. No one finds Cool Springs or Antioch or Providence uniquely appealing in any way. The great thing about the Preds or Titans is that fans are adjacent to Lower Broadway and are within walking distance of more restaurants/bars/entertainment than all of those suburban areas combined.

Look for a stadium location to be announced in Sobro, West End, Midtown, adjacent to Nissan Stadium, Germantown, etc.

[Drake744]

I don't put a ton of stock into these comments, but Vandy's AD finally addressed the need for a better football stadium last week and floated out the idea of possibly building a new stadium to share with a future MLS team. One would have to think it would either be on campus (if new, where? IDK) or off of West End.

As far as sharing with the Titans, MLS has made it pretty cut and dry that they only want to award newer teams to cities who want to permanently share with the local NFL team, although with Atlanta's new team moving into the new Falcons stadium I'm guessing there are exceptions for shiny new ones.