Nashville: A Great Place For Professional Sports
Nashville is known for great music, nightlife, and food. We have so much to offer on all of these accounts that it’s become a focus for visitors and locals alike. And don’t get us wrong — this is for good reason. There are plenty of wonderful places to eat, drink, and take in a great show.
However, Nashville is also a great place to see some top-level athletes compete. Do you like the excitement of a live sporting event? Are you an avid follower of the NFL, NHL or the MLS? Well if so, we’ve got great news for you.
Nashville has many great opportunities for casual sports fans as well as rabid sports fans. And people who just like to go to great events and snack on a hotdog, we’ve got you covered too. So here’s your guide to Nashville’s great professional sports options.
Tennessee Titans
The Titans are a big deal in Nashville. It won’t take too long of a drive down just about any road to see a Titans flag either hanging off of someone’s house or flapping from the window of a car. The home games at Nissan Stadium are well-attended and very enthusiastic.
The Tennessee Titans officially started in 1997, although they played their first year in Memphis before fully moving to Nashville to play in Vanderbilt Stadium. They were called the Tennessee Oilers during this time, because the franchise (which started in 1960) actually stretches back to Houston.
They finally moved to their current home in Nissan Stadium (then called Adelphia Coliseum) in 1999. This would prove to be a huge year for the team. Their first year in their home stadium would take them all the way to the Super Bowl. And even though they didn’t come home with a championship, the city’s infatuation with the team was solidified.
This past season was another huge year for the Titans. Despite all odds, they climbed their way through the playoffs into the AFC Championship, which they unfortunately lost to the future Super Bowl Champions, the Kansas City Chiefs.
But win or lose, Nashville is firmly behind their beloved Tennessee Titans.
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Nashville Predators
People might not associate Tennessee with hockey, but there is a huge market for the sport in Music City. The Nashville Predators are yet another pride of the town. The home games are a raucous good time complete with repeated chants and the occasional flying catfish.
Seriously.
Nashville had been courting a few professional sports teams in the mid-1990s including the New Jersey Devils and the Sacramento Kings, but neither panned out. Instead, the Nashville Predators started in 1998 as an NHL expansion team.
Just a few short years ago, the Predators made their first appearance in the Stanley Cup Finals. The Preds (as they’re locally known) pushed to Game 6, but ultimately came up short.
They clinched their first division title the following season while also securing their first President’s Trophy. They again went into the playoffs but were knocked out in the second round.
The high level of play, along with the frequent celebrity sightings at home games, continue to bring packed houses to each of their games. And much like the Tennessee Titans, it doesn’t take a long search to find Predators flags, hats, or shirts walking around the city throughout the year.
Nashville SC
The Nashville Soccer Club is about to begin its inaugural season here in Nashville. There’s been a lot of talk around town about getting this team up and running, and everyone’s very excited to see them in action.
It has been a long road from expansion bid to the inaugural game which took place in late February against the Atlanta United FC. The first effort to bring an MLS expansion team to Nashville started way back in 2016. And the first actual bid to do so was the following year. The announcement that Nashville would be added to the MLS was announced in December of the following year, giving them until 2020 to have their start.
Since then, the structure and personnel of the entire team has been decided. Uniforms were ordered. And now we’re finally to the point of games being played.
Soccer is not new to the city. A team called the Nashville Metros played in the Premier Development League from 1989 to 2012.
Nashville SC will be playing their games at Nissan Stadium until their own stadium is built. This new stadium is still currently in the planning phase, but it finally cleared the final hurdle in the city legislature and construction will soon be underway.
