21jump

Hayden (the Transit Guy) is a great follow on Twitter. He has posted some Nashville related material in the past.

I haven't heard anything recently.

Haha, they showed Superbad? One of my favorite movies but definitely not family friendly. I'm surprised they showed it.

Several? What's the story behind them?

The Goodyear Cotton Bowl football game has been giving the participants statues of their mascots made out of tires for several years. It's actually pretty cool. I recently read that the statue they made for Ohio State is in some random McDonalds in Columbus. But yes, it's hilarious that someone got a degree so that they can make tire sculptures of mascots.

Not sure if it was the last time, but yes.

Municipal would need significant investment if they plan on housing a WNBA team there permanently.

These facility upgrades are great. I'm waiting to see a timeline and a budget.

The tallest building in Raleigh is not downtown? Is North Hills close to downtown like midtown or the Gulch here?

https://www.commercialappeal.com/story/sports/college/memphis-tigers/football/2021/07/28/major-renovations-liberty-bowl-memorial-stadium-works/5400518001/ I figured this might be worth it's own thread if the Liberty Bowl does indeed see major renovations. They are adding two party deck type areas for this upcoming season. The article doesn't mention a timeline or what the major renovations will entail. My immediate thought is a new press box, since that has been floated around before. Hopefully it'll be all brick, to match the campus down the street, or limestone to kind of match colors with the existing structures in Liberty Park. Other things I'd like to see are an expanded concourse and renovated concessions and restrooms. I'd also like to see the number of chairback seats at least quadrupled. The capacity still needs to be in the 50,000 seat range so, to counteract the loss of seats due to chairbacks, they could add seats in the North end zone opposite the jumbotron.

I'm looking forward to seeing the future upgrades at Gentry. Hopefully they'll be able to land more concerts and events there after any renovations.

I would assume that they'll play at Centennial Sportsplex on West End, or possibly Municipal Auditorium, at least temporarily. I'm no engineer but I think it'd be incredibly difficult and expensive to convert Gentry to a hockey facility. It is my understanding that facilities that host both hockey and basketball are originally built with the proper equipment for to form and maintain an ice rink. Gentry may have to close for a year or so to upgrade it to be able to host hockey games. Then, it'll be entirely too large for the crowd size. If Gentry is converted, I believe they can just put a court on top of the ice during basketball games. I heard that's what they do at Bridgestone during the SEC Tournament. The NHL/Predators are paying are paying for the feasibility study so it's no harm/no foul for the university if it ends up not working out for the Tigers. But I think upgrading the football stadium should be their first priority. They may have good crowds at Nissan this year due to Eddie George but it's proven that college teams playing in NFL Stadiums is not ideal. TSU has the alumni base and following that deserves to play in one of the better on campus facilities in the FCS.

Miami is the only city that I visited in the last 5 years that feels like it has more construction and developments than Nashville.

The Angels aren't leaving Southern California anytime soon. Even though they're second fiddle in their metro, they are the closest MLB team to about 7 million people just in Orange, San Bernandino, and Riverside counties alone. They, and the Ducks, have a very apathetic, but loyal fan base. Couple that with the large amount of tourists visiting Disneyland across the freeway who want to check out a game while in town plus guaranteed sellouts every time they host the Dodgers, Giants, and Padres plus their local media deal, ability to attract top free agents (Pujols, Trout, Othani). Any owner would be stupid to leave all that behind to move elsewhere. Their ownership toyed with moving to Long Beach, but they now have a plan to renovate Angel Stadium and redevelop the surrounding area into high density mixed use. They are committed to Anaheim. The only thing I think they should do is re-re-re-re-re-brand to the California Angels. Anaheim is not LA and the stadium is at least an hour from DTLA on a good day, 2 1/2 hours during rush hour. Arizona may be looking to move if they can't get a stadium deal done in the next 5 years or so. Unfortunately for them, Maricopa county owns the stadium and the majority of the Phoenix metro are is in Maricopa County so it may be difficult to get a new stadium. They would probably benefit from a move to the burbs; either Scottsdale or Glendale, but it would have to be privately financed. Last I heard they were suing the county for neglecting the stadium and trying to get out of their lease; that was prior to the pandemic so I'm sure there is new info on that front that I'm not privy to. I personally think that they are more likely to move to Las Vegas than the Athletics and I think the Las Vegas Diamondbacks has a good ring to it. Or they could still the old nickname from the West Tennessee Diamondjaxx to give it a casino vibe. The Phoenix market would also be a difficult market to leave, unless you're the Arizona Coyotes. I'm not too knowledgeable on the Tampa Bay Rays situation except for the fact that their ballpark is trash and their avererage attendance is closer to the Sounds' than the rest of the MLB. I know they have thrown renderings around over the years but have gained next to zero traction in terms of a new stadium. As many others have noted, this would be the best option for Nashville as the AL East brings several home dates with the Yankees, Red Sox. We could also see more Blue Jays fans in our stands than normal due to the fact that many Canadians would love a reason to visit Nashville. That leaves us to the Oakland Athletics, another team that has been seeking a stadium deal for years. Unlike the Angels, their owners are not willing to pony up for the funds for a new park and upgrades to the coliseum are not feasible. History has proven that it is very difficult to secure public funding for stadium projects in California. Almost all new stadia and arenas in the state are privately funded: SoFi Stadium (Rams, Chargers) Chase Center (Warriors) future New Inglewood Arena (Clippers) Banc of California Stadium (LAFC) Dodger Stadium renovation. Simply put, the owners need the massive California media markets more than the markets need the teams. Even collegiate stadia at San Jose State and SDSU took years before they were able to get funding to replace old and even condemned facilities. The only recent facility built with public funds was the Golden 1 Center in small market Sacramento as that team could have EASILY moved north to Seattle or Vancouver if the city wasn't willing to pony up the funds. I still think the Athletics moving to Nashville is a long shot. Relocated Oracle employees will probably love if the A's moved with them to Nashville. Also the A's will have to change divisions which would likely send the (tr)Astros out West. I'm not sure the MLB would be keen on moving that team out of the Central after switching them to the American League just a couple of decades ago. Moving to San Jose/Santa Clara would be another option. That would give South Bay 4 of the 5 major sports, the money is there to support it. Apologies for the long winded response. Anyways, like MLBrumby said, play ball!

One idea worth considering locally if Nashville gets a line to Atlanta is to also utilize the tracks for a commuter rail into the city from Murfreesboro. Here in San Diego, we have the Pacific Surfliner, which has service to Los Angeles. I believe it is the busiest route for AMTRAC outside of the Northeast Corridor. On the same line, we have the Coaster which is heavy rail commuter service on the same line to Oceanside. Oceanside is about the same size as Murfreesboro (maybe a little smaller by now) and is about 40 miles from downtown San Diego. Both the Surfliner and Coaster were always packed during rush hour before the pandemic. Unlike Murfreesboro, Oceanside has a pretty robust transit system for a suburb which includes a light rail line to a neighboring suburb. I think something like that could be a small step towards a larger transit referendum in Middle Tennessee. As Paul said, the entire MSA needs to be on the same page and have one goal.