But Mayor Freddie O’Connell wants more professional teams in the city.
There seems to be a lot going on in Nashville. There is a multi-billion-dollar stadium being built for the National Football League’s Tennessee Titans’ franchise ownership group. A stadium was built for a Major League Soccer Nashville expansion franchise. The city owned arena houses the National Hockey League Nashville Predators franchise and the Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell wants more teams in the city which would in O’Connell’s mind would be a Major League Baseball franchise, a Women’s National Basketball Association team and a National Women’s Soccer League squad. The WNBA franchise could play in the city owned arena and the NWSL squad could use the soccer stadium. But there is no stadium available for a Major League Baseball team and where would the money come from for a baseball stadium that could cost anywhere between a half billion and a billion dollars? O’Connell, as a Nashville city council member, voted against public funding for the Titans’ football stadium.
O’Connell has said any Major League Baseball stadium in Nashville should be privately funded. “Our public investment strategy is focused on existing obligations and ensuring that we do get to that philosophy of a better Nashville for Nashvillians.” O’Connell said he’s “as interested, if not more interested,” in two women’s professional sports leagues. The National Women’s Soccer League has 15 teams and the plan is to add a 16th franchise by 2026 and the NWSL will be going through an expansion process sometime this year. The WNBA also wants to expand. The potential Nashville baseball owner John Loar has a deal in place with Tennessee State University to evaluate an over 100-acre area of land on the college campus that could house a Major League Baseball stadium. But there is no definitive plan other than checking out the site nor is there a financial plan and that’s a problem.
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