Predators Unveil $650M Plan to Keep Pace With NHL’s Venue Race

The Predators have unveiled a $650 million plan to upgrade Bridgestone Arena, a large-scale move to keep up with both the booming nature of Nashville and improvements to several other National Hockey League venues in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast.

The project is set to begin in 2027 and include a 175,000-foot expansion to the arena, a variety of new restaurants and retail spaces, a remade entrance, and about 700 additional seats inside. Funding is slated to come from a combination of ticket revenue and money generated from sales taxes inside the arena.

“Can this be the most modern building in America, serving the best fans in America through the next 30, 40, 50 years? And it turns out, it can,” Predators CEO Sean Henry told The Tennessean. 

The publicly owned Bridgestone Arena opened in December 1996 and has since become one of the busiest arenas in the country. The building houses not only the Predators but also a steady stream of rodeo events, college basketball tournaments, and concerts across numerous genres of music.

Nashville, meanwhile, has grown by more than 6% annually since 2020, with much of that population influx coming from coastal areas, and it now stands as the 26th-largest media market in the U.S. The National Football League’s Titans also have a new $2.2 billion stadium in Nashville under construction, adding to the ongoing development in the area. 

More details about the Predators’ project are expected to be unveiled this summer, the team said. 

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The Predators’ move, meanwhile, also arrives as either substantial renovations or entirely new venues are planned for NHL teams in Philadelphia, Raleigh, and Washington, D.C.

The upgraded arena could also be a home for an expansion WNBA franchise should Nashville prevail in landing a team. 

“We’re future-proofing,” Predators chief strategy officer Kyle Clayton said to The Tennessean.