Stockard on the Stump: Tennessee, Nashville pour untold resources into Super Bowl LXIV

Tens of millions of dollars from Nashville’s tourism development zone will be tapped in the bid to draw Super Bowl XLIV to Nashville, former Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam said this week as officials celebrated landing the 2030 game.

Super Bowl movers and shakers are so confident they can transform the game into a new happening that they’re already making plans to hold multiple Super Bowls in Nashville. 

But pinning down the expense to do it is difficult. After all, it’s only taxpayers’ money. 

“There’s obviously a big cost to it, and that’s one of the reasons that we wanted to get that bill passed,” said Haslam, chairman of the board of Music City Major Events Inc., and also majority owner of the Nashville Predators.

Tennessee lawmakers passed legislation this year creating a joint capital tourism board to oversee $30 million in excess funds generated in the tourism development zone and $300 million in surplus funds held by the Nashville Convention Center Authority. 

After a Wednesday Super Bowl announcement at Nissan Stadium following a unanimous vote by NFL owners, Haslam told the Lookout that the entire $30 million won’t be used for other projects, creating extra funds to go toward Nashville’s bid. The former two-term governor said the bill was written to direct money toward Super Bowls, college football championships, World Wrestling Entertainment matches and other major events. It also can help pay for a new road on the fast-developing east bank of the Cumberland River and, potentially, help Broadway bar owners pay escalating property tax bills.

The state will have most authority on the board with six appointments and chairmanship by a gubernatorial pick, while Metro will have three seats. 

Haslam wasn’t clear on the precise amount but projected the financial commitment to the NFL would be more than $30 million and less than $100 million. 

Other costs will come for security, hotel rooms, media facilities and parking, he confirmed. Entertainment could bring a hefty fee too.

“It’s an incredible production,” Haslam said.

The NFL has a long list of host requirements for holding the Super Bowl, and because the game is so highly sought, the league can call the shots, Haslam added.

In addition to divvying up that money and putting $500 million toward the new $2.1 billion stadium, the state set up a fund two years ago with $25 million to go toward major events that bring in at least $10 million in economic benefits. Gov. Bill Lee alluded to the fund during Wednesday’s celebration, where he called the Super Bowl “the culmination of what’s great about Tennessee and what’s great about Nashville.”

But he slid out of there, leaving others to answer questions.

Much of the work on the East Bank and Nashville is part of bigger projects and would be done regardless of the Super Bowl, though that was the ultimate goal.

The East Bank is to be revamped over the next few years, with “affordable” housing, a hotel, greenways, parks, a new Tennessee Performing Arts Center and the enclosed stadium, all connecting to an Oracle campus that’s under construction despite large corporate layoffs. Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell said projects will be coordinated with the East Bank Development Authority and Metro Sports Authority. Work will be done on the Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge and James Robertson Parkway in downtown (which I can attest needs serious attention), in addition to Woodland Street and First and Second Avenues. 

Demolition of the old stadium will create an open area, and the old Steiner-Liff scrapyard site nearby could provide parking and other opportunities, O’Connell added. The scrapyard was sold last year to a Canadian company and is expected to become part of the East Bank experience.

Everybody’s expected to kick in something.

Besides traffic, public safety and infrastructure, “obviously, we want to make it a great and compelling event for Nashvillians,” O’Connell said.

The weeklong experience leading up to the game is likely to get some bounce from Nashville’s country music stars, although the city and Titans don’t want to make it all about boots and cowboy hats on Lower Broad. Maybe they’ll show some flyovers of McCabe Golf Course and everyone walking their dogs along the greenway. 

Nashville Convention and Visitors Corp. President and CEO Deana Ivey didn’t provide any figures from Nashville’s bid Wednesday, saying more budgeting has to be done. 

Titans CEO Burke Nihill, though, confirmed the team will be involved.

Asked if the Titans are putting money toward the bid, he said, “There’s a complicated formula to being sure that the city’s ready, and the Titans are certainly fully invested in making sure that the event is done right and the NFL is comfortable that the Titans were completely all in on this, financially and otherwise.”

Make what you will of that. Maybe it means they’ll try to pay a championship team over the next four years, instead of letting their best players leave. 

The idea with drawing the Super Bowl is to showcase Nashville and Tennessee on the world’s stage in hopes of bringing in tax revenue to go toward schools and roads (and to pay off the $1.26 billion on local and state spending to build the stadium). 

The Nashville Convention and Visitors Corp. didn’t provide any estimates on economic impact this week, even if it’s bound to be a bunch. 

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority said the game brought in $1 billion when it played host in 2024, according to one report. New Orleans said the 2025 game created $1.25 billion worth of economic impact.

Nashville will be buoyed by the fact that visitors and fans will be able to walk from downtown Nashville to the stadium and most activities, except for anything held near Opryland Hotel and the Grand Ole Opry.

Some wonder, though, whether the city needs many more tourists. It’s already hard enough to move around town, and a lot of folks feel like they’re being priced out of Nashville. How much will a beer cost at Lower Broad honky tonks during and after Super Bowl week?

As far as cowboy hats go, though, heck, I wore one in 1980 to Charlie Daniels’ Volunteer Jam at Municipal Auditorium, which wasn’t so historic back then. 

We all go through phases.

No conflict after all

Broadcaster Jim Nantz, who seems to call every major game, including eight Super Bowls, the Masters and credit card commercials, told reporters Wednesday he sees no conflict “at all” if he were to announce the Nashville game, even while serving as event co-host with Haslam.

“I have the right to have my own private life and be proud of being a part of one of the greatest communities that this country’s ever known, and the chance to showcase and shine a light on Nashville to America and really to the world, to a global audience, and there’s so much good that comes out of it. And what it’s going to do as far as pouring money into Tennessee and Nashville, you can’t even quantify how big it is,” he said in a reporters’ gaggle.

Nantz, who moved to Nashville five years ago, said Super Bowl contracts haven’t been bid that far out. But apparently, they have, with NBC tabbed to carry the 2030 game.

Nevermind. He’ll be able to serve with Haslam, which he called one of the “greatest honors” of his life, without worrying about a real or perceived conflict.

Should we get into this thing about former Patriots quarterback great Tom Brady being allowed to call ballgames while being a minority owner of the Raiders? Nah, that’s too easy.

Proclamation worthy

The Republican-controlled legislature passed a proclamation this year recognizing White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller for helping craft their slate of immigration bills.

The crackdown was so groundbreaking that House Speaker Cameron Sexton took a picture with Miller, who is largely responsible for the federal government’s deportation policies, holding said proclamation and posted it online.

In addition to forcing sheriff’s offices to join the ranks of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the legislature created a new law making it a crime to be in Tennessee without documentation (which could have trouble holding up in court), set up penalties for driving a big truck through the state without legal documents, required legal verification to receive public benefits, set up English-only driver’s license tests and much more. 

Basically, they turned local and state law enforcement into ICE partners, though Davidson County Sheriff Daron Hall is holding out.

The bill that quietly didn’t pass would have allowed school districts to check students’ immigration status. The bill’s sponsor, Republican Sen. Bo Watson, who no longer faces a primary election challenger, declined to bring it to the Senate floor for a vote after it stalled in 2025 because of questions about constitutionality and the potential loss of $1.1 billion in federal funding. 

Every time he was asked about the bill’s status, Watson would say “there’s still time.” Until time ran out.

When Republican leaders introduced the package this year, they talked about crime stats blamed on immigrants despite research showing immigrants perpetrate less crime than they get tagged with. No doubt, crime is bad. President Trump said he wanted to deport “the worst of the worst.” Few people would disagree with that.

But separating children from parents, allegedly profiling motorists for immigration stops and more or less terrorizing immigrant communities is shaky policy, at best.

Some Republicans during the session said – quietly – they were worried about the labor force.

Oh well, we need to start teaching white kids how to work on a roof, frame houses and dig ditches. That oughta toughen ’em up.

Tax freedom

Democratic state Sen. Jeff Yarbro put a little context into the deal the Department of Justice negotiated with Trump exempting him and his family – forever – from IRS audits and creating a massive fund that people can tap when they feel targeted by the feds, mainly the Jan. 6 offenders who stormed the U.S. Capitol. The incident resulted in the deaths of five police officers afterward, four of whom died by suicide.

“To make $1.8 billion a real number, this is like the president taking 100% of federal income taxes paid in total by every citizen in all of the Tennessee counties on this map (all of West Tennessee except Shelby County). The President is embezzling those tax payments and funneling the cash to his political supporters.”

Don’t worry, senator, it’s only money.

On second thought, there could be a little more to this than hard cash.

“Chewin’ on a piece of grass, walkin’ down the road / Tell me how long you gonna stay here, Joe?” America – Ventura Highway