By J.P. Hoornstra
NASHVILLE, TN — Nashville is the lone city in an AFC South market that has not hosted a Super Bowl. That will change in 2030, according to Dan Patrick, who revealed April 20 on his eponymous show that the city’s approval to host the championship game is “signed and ready to go.”
In February 2024, crews broke ground on a new Nissan Stadium in Nashville, home of the Tennessee Titans. According to the team’s website, the venue is scheduled to be complete by 2027. The new stadium is is being built on the east side of the current Nissan Stadium.
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee previously bid to host the 2029 Super Bowl, which was subsequently awarded to Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, NV.
NFL Commissioner Rodger Goodell said in May 2024 that he believed a Super Bowl could be very successful in Nashville. “I think the stadium is going to be amazing,” Goodell said at the time. “We know the passion of the fans here — we experienced the draft here. I think a Super Bowl here would be very successful. But we’ll get to that once we get a little further down the line with the stadium.” Staging a Super Bowl is a costly undertaking. Santa Clara, which hosted the most recent Super Bowl at Levi’s Stadium, estimated its outlay for the most recent Super Bowl at $6.3 million. That figure does not include the cost to the city of the San Francisco 49ers’ 12-year-old home stadium.
In Nashville’s case, $500 million toward the cost of Nissan Stadium is reportedly coming from the state; another $760 million in bonds from the city’s Metro Sports Authority went into the project. WKRN in Nashville reported last year that the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp. had not yet received an official RFP to submit a bid on a future Super Bowl. If Patrick’s report is accurate, that’s changed — and Nashville’s bid won over the league.
