Consultant finds Titans’ $1.8B stadium renovation wishlist would cost $1.8B

When the Metro Nashville council spent $200,000 to hire consultants Venue Solutions Group to analyze the cost of renovating the Tennessee Titans’ current stadium rather than spending $1.2 billion (at least) in city and state money toward a new one, the idea was to see what taxpayers would be required to do under the current lease. VSG’s report is now in, and the results are:

Venue Solutions Group estimated the renovation design plan produced by architectural firm Gensler/Hastings for the Titans would cost around $1.88 billion

Well, that’s certainly more than $1.2 billion, so clearly — wait, what? The renovation plan produced for the Titans? What would that include?

• Roughly $362 million in repairs and replacements of outdated building infrastructure to prepare Nissan Stadium for renovation and updates to finishes to bring Nissan Stadium “up to current NFL standards”

• A $1.5 billion renovation package featuring new club facilities, suites, concessions and dining options, video board and technology upgrades, and a $48 million new “exterior skin” for the building

So that’s less $1.88 billion in needed renovations and more $362 million in needed renovations, plus $1.5 billion in stuff the Titans owners would like, please. The Titans’ lease, which expires after the 2028 season, requires Nashville to provide a “first-class” stadium, but it’s questionable to say the least whether this actually means “is upgraded to include every last bauble and gewgaw that every other modern stadium has.” As councilmember Sean Parker noted following the release of the report, “It was never contemplated to make this a 7-days-a-week destination, bar, hangout place overlooking downtown. That would not be Metro’s responsibility if that’s the team’s desire.”

VSG did look at one comparable stadium to see what its upgrades cost — the Miami Dolphins’ Hard Rock Stadium, which according to the consultants received $1.3 billion in renovations from 2006 to 2017, though some of this included things like new video boards for baseball games when the Marlins still played there and in any case doesn’t seem to have cost anywhere close to $1.3 billion, not even if you adjust for inflation. But it did not escape notice that the $1.88 billion price tag established by VSG is strikingly similar to the $1.8 billion price tag presented by the Titans ownership. Which really should come as no surprise if VSG was only checking to see if it would really cost what the Titans owners claimed to build the renovated stadium that the Titans owners would want.

VSG will be presenting its study, if you can call it that, to a council committee today at 4:30 pm, which will be webcast. One hopes there will be lots of questions about whether the consultants actually provided a study of what the council paid for, or if they just drove across the border to Virginia to stock up on “research supplies.”