Nashville wants to host NHL games
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Nashville is interested in serving as a neutral-site host city for the NHL should the league proceed with its 2019-20 season by playing in centralized locations.
Commissioner Gary Bettman said Monday that the NHL is considering “probably eight or nine different places” as centralized locations to welcome “a dozen or so teams,” according to the league’s website.
“If the NHL wants to play without fans, we want to be a (host) city,” Butch Spyridon, president and CEO of the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corporation, told The Tennessean.
These games, if they happen, would likely proceed without fans and include multiple contests a day.
Among the factors being evaluated for potential NHL sites, according to the league’s website, are hotel space, the ability to test for COVID-19 “without doing so at the expense of the medical community,” and multiple locker rooms “that can be sanitized as teams move in and out.”
Bridgestone Arena uses auxiliary locker rooms – in addition to the Predators’ locker room – each year for the Southeastern Conference men’s basketball tournament.
“We have the practice facilities, the game facility, the walking distance of hotels,” Spyridon said. “I think we’re as well-equipped (as anyone), when you add in our geographic location for teams to get here.”
It’s unclear what format the NHL would use upon the resumption of play, be it the conclusion of the regular season or a structure similar to pool play in an Olympic-style postseason format to determine a champion.
“We’d like to complete this season,” Bettman said Monday. “We’d like to award the Stanley Cup. And our fans are telling us overwhelmingly that’s what they’d like us to do, because people have an emotional investment in this season already.”
The ice at Bridgestone Arena has remained intact during the pause in play caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Predators President and CEO Sean Henry said last week. Asked why the ice was left intact, Henry said, “If we end up having to use the ice for anything in the next few weeks or months, it’s better to have it in.”
Bridgestone would be able to host games on short notice because the ice was never removed, while fresh ice would take days to prepare for play.
Henry declined to comment on Tuesday.
Spyridon said he has communicated with Henry about supporting the idea of hosting games, though Spyridon doesn’t know where Nashville stands in the NHL’s ongoing process. “I think we should be considered,” he said, “but I don’t know whether we are or not.”