Music City Baseball to begin site assessment for future MLB stadium at Tennessee State University
Julia Masters
~2 minutes
TSU could not immediately be reached for comment Monday afternoon.
Music City Baseball's goal is to have construction — site preparation work such as utilities and grading work — begin in 2024. John Loar, managing director for Music City Baseball, said in a previous interview that the group’s timeline is focused on the potential Nashville Stars playing their first season in 2027.
The group previously identified the Texas Rangers' Global Life Field in Arlington, Texas, and the Atlanta Braves' The Batter in Atlanta as projects comparable to what they are hoping to bring to Nashville. Both serve not only as baseball stadiums, but also entertainment and event venues. The project cost for Global Life Field was around $1.2 billion.
Music City Baseball would, “start engaging the site itself and preparing it for a stadium-like facility,” before Nashville was awarded an MLB team, Henley said.
Though Music City Baseball is still considering other options, Henley has confidence in the TSU site’s viability for a stadium, despite its location along the river.
“A lot of the sites on the river are now being activated in a way Nashville hasn’t done before,” Henley said. “… That orientation of the site is really what this assessment will help us determine going forward, really shaping the vision of what that site can be. I think it’s definitely viable for all the needs that we envision.”
Building an MLB stadium at TSU would bring amenities to North Nashville that it used to be void of, Henley said, through the facility itself and the mixed-use development that would come with it.
“I don’t know if any other HBCU in the country is positioned to have that type of dramatic growth in such a dynamic space,” Henley said.