LP Field

LP Field

Former names	Adelphia Coliseum (1999-2002) The Coliseum (2002-2006)
Location	1 Titans Way, Nashville, Tennessee 37213
Coordinates	36°9′59″N 86°46′17″W / 36.16639°N 86.77139°W / 36.16639; -86.77139Coordinates: 36°9′59″N 86°46′17″W / 36.16639°N 86.77139°W / 36.16639; -86.77139
Broke ground	1997
Opened	August 27, 1999
Owner	Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County
Operator	Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County
Surface	Tifsport Bermuda Sod
Construction cost	$290 million
Architect	HOK Sport
Capacity	68,798
Tenants
Tennessee Titans (NFL) (1999-present) Tennessee State Tigers (NCAA) (1999-present) Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl (NCAA) (1999-present) CMA Music Festival (Fan Fair) (2001-present)

LP Field is a football stadium in Nashville, Tennessee, United States, owned by the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County.

The stadium is used primarily for sporting events and music concerts and festivals. The stadium is the home field of the NFL's Tennessee Titans and the Tennessee State University Tigers. It is also the site of the Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl, a postseason college football game played each December, and is occasionally used as a venue for soccer matches. The stadium is also used for large concerts such as the CMA Music Festival nightly concerts which take place for four days every June.

The stadium also has numerous public meeting facilities which are used for public events, meetings, parties and gatherings.

LP Field is located on the east bank of the Cumberland River, directly across the river from downtown Nashville. Its seating capacity is slightly under 69,000. Its first event was a preseason game between the Titans and the Atlanta Falcons on August 27, 1999.

The playing surface of LP Field is Tifsport Bermuda Sod, a natural grass. However, the relatively warm climate of Nashville, combined with the wear and tear of hosting a game nearly every weekend, usually results in a resodding of the area "between the hashes" in late November. Despite the efforts to improve the field conditions, the poor quality of the grass has become a complaint of many NFL players, fans, and broadcasters.

History

LP Field as seen from Section 341, immediately prior to kickoff of Titans vs Texans, October 29, 2006

During the 1995 NFL Preseason, the Houston Oilers faced the Washington Redskins in an exhibition game at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tennessee. At the game, Oilers owner Bud Adams met Nashville Mayor Phil Bredesen and began discussing the possibility of moving the team to Middle Tennessee,^{[citation needed]} due to Adams' discontent with the teams' lease at the Astrodome and unwillingness of the City of Houston to build a new football-only stadium. Later that fall, Adams and Bredesen announced the team's intent to move to Nashville. The city and team decided to locate a stadium on the eastern bank of the Cumberland River in downtown Nashville, on the site of a blighted industrial development.

In a special referendum on May 7, 1996, voters in Metropolitan Nashville/Davidson County voted to approve partial funding of the proposed stadium. The vote, which allocated US$144 million of public money to the project, passed with a 59% majority^[1]. The pro-stadium organization, known as "NFL Yes!" outspent the anti-stadium group by a ratio of 16:1 during the campaign.

The funds initially would be raised through an increase in the Metro water tax. The ongoing funding is through a 300% increase in Davidson County individual homeowner property taxes. Much of the remaining construction costs were funded through the sale of personal seat licenses. Some State of Tennessee money was allocated to the project, on the condition that the Tennessee State University football team move its home games there, and with the request that the team be named "Tennessee" (instead of "Nashville"), which the franchise was planning to do anyway, in an attempt to appeal to the broader region.^{[citation needed]}

The stadium's construction was delayed when the construction site was hit by a tornado that struck downtown Nashville on April 16, 1998 and destroyed several cranes, but the stadium opened in time for the first scheduled event.

Naming rights

Adelphia Coliseum in 2002

During its construction, the stadium had no official name, though it was generally referred to as "The East Bank Stadium," a reference to the stadium's location on the eastern bank of the Cumberland River. Some in the local media jokingly called it "Bredesen-Adams Stadium". Upon its completion, it was given the name Adelphia Coliseum in a 15-year, $30 million naming rights arrangement with Adelphia Business Solutions, a subsidiary of the larger Adelphia telecommunications company. However, after Adelphia missed a required payment and subsequently filed for bankruptcy in 2002, this name was dropped and the stadium became known simply as The Coliseum for four years. (Adelphia itself was dissolved in 2006.) The current naming rights deal with Nashville-based Louisiana-Pacific was inked on June 6, 2006. Louisiana-Pacific, which markets itself as "LP Building Products", is paying $30 million over ten years for naming rights^[2]. LP's influence inside the stadium led to the creation of the LP Building Zones in 2007, located beneath the giant scoreboards at the North and South ends of the stadium. The existing concession stands and restrooms in these two areas have been decorated to look like suburban homes using LP products.

Tennessee Titans

Downtown Nashville as viewed from the upper decks of LP Field

The Titans have posted an impressive record at LP Field since moving there in 1999, including winning their first 16 games before losing to the Baltimore Ravens on November 12, 2000. Overall, the Titans are 45–27 in the regular season and 2–2 in playoff games at LP Field. Every Titans home game (including preseason) has been a sellout since the stadium opened in 1999. This is due to fans purchasing season tickets associated with the personal seat licenses each season ticketholder must own. The seat licenses helped finance construction of the stadium. There is a long waiting list for personal seat licenses, as well as season tickets.

Music City Miracle

On January 8, 2000, one of the most memorable and debated plays in NFL history took place at then-Adelphia Coliseum. The "Music City Miracle", as it has come to be known, was a last-minute trick play on a kickoff return that resulted in a touchdown and catapulted the Titans past the Buffalo Bills to the Divisional Playoffs. It also ensured that the Titans would go undefeated in the first season in the team's new home. The victory was seen in front of a franchise-record crowd.^{[citation needed]}

Soccer

LP Field occasionally hosts soccer matches by the United States men's and women's national teams as well as professional clubs. The venue was first used for soccer on April 20, 2004 in an exhibition game between the Los Angeles Galaxy of Major League Soccer and Tecos UAG of the Mexican Primera División.^[3] Since then LP Field has been used for friendly matches by the U.S. women versus Canada in 2004, a return of Tecos against rival F.C. Atlas in 2005, and the U.S. men versus Morocco in 2006.^[4] The stadium hosted the CONCACAF men's qualifying tournament finals for the 2008 Summer Olympics with the winners securing tournament berths in Beijing, China.^[5]

On April 1, 2009, the U.S. men's national team played a World Cup qualifier beating Trinidad and Tobago by a score of 3-0. The match saw Jozy Altidore become the youngest American to score a hat trick in an international game before a crowd of 27,959 — the largest to watch a soccer match in Tennessee state history.^[6][7]

Concerts and events

LP Field also doubles as a large concert venue, although very few concerts are scheduled there due to attendance at some previously scheduled shows that did not approach capacity and the site's operating arrangements, which make it difficult for concert promoters to make their usual profit margins on events held there. The main stage for the annual CMA Music Festival, held every June, is located in the stadium. A large Billy Graham Crusade was held at the stadium in the summer of 2000.

References

External links

• LPField.com – official site