Rumors have continued to stir around professional sport franchises eyeing Nashville as a potential home.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Rumors have continued to stir around professional sport franchises eyeing Nashville as a potential home. On Friday, Mayor Freddie O’Connell said teams would need private funding to be considered by the city.
From the Chicago White Sox to Music City Baseball, O’Connell shared with reporters on Friday that he had heard “chatter” around professional teams eyeing Nashville. Recently, he said he had heard about the Tampa Bay Rays considering a new or temporary home.
With this, however, O’Connell said that if they want to come to Nashville that to be considered, leagues would need to have to find their own source of funding.
“We know that people are talking about Nashville as a sports market for a variety of franchise opportunities, but for us, this is not something we can consider seriously unless somebody brings a proposal to the table that shows us a fully-private financing plan for any kind of facility,” O’Connell said. “We do not have a major league baseball stadium and we are not intending to publicly finance one.”
O’Connell added that he would love to see Nashville host or have a professional women’s franchise following the recent announcement of the National Women’s Soccer League expansion. However, once again, he said it would require a private funding plan.