More Bars Are Hosting Visiting NFL Team Fans

It’s been a long few years as a Day 1 Titans season ticket holder, and the prospect of paying even more to at least sit in air-conditioned ambiance next season is cold comfort. But I’ve seen some other worrisome developments lately: local Nashville bars courting visiting fans on game days.

Now, I totally get that Nashville is filled with imported fans from other cities, and not that many of us were actually born here. (I always say that growing up a Vandy fan built character — too much character.) If you moved here with a previous home team, I’m happy that you have some local places to gather with your fellow fanatics, like the Bears gatherings at 312 Pizza Co. and Beyond the Edge, or Saints fans at The Gumbo Bros.

What burns my biscuits is when downtown bars actively convert themselves into a haven for whichever visiting team is in town to trounce our Titans. I’ve run into this before with the Predators when I castigated Dawghouse Saloon in Demonbreun Hill for offering free black and red Jell-O shooters to Chicago fans when the Blackhawks scored during a playoff game against the Predators. Fortunately, the Preds shut them out that night and eventually swept the series on the way to the Stanley Cup Final, so it worked out well.

But recently, I walked by Lainey Wilson’s Bell Bottoms Up on Third Avenue South the week before the Jets game, and the exterior was totally done up in green with special invitations for their fans to party within. It turns out this has been a regular thing for a while, even offering visits with alumni players from visiting teams and the chance to hang out with a real eagle when Philly came to town.

Other downtown bars that have jumped on the visiting-team bandwagon include Lainey’s neighbors across the street at Alan Jackson’s Silverbelly Whiskey Distillery and Mel’s Drive-In on Second Avenue, who are part of an organized weekend bar crawl event along with Bell Bottoms Up put on by Hoppers Nashville Bar Tours.

Listen, I know that a private business can make whatever decisions they feel they need to in order to maximize revenue. And Titans fans can also decide not to go to games if the team doesn’t make moves to improve or to patronize away-team bars on game days (or any days). We all need to do better.