Nashville was recently named the host city for the National Hockey League’s 2023 Draft and NHL Awards. If you’re a hockey fan, then you’re probably as excited by that news as I am. These two events are routinely held in separate cities and at different times. But Nashville will host the events back to back in June of next year. As noted by the Scene’s sister publication the Nashville Post, “It’s been more than 15 years since these two events were hosted in the same city in the same year.”
Nashville has hosted the NHL Draft once before — in 2003, when the Nashville Predators selected Shea Weber — but until now, we have not hosted the NHL Awards. The awards will be held on June 26, and the two-day draft will begin two days later at Bridgestone Arena, home of the Predators.
Butch Spyridon, CEO of Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp, told The Tennessean in July that talks between the city and NHL were taking place. There had been some concern about having enough hotel rooms, but this is Nashville — as Spyridon says, “Room availability is not an issue.”
The Post notes that this will be “the fifth major NHL event the city has hosted, joining the 2003 NHL Draft, 2016 NHL All-Star Game, 2017 Stanley Cup Final and 2022 Stadium Series.” “The Stadium Series drew a crowd of more than 68,000 and had an estimated economic impact between $15 and $20 million,” writes the Post’s Michael Gallagher. “The 2016 All-Star Game drew an attendance of 17,113, and at the time it was the most-watched NHL All-Star game since 2004. It had an economic impact of approximately $25 million.”
This sets the stage for an incredible summer in 2023. The NHL events fall squarely between the CMA Fest and our city’s annual Fourth of July celebration. Our last Fourth of July bash resulted in $11 million in direct visitor spending, and the CMA Fest added $65.2 million in estimated direct visitor spending, according to the NCVC. The NCVC has been working hard over the years to bring major events to Nashville that will increase our exposure and further boost our city’s reputation. Frankly, in my estimation, they are hitting it out of the park.
In April 2019, Nashville found itself hosting the NFL Draft, with a reported 600,000 fans in attendance. This resulted in, according to the NCVC, $132.8 million in direct spending and pulled in amazing media coverage with 47.5 million viewers. Nashville could potentially host the NFL Draft again in the next few years, which would bring additional financial benefits to our city. The 2021 Fourth of July bash brought an estimated 350,000 people to Nashville. And let’s not forget the New Year’s Eve celebration — the NCVC estimated 250,000 to 300,000 people were in attendance. Beyond these events, Spyridon and other city leaders are still vying to get us our first Super Bowl!
In August, Nashville hosted the American Society of Association Executives’ Annual Meeting and Exposition. The Nashville Business Journal quotes ASAE president and CEO Michelle Mason as saying: “Our meeting is considered the Super Bowl of meetings for associations. We estimate that an immediate economic impact is about $15 [million] to $18 million, and historically, over 20 percent of our attendees will bring business back to the host city.” Further, the Journal reports, “When Nashville hosted the event in 2014, it led to 41 convention bookings and 201,205 room nights, resulting in $120.5 million in direct spending and $21 million in tax revenue, according to the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp.”
Nashville becomes more and more popular each year — the city even landed at the top of National Geographic’s recent list of the best places to travel in June. As the NCVC continues to reach for every major event appropriate for our city to host, our peerless reputation continues to grow. Of course, we all know that Nashville has long been grown-up, and that we long ago surpassed our reputation as just Music City. Now the whole world is taking notice.
Bill Freeman
Bill Freeman is the owner of FW Publishing, the publishing company that produces the Nashville Scene, Nfocus and the Nashville Post.
