Sunday in Nashville will be a beautiful disaster

Brad Schmitt | The Tennessean

When I worked at a Nashville TV station 10 years ago, the (sometimes profane) news director snarled every time the sports guys talked about hockey.

“The only people who give a (rip) about the Preds are already in the arena watching the game!” he barked.

Harsh, but he kinda had a point. Home game attendance was solid but unspectacular. The team’s fans were a super-engaged but small group.

My, how times have changed. This season, sell-out games all season long, a first Stanley Cup Final appearance, glowing national media attention — and more than 50,000 fans jamming downtown for game viewing parties.

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It got so out of hand organizers started using wristbands to control how many people stand outside the arena. Really?

Really.

But we ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

Sunday night is going to be a gigantic mess.

That’s when Preds power — facing elimination — collides with nearly 100,000 country music fans.

The Predators play the Pittsburgh Penguins in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final at Bridgestone Arena. About 70,000 or more hockey fans are expected to converge on a downtown area that already will be crammed with tourists for the annual CMA Music Festival.

Just after that game ends, Brad Paisley and Keith Urban are set to close out the festival at Nissan Stadium, a mere 1.6 miles away.

Oh, and gigantic rock festival Bonnaroo will be wrapping up about an hour south of here.

How the Predators went from near extinction to excellence On May 24, 2007, the Predators' frustrated owner announced he intended to sell the team to a Canadian billionaire. Ten years later, the Preds are about to play in their first Stanley Cup Final.

City government and tourism officials have plans for how to handle what could be the most massive influx of humanity into the downtown Nashville area in a single night.

It’s annoying to some, exciting for others — and an awesome chance, for better or for worse, that Nashville will become the center of the universe this weekend.

Just look at the last few weeks. It’s pretty wild to see former NBA great Charles Barkley goofing around with former hockey great Wayne Gretzky — at Bridgestone Arena.

Actor/rocker Jared Leto (“Dallas Buyers Club”) sported a Preds T-shirt when he fronted the Thirty Seconds to Mars concert at Ascend Amphitheater. And legendary football coach Nick Saban was spotted in town in a Preds game jersey.

(Justin Bieber posted a pic of himself wearing a Penguins jersey May 31. And Pittsburgh lost the next two out of three games to the Preds. Just sayin’.)

A post shared by Justin Bieber (@justinbieber) on May 31, 2017 at 8:22am PDT

Of course, seeing national stars is nothing new in Nashville, especially at Preds games, where Urban, Nicole Kidman, Dierks Bentley, Vince Gill, Amy Grant, Tim McGraw and others have been spotted for years.

But the national spotlight is getting bigger and bigger. Media outlets from across the country are praising Nashville’s hockey spirit, the arena environment, the fans’ increasing knowledge about the game and their energy.

Even the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette wrote a piece called: “The Nashville hockey experience is weird, loud and perfect.”

“Here’s a good rule of thumb,” columnist Sean Gentille wrote.

“If the closest thing to criticism of a game experience you can muster is ‘there was too much stuff happening,’ you probably had a pretty good time. ‘The fans were too loud’ and ‘they cheered too much’ do not count.”

There might be a misguided hater or two in the crowd. The New York Post dispatched 87-year-old gossip columnist Cindy Adams to Nashville recently. And Adams basically called us a bunch of fat gravy drinkers.

“The town’s three B’s are boobs, butts and bellies, and anyone size 4 is a foreigner,” she wrote. “Their lingerie shop sells slips, bras and hammocks.”

Sigh.

If we’re going to perpetuate stereotypes, Cindy, I might say you’re an obnoxious, arrogant New Yorker who doesn’t know squat. But I certainly don’t want to perpetuate stereotypes.

Yes, we love our rhinestones and ribs — but your Rangers aren't skating in June.

Bless your heart.

Yes, Nashvillians know more about hockey than we did 20 years ago. But I’m not sure that’s what’s driving tens of thousands of people to slap on some gold and gather outside.

As my Preds-loving colleague Alex Hubbard says, “It’s not the debates over the left-wing lock and butterfly goaltenders that keep the fans interested.”

No, it’s Fang Fingers, it’s taunting the opposing team’s goalie, it’s rocker Alice Cooper doing a few songs between periods, it’s mascot Gnash being hilarious and fun, and yes, it’s winning games.

Beyond that, the Preds give Middle Tennessee something to rally around, something to bond over.

Yes, we’re growing fast, attracting top businesses, restaurants, architects, innovators, developers, artists, athletes and students from around the world. Well, looky there, now we’re much more than Music City. And there are growing pains that come with that.

But when we wave a Stand With Us towel, well, suddenly skyrocketing costs ($80 for a parking spot?), traffic jams, struggling schools and tall-and-skinny houses melt away, if only for three hours.

Yes, we’re cheering for Pekka Rinne and Filip Forsberg and P.K. Subban and Captain Mike Fisher.

But we’re also cheering for us and for Nashville.

And we love to do it together. By the tens of thousands.

Even when downtown already is crowded with the biggest music festival of the year.

Reach Brad Schmitt at brad@tennessean.com or 615-259-8384 and on Twitter @bradschmitt.