Nate Rau, and Joey Garrison

The Tennessean

The Nashville Predators unveiled concepts Thursday to expand and improve Bridgestone Arena, including a new on-site hotel, an office tower, a secondary ice rink, an expanded concourse and a slate of upgrades to improve the interactive fan experience for millennials.

Predators CEO Sean Henry stressed that the plan — produced in a report by consultant Populous, a Kansas City, Mo.-based sports architectural firm — is not a request for specific projects. It's a conversation starter with Metro to keep the 20-year-old arena, where the hockey club is the anchor tenant, thriving for the next 20 years.

Henry told The Tennessean that the NHL's Predators want to remain at the Metro-owned Bridgestone Arena — situated at a prime location at the doorstep to Lower Broadway — for decades to come, and don't want to ask the city to build a new facility like other professional sports teams frequently do after about 30 years. The Predators' stadium lease runs through 2028.

But Henry pointed to ambitious upgrades at other sports stadiums, Wrigley Field in Chicago, Fenway Park in Boston and the Palace at Auburn Hills outside Detroit, as examples of how facilities can improve over time.

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The stated goal of the study, which the Predators and Metro kicked off in February, is to extend the life of the building. The report mentions a tower to be located at the corner of Sixth Avenue and Broadway that would be used for a hotel, office space and/or residential space. The report also identifies a new social rooftop patio area, a restaurant to anchor new retail space and adding a second sheet of ice on-site.

“How do we fundamentally continue to renovate this building but in the next 10 to 12 years really transform it?” Henry said, explaining the goal of the Populous report.

Henry and a consultant from Populous unveiled the study at Thursday's Nashville Sports Authority meeting. Despite the ambitious upgrades that are identified, Henry downplayed the report as simply a study of "space management" and an "exercise in geometry" and not a wish list of individual projects.

"What we wanted to see is if we could do that," he said of the conceptual designs.

There is no price tag for the potential projects highlighted in the Populous report. The next step will be to create a master plan including cost estimates and development strategy.

In a statement, Rich Riebeling, chief operating officer for Mayor Megan Barry, said the city needs to ensure Bridgestone Arena can continue to thrive and that the administration would be exploring the report.

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“Mayor Phil Bredesen and the Metro Council made an excellent, far-reaching decision that changed downtown and changed Nashville when they built Bridgestone Arena 20 years ago," Riebeling said. "Now we need to ensure that the arena remains a powerhouse venue for Nashville’s residents and visitors for another 20 years or more. The Populous study gives us a lot of different options to do just that, and we’ll be working with the Sports Authority to study them carefully in the months ahead.”

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Other notable projects in the report include more toilets and concession facilities, increased amenities at all levels, revamped stadium suites, new event plazas including rooftop hospitality and street-level hospitality, and new team and facility offices at the corner of Sixth Avenue and Demonbreun Street where a new sheet of ice would be added. The overhaul for the corner of Sixth Avenue and Broadway would include the new tower plus conference and meeting space, street-level retail and a relocated team store and visitors center.

Adam Stover, senior architect at Populous, called the study a "high-level vision of what's possible" that is intended to create conversation and identify capital opportunities on the perimeter of the stadium site that could generate additional tax revenue. That revenue could help pay for improvements inside the stadium under a preliminary scenario Henry discussed Thursday.

Stover said a key goal is to adapt the stadium for a millennial generation that values immediacy and a range of options. He also discussed continuing the "Broadway experience through the arena" by transforming the venue into a facility that is active on all sides and has activity at all times — not just during games or concerts.

"We want to really make that building a 365-day-a-year experience," Stover said.

Metro and state taxpayers sent $8.7 million for incentives and subsidies to the Predators in 2015. The level of tax incentives the hockey club receives on an annual basis ramped up after former Mayor Karl Dean orchestrated a new stadium deal in 2007 that kept the team in Nashville.

Bridgestone Arena has frequently been ranked by Pollstar among the top performing arenas in the nation in terms of attendance.

Henry said "for better, worse or indifferent" other sports franchises turn to their hometowns for new facilities at about the 30-year mark. Henry said the Predators want to stay in the thick of Nashville's prime entertainment district on Lower Broadway.

"We’re proud we really outperform the size of the city in terms of attendance, number of events," Henry said. "We never use the size of the city as an excuse. Now the job is how do we keep that going. And that’s what this exercise is about."

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Another key goal, Henry said, is improving the concert and hockey game experience for millennial fans. That means improved "technological integration" and a variety of club seating options that encourage a more social experience, according to the report.

“It’s not just improving the building,” Henry said. “It’s looking where we are now, how the fan base evolves and millennials consume entertainment slightly different than I do and very differently than my parents do.”

Henry said the Predators organization plans to spend the next one to two months discussing stadium opportunities with members of the Sports Authority and the mayor's office.

"This will put us in the general direction of where we think we want to go," he said of the report.

Henry said a next step is the creation of engineering reports that would measure the condition and lifespan of the arena and also explore the building logistics of executing some of the future conceptual designs. He estimated this would be a three- or four-month process.

"Then you start saying, 'This is what you should do and this is when you should start,' " he said, noting that construction of some items could be years away. "What we want to do is make sure we're going to be here for the next 50 years."

Reach Nate Rau at 615-259-8094 and on Twitter @tnnaterau. Reach Joey Garrison at 615-259-8236 and on Twitter @joeygarrison.