Nissan Stadium

Nissan Stadium opened in 1999 as Adelphia Coliseum, the building that was supposed to justify one of the most controversial franchise relocations in NFL history. When Bud Adams moved the Houston Oilers to Tennessee in 1997 — after years of acrimonious stadium negotiations in Houston — the franchise needed a new home that would prove to skeptics that Nashville could support professional football. The stadium, rising on the east bank of the Cumberland River in downtown Nashville, was that proof.

The 69,143-seat open-air venue was designed by HOK Sport and built for approximately $292 million. Its riverfront location gives it a setting that has improved with time — Nashville's explosive growth over the past two decades has transformed the surrounding area from underutilized riverfront into one of the most vibrant entertainment districts in the American South. The stadium's views of the downtown skyline, with the distinctive AT&T Building ("the Batman Building") rising above the cityline, have become more impressive with each passing year as Nashville's skyline has grown.

The naming rights have been characteristically unstable. From Adelphia Coliseum (named for a cable company that later collapsed in a fraud scandal) to The Coliseum to LP Field to Nissan Stadium, the building has never enjoyed naming continuity. A new stadium is currently under construction adjacent to the current site, scheduled to replace Nissan Stadium as the Titans' home, which gives the current venue the melancholy distinction of being a building whose replacement is already visible from its upper deck.

The stadium's defining on-field moment came in its very first month of existence. On January 8, 2000, the Titans hosted the Buffalo Bills in an AFC Wild Card game that produced the "Music City Miracle" — a last-second lateral kickoff return by Kevin Dyson that gave Tennessee a 22-16 victory and sent the stadium into pandemonium. The play, which remains one of the most debated in NFL history (was it a lateral or a forward pass?), gave Nissan Stadium its genesis story and remains the franchise's most iconic moment.

The Titans' subsequent run to Super Bowl XXXIV, where they lost to the St. Louis Rams on the final play of the game — Kevin Dyson's desperate reach for the end zone, stopped one yard short by Mike Jones — added another layer of heartbreaking drama to the franchise's first season in their new home.

Nashville's transformation into one of America's "it" cities has been both blessing and complication for the stadium experience. The city's tourism-driven economy means that Titans games attract a significant number of visitors, giving the atmosphere a more festive, less tribal quality than traditional NFL environments. Lower Broadway, Nashville's honky-tonk strip, is just a pedestrian bridge away from the stadium, and the pregame migration of fans between the bars and the stadium has become a ritual unique to this city.

Nissan Stadium served its purpose admirably for a quarter century — it proved that Nashville could sustain professional football and gave the franchise its most legendary moments. That it will soon be replaced does not diminish what it accomplished.