First Horizon Park
First Horizon Park, formerly known as First Tennessee Park, is a baseball park in downtown Nashville, Tennessee, United States. The home of the Triple-A Nashville Sounds of the International League, it opened on April 17, 2015, and can seat up to 10,000 people. It replaced the Sounds' former home, Herschel Greer Stadium, where the team played from its founding in 1978 through 2014.
For the stadium in Greensboro, North Carolina, formerly of the same name, see First National Bank Field.Former names
First Tennessee Park (2015–2019)
19 Junior Gilliam Way[1]
Nashville, Tennessee
United States
405 ft (123 m)
12,409 (July 16, 2022; Nashville Sounds vs. Memphis Redbirds)[8]
10.8 acres (4.4 ha)[4]
January 27, 2014[2]
April 17, 2015[3]
Smith Seckman Reid[7]
Barton Malow/Bell/Harmony, A Joint Venture[7]
The park was built on the site of the former Sulphur Dell, a minor league ballpark in use from 1885 to 1963. It is located between Third and Fifth Avenues on the east and west (home plate, the pitcher's mound, and second base are directly in line with Fourth Avenue to the stadium's north and south) and between Junior Gilliam Way and Harrison Street on the north and south. The Nashville skyline can be seen from the stadium to the south.
The design of the park incorporates elements of Nashville's baseball and musical heritage and the use of imagery inspired by Sulphur Dell, the city's former baseball players and teams, and country music. Its most distinctive feature is its guitar-shaped scoreboard—a successor to the original guitar scoreboard at Greer Stadium. The ballpark's wide concourse wraps entirely around the stadium and provides views of the field from every location.
Though primarily a venue for the Nashville Sounds, collegiate and high school baseball teams based in the area, such as the Vanderbilt Commodores and Belmont Bruins, have played some games at the ballpark. Nashville SC, a soccer team of the United Soccer League Championship, played its home matches at the facility from 2018 to 2019. It has also hosted other events, including celebrity softball games and various food and drink festivals.
History[edit]
Planning[edit]
As early as 2006, the Nashville Sounds had planned to leave Herschel Greer Stadium for a new ballpark to be called First Tennessee Field located on the west bank of the Cumberland River.[10] The US$43 million facility would have been the central part of a retail, entertainment, and residential complex which was expected to continue the revitalization of Nashville's "SoBro" (South of Broadway) district,[11] but the project was abandoned in April 2007 after the city, developers, and team could not come to terms on a plan to finance its construction.[12] Instead, Greer was repaired and upgraded to keep it close to Triple-A standards until a new stadium could be built.[13] In late 2013, talks about the construction of a new ballpark were revived.[14] Three possible sites were identified by the architectural firm Populous as being suitable for a new stadium: Sulphur Dell, the North Gulch area, and the east bank of the Cumberland River across from the site proposed for the First Tennessee Field project.[11][15] The chosen location was the site of Sulphur Dell on which baseball had been played as early as 1870.[14] Known in its early days as Sulphur Spring Park and Athletic Park, the first grandstand was erected in 1885 for the Nashville Americans, the city's first professional baseball team.[14] Sulphur Dell remained Nashville's primary ballpark until its abandonment in 1963 and demolition in 1969.[14]
Mayor Karl Dean drafted plans for financing the stadium and acquiring the necessary land from the state.[14] The deal involved the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County (Metro) receiving the state-owned Sulphur Dell property—then in use as a parking lot for state employees—in exchange for paying the state $18 million for the construction of a 1,000-car parking garage on the site and $5 million for an underground parking garage below the proposed new state library and archives.[16] The city also acquired the land on which the Nashville School of the Arts is located.[16]
The financing plan involved public and private funding. At the time, the city planned to pay $75 million for the acquisition of the land and construction of the stadium project.[17][18] However, a 2017 audit revealed that it had actually paid $91 million after accounting for additional costs associated with the expedited schedule and infrastructure work around the project site.[5] The stadium is owned by the city and is leased to the team for 30 years, until 2045.[16] The Sounds ownership group agreed to spend $50 million on a new, mixed-use and retail development located on a plot abutting the ballpark to the east by the third base/left field concourse.[16] This land was sold to Chris and Tim Ward, sons of co-owner Frank Ward, who built a two-story retail center on the site.[19] This building is anchored by a Brooklyn Bowl, featuring a bowling alley, live music space, and a restaurant and bar, that opened in June 2020.[20][21] Adjacent to this and overlooking the third base concourse just outside the stadium by the left field entrance is a two-story bar called Third and Home, which also opened in June 2020.[22] As of February 2022, developer Portman Residential is building a seven-story, 356-unit residential structure with retail and restaurant space beyond the left-center field wall along Third and Fourth avenues to be known as Ballpark Village, which is expected to be completed in early 2024.[23] North of the site, Embrey Development built a privately funded 306-unit luxury apartment complex called The Carillon.[24] The city's original $75 million planned expenditure resulted in taking on $4.3 million in annual debt, paid for by five city revenue streams: an annual $700,000 Sounds' lease payment, $650,000 in stadium-generated sales tax revenue, $750,000 in property taxes from the Ward and Portman developments, $675,000 in property taxes from the Embrey development, and $520,000 in tax increment financing.[16] The additional overage was paid with existing Metro capital funds.[5] The city pays $345,000 for annual maintenance of the stadium.[16]
Construction[edit]
The ballpark project received the last of its necessary approbations from the Metro Council, the State Building Commission, and the Nashville Sports Authority on December 10, 2013.[25][26] Groundbreaking took place on January 27, 2014; the public ceremony was attended by Mayor Dean, Sounds owner Frank Ward, Minor League Baseball president Pat O'Conner, and Milwaukee Brewers General Manager Doug Melvin.[2] At the time, the Sounds were the Triple-A affiliate of the Brewers.[27]
Popular culture[edit]
The ballpark has been featured in two music videos. Cole Swindell's "Middle of a Memory" (2016) includes shots of Swindell in the audience watching a Nashville Sounds game as well as footage of the game and an appearance by the team's mascot, Booster.[179] Former Sounds pitcher Barry Zito's music video for "That Sound" (2017), which is about Sounds games, is composed almost entirely of footage of Nashville's games, players, and fans shot at the stadium during the 2016 season.[180] Portions of the music video for Zito's "Ballpark Kids" (2020) were also filmed at the stadium.[181]
Trisha Yearwood filmed scenes for the "Tailgaiting" episode of Food Network's Trisha's Southern Kitchen at the ballpark on May 31, 2016.[182][183] The August 5, 2017, episode of CMT Hot 20 Countdown was filmed at the stadium on July 25 and included performances by country musicians Michael Ray and Chris Lane from before that day's game.[184] Segments for a series of season 36 (2018–2019) episodes of Wheel of Fortune, including host Pat Sajak throwing out the first pitch, were shot at the ballpark on May 4, 2018.[185]
