Hockey in the South

• By Allan Lewis Alestle Sports Editor

It is hard for me to imagine a place where the NHL is not understood, or appreciated, but that is the case in many U.S. markets staking a claim in the league. Such is the case in Nashville, Tenn. a place I would characterize as a small big city, with deep southern roots.

The NHL came to Nasvhille in 1998, when Craig Leopold made a formal request to NHL commissioner Gary Bettman  to grant the city an expansion team after a failed attempt to lure the New Jersey Devils from their current home to play at the brand new Nashville Arena.

After Betteman received a heroes welcome from the Nashville faithful, the city was granted its team, as was another Southern counterpart in Atlanta, as well as two more traditional hockey markets, Columbus and Minnesota.

An interesting fact about the Predators: the logo pre-dates the team name. Leopold unveiled the logo, (which was inspired by a fossil found buried beneath downtown Nashville) at a ceremony, and later whittled down 75 possible nicknames for the franchise down to three: Ice Cats, Predators, and my all-time favorite: Fury and Attack! (Can anyone imagine a professional sports franchise named the Fury and Attack?! Talk about awesome.)

Nashville had to sell 12,000 season tickets before the inaugural puck-drop in 1998, to ensure the franchise would have an avid fan-base behind it from the beginning. This proved to be difficult in a market like Nashville, because hockey is such a foreign thing in the south. The closest NHL franchise to Nashville prior to the league’s 1998 expansion was the St. Louis Blues.

Despite four consecutive playoff seasons in the middle of the last decade, and a solid hold on a post-season birth this season, Nashville continues to struggle as a hockey market.

Now, nothing I am writing about has not been said before. It is a proven fact Nashville has not been a die-hard hockey community throughout the Predators 12 year existence. Despite their relative success, overall, Nashville has not become a hot-bed for the sport. There are a number of die-hard fans who support the team in droves, but it isn’t like what you will see in Canada, or even St. Louis for that matter.

Just last year, in an article I turned up on Google, a Colorado Avalanche beat writer said “It’s a tough thing to say, but it needs to be said. The Predators should get the heck out of the NHL. They’ve been a charity case team the last few years, needing revenue-sharing money from the rest of the league just to stay operable.”

In 2007, Jim Baisile, who was recently in the news trying to move the Phoenix Coyotes to Hamilton, Ontario did the exact same thing in Nashville, and even had a deal in place to move the franchise. Betteman even let a potential Predators sale go as far as allowing Hamilton to start selling season-tickets for its soon to be hockey team. Leopold had reached a tentative agreement with the Hamilton group, and declared the 2007-2008 season safe for Nashville, but deemed the future of the franchise unclear. Balsille’s season-ticket drive in Canada reportedly angered NHL owners, and Betteman urged Leopold to back out of his deal with Balsille. Then, a group of Nashville buyers joined forces to solidify an ownership group, a season-ticket drive was held at the arena and Nashville made a strong case to keep its team, selling over 750 full-season-tickets and attracting more than 7,500 fans. Long story short, it’s 2010 and the Predators are still in Nashville.

I arrived in Nashville around 6:15 p.m. on Thursday night. The Predators were scheduled to face-off with the Los Angeles Kings at 7. Since I was going about this business-trip for the Ohio Valley Conference basketball tournament solo, I planned on purchasing a single-ticket (which are readily available, and in Nashville Thursday night’s are college nights, so $10 with a valid college ID gets you in) confusing the hell out of the person at the ticket window over where SIUe is, and going about my business of catching a hockey game. While waiting in line, a weird looking gentleman wearing a Predators jersey with a ponytail, approached me and asked if I just needed one ticket. I responded with something like  “yeah, I’m in town on business, decided to check out a hockey game,” (I feel really damn professional when I say I’m ‘in town on business’ as we all do, a certain amount of internal gratification comes with it.)

“Well, I have an extra one, it’s in the lower bowl, you can have it if you want it…only problem is you’ll have to sit next to me,” he said, showing me the ticket and game-day program.

“I’m a St. Louis Blues fan, I don’t know if that is a problem,” I joked with him.

“Hey, no problem, he said,” as he handed me the ticket and I became excited about saving $10 and not supporting a divisional franchise.

Once I had my ticket scanned and entered the concourse area, I tried to find a concession stand with Bud Light. The second great thing about these ‘college nights’ in Nashville, or really anything having to do with attending a sporting event in a struggling market is the promotional aspect. Through the end of the first period, 24 ounce draft beers were available for half-price, or $3.75. These same servings of ambrosia are sold for $9 at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis, so it was something I had to take considerable advantage of.

After getting my need for a frosty beverage satisfied (a 6 hour drive taking the scenic route through Tennessee will do that to ya) I located the section on my ticket, 102 and tried to spot row GG. When I think of row GG, I think it comes after A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H,I,J,K,L,M,N,O,P,Q,R,X,T,U,V,W,X,Y,Z,AA,BB,CC,DD,EE and FF. It just automatically registers that way. So, I look around, wearing my Blues hat looking like an idiot, before I realize, Oh, ROW GG IS THE FIFTH ROW FROM THE FREAKIN’ ICE.

I like this. I like this a lot.

So I took my seat and got down to business with the characters around me, trying to figure out exactly what Nashville hockey is all about. The crowd at Bridestone Arena that night actually filled out quite nicely, something you can attribute to the team’s success this season, positioned in seventh place in the Western Conference, or their opponent, the Kings coming into the contest in the fifth spot.

Marshall, the pony-tail man said this was not a typical crowd for a Predators game, and accredited the success of the recent Olympics to the turnout, with Nashville skating two Olympians in Shea Weber of Team Canada and Ryan Suter from Team USA.

As the national anthem ended, I explained to him some of the traditions at St. Louis Blues games, how it felt weird to end the anthem with cheers instead of an echoing and resounding and the home of the ‘BLUUUUUUUUUUES,’ this already two double-beers deep.

Then with the starting lineups I became accustomed to my first Nashville tradition, well, one copied from previous and mainly college hockey civilizations, such as Cornell University.

(PA announcer) “For the Los Angeles Kings, starting at forward, number 23 Dustin Brown (crowd in unison) “SUCKS!”…and so on and so forth until we get to “coaching the Los Angeles Kings Terry Murray “HE SUCKS TOO!”

A little childish and boring, but that is what fans in Nashville do.

There is more suck to go around too. The Pred’s score a goal? HEY [Kings goalie Jonathon] QUICK! YOU SUCK!

It’s actually kind of impressive to get 13,000 people to go in on that.

This night for me was really about sharing hockey between two entirely different cultures of NHL fans. The experience in St. Louis and Nashville is completely paradox from one another.

The two people behind me were in on the season-tickets, and Marshall the dude with the ponytail goes with them all the time. They were joking a lot about “giving their tickets to a Blues fan,” but it was all in good fun. They knew someone who had just moved to Nashville from St. Louis, and sent him a picture message of my hat, to let him know a fellow Blues fan was invading Predator territory.

They are, however, two entirely different territories.

Power Plays.

Marshall and I agreed both our team’s power plays suck. We also both agreed we have equally stupid, yet awesome things our fans do to get fired up for the man-advantage. In Nashville it’s the fangs. I couldn’t find a video on youtube of it, but think of the “hook em horns” hand gesture with the horns positioned farther down and hands bobbing up and down.

In St. Louis, it’s the “ameren UE PowerPlay dance!” which I will assure you has made like the wave across the Scottrade Center since this video was posted.

So, after three or four beers, either one, I taught the Nashville fans our Powerplay dance and just for fun, did it myself. It couldn’t hurt them, being ranked 28th in the league on the advantage.

They really enjoyed it. Or so I like to believe.

The Predators won this game 4-2, and so indeed, the Kings did, suck. Hockey is still trying to become a part of the southern culture, and after 12 years, Nashville is still trying to do all it can do to introduce a sport on ice where SEC football reigns supreme. Will it happen? Maybe. It is all a matter of the town continuing its efforts to embrace one of its two professional sports franchises, the other being the Tennessee Titans. The team does have its die-hard supporters, in people like Marshall and big-name celebrities, such as Taylor Swift photographed in the media room celebrating Predator goals. It may be too late to say “it will be a matter of time” before Nashville becomes Smashville, but it is what it is. If hockey cannot make it in Nashville now, with the Olympics revitalizing the entire country’s appreciation for the game and a competitive team, it will not happen. The Predators, however remain an important part of the new NHL, and the cuture of Nashville.