I know the weather’s pretty much the same across the country, but here in Nashville, I can officially report that it’s cold.
The winter storm currently affecting the entire country has brought record-low temperatures to Tennessee (although as I write this it’s a balmy 16 degrees). And the cold snap required the Tennessee Valley Authority to ask electric companies in the state to institute rolling blackouts in order to save power.
That means that for 10 minutes every 1.5 to 2 hours, residents across Tennessee were expected to lose power in an effort to reduce strain on the power grid.
Which isn’t great timing for the Tennessee Titans, who have a game at Nissan Stadium this afternoon (and whose stadium probably requires more power for a 3 hour game than I use in a year).
So Nashville Mayor John Cooper asked the Titans to postpone their matchup with the Houston Texans, which was originally scheduled for a noon kickoff, out of respect for all those who are being forced to go without power every couple of hours across the city and state.
As of the time I’m writing this, the Titans still appear to be planning to go forward with the game – and I understand why. It would no doubt be a huge logistical challenge to postpone a game this close to kickoff, especially with TV.
And many have taken to social media to ask why Cooper is just now making the request of the Titans, with rolling blackouts taking place off and on for the last 24 hours across Nashville and the state of Tennessee.
But many others have also called out the Titans for going ahead with their game today, and even pointing out that amidst the situation with the power grid, the lights at Nissan Stadium were left on all night last night:
Nissan Stadium is owned by the city of Nashville, so theoretically the city could just cut off the power and tell the Titans that they have to postpone the game, but obviously with the logistics and everything involved in putting on a game like this it’s not quite that simple.
The TVA announced shortly before 11 AM that the power grid was stabilized and the rolling blackouts were no longer needed. And the Titans ultimately announced that the game would be postponed for an hour, and kickoff will now be at 1:02 PM central, which was probably the right move so that they were able to avoid the optics of playing a game in a well-lit stadium while people across Nashville were forced to sit home in the dark in below-freezing temperatures to conserve power.
What a mess.
Stay warm everybody.
