A piece of Tennessee Titans tradition will be featured permanently and prominently in their new stadium… and it’s inspired by one of Johnny Cash’s biggest hits.
Though the Titans might be struggling on the football field this year, fans can still look forward to the stadium that’s being built right next to their current home opening in 2027. The enclosed stadium itself will be located on the East Bank of Nashville close to where the existing Nissan Stadium stands. It will be a 1.75 million square feet facility, and will be locked in for a lease of 30 years, meaning that the Titans aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.
The stadium was designed by Manica Architecture, which has previously designed other sports arenas such as Allegiant Stadium, NRG Stadium, and Wembley Stadium. The Titans’ new home will be able to house 55,000 to 60,000 people (which is smaller than their current stadium), and hopes to bring in hosting opportunities for other sporting events like the NCAA Final Four and, of course, the Super Bowl.
The Tennessee Builders Alliance has been hard at work bringing the vision of the stadium to fruition, and this past weekend, the construction crew finished an important part of the structure of the stadium itself: the “Ring Beam.” The new Titans stadium will have a perfectly circular roof that will tie into the tradition that they have of playing Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire” after the team scores a touchdown.
Looks like a “Ring of Fire” to me.
And once all of the technology is installed within in, it’ll really be unmistakable. The bowl ribbon-style LED display will surround the entire stadium, measure 13 feet high by 2,275 feet wide (making it the the longest display in the NFL) and will total 29,575 square feet (one of the largest displays in the league). It can then be assumed that the high-tech screen delivering information and whatever else to fans during the game will be completely taken over by a fiery display every time the Titans punch it in and press play on Cash’s “Ring of Fire.”
Back when the NFL’s Tennessee team first teased the rendering of the stadium, they gave a cool sneak peak of what to expect once the state-of-the-art stadium is complete in a couple of years (fingers crossed) and what that “Ring of Fire” might look like. Instead of the using the classic, timeless version of “Ring of Fire,” the video included a melodic, dreamy cover version of the song, which I personally feel like took away from the reveal as a whole. It was kind of distracting, and could have really been driven home by the actual Cash version (there must have been some copyright issues).
If you are going make a Johnny Cash song an integral part of your fan experience, just use the actual Cash song…
Regardless, the Johnny Cash song looks like it will forever be a part of the identity of Tennessee Titans. You can’t just put the “Ring of Fire” as a permanent fixture of your $2 billion stadium and expect to pivot away from it at some point:
