The Metro Nashville Sports Authority has moved to the next stage in its effort to bring a women’s professional sports franchise to town.
That stage includes the Sports Authority collaborating with CAA ICON, a sports management consulting firm, to gauge local interest for the specific types of women’s pro sports team that might do well in Nashville.
“This is about understanding the market, understanding what the community is interested in and positioning ourselves well for a women’s professional team,” Sports Authority executive director Monica Fawknotson said. “We’ve not done this before. There’s a lot of information out there that we wanted to get. We believe that Nashville would be a great market for a women’s sports team.”
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The Sports Authority’s Women’s Sports Initiative Strategic Assessment, a study approved in September at a cost of $75,000, includes distributing questionnaires to survey the community along with conducting focus groups and corporate interviews.
The surveys are being distributed by local colleges, businesses and pro franchises and the findings will be presented at a Jan. 12 Sports Authority ad hoc committee meeting.
The survey asks participants to state their interest level in women’s professional sports, whether they have attended a women’s college sports event in the last 10 years, which local women’s college teams they support and whether they would support a pro women’s sports team in Nashville.
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The survey also gauges the interest level in six women’s pro sports leagues — WNBA, Premier Hockey Federation (women’s pro ice hockey), National Women’s Soccer League, softball, volleyball outdoor/indoor and women’s indoor arena football
The market demographic for a women’s pro sports franchise in the study includes Davidson County and 13 counties in the surrounding area.
Part of the study included on overview of pro women’s sports events that have taken place in the area since 2010 including:
- The SEC Women’s Basketball Tournament (2011, 2012, 2018).
- The 2014 NCAA Women’s Basketball Final Four.
- Two international women’s soccer games at Nissan Stadium in 2019.
- The 2019 U.S. Association of Independent Gymnastics Clubs/International Association of Gymnastics Clubs World Competition at Gaylord Opryland Resort Convention Center.
- The 2018 U.S. Women’s Amateur Golf Championship at Golf Club of Tennessee.
- The 2019 National Women’s Hockey League All-Star Game at Bridgestone Arena.
It also noted the 2022 U.S. Figure Skating Championships will be at Bridgestone Arena Jan. 3-9.
The focus groups took place last week and the corporate sponsorship interviews are ongoing.
Bryan Slater from CAA ICON will present the findings to the Sports Council on Jan. 12.
“Our engagement is to identify potential options for the Sports Authority based on the market research we’ve completed,” Slater said. “We’re beyond the halfway point of completing that primary market research.”
Reach Mike Organ at 615-259-8021 or on Twitter @MikeOrganWriter.
