The crowd roars. Lights and sounds buffet from all sides. On the field, athletes at the top of their sport strain for victory over their competitors.
So much of the NFL experience depends on the place. World-class athletes who participate in world-class competition deserve a world-class facility. When the Tennessee Titans take the field in fall 2027, they’ll get just that. Titans fans will cheer in a new arena, constructed just across the street from the current Nissan Stadium in Nashville. “I hope to be part of that audience the first night,” says Brad Slayden, P.E., Vice President of Pape-Dawson company RaganSmith, because he and his team will have had a big hand in designing it.
Tennessee-based civil engineering firm RaganSmith is hardly a novice at projects of this scale. Their 91 years engineering in Nashville, including work on the city’s soccer arena, prepared them, but Brad admits, “To do this work for one of 32 NFL teams across the U.S. has been pretty awesome.” RaganSmith Associate Vice President Micky Dobson, P.E., agrees: “We’re blessed to be the civil engineer on this stadium. I think all the stars had to align for us to play this role, and we don’t ever take it for granted.”
RaganSmith’s engagement with the New Nissan Stadium began with steady performance on other projects, long before the vision for it took root. “The world we live in is built on relationships and our good work,” Brad says. “The reason we got this job is because we care, and we do the best work in town…but it started with the relationship with our client.”
Prior to the engineering design work on the new stadium, though, the project began as a renovation of the current Nissan Stadium. Starting in 2021, RaganSmith helped plan improvements to both the stadium itself and the surrounding neighborhood. The final analysis predicted a $1.8 billion price tag for a renovated, yet still-dated, facility. “That led us to say, ‘Hang on a minute—what does a new stadium cost?’” Brad says. The answer was $2.1 billion, just a bit more money for a brand-new arena.
The proposition was placed before Nashville city leadership, which approved the initiative and has continued to support it. Close relationships and trust between RaganSmith and municipal officials have helped keep the project on track. For example, permitting often delays projects, but the full grading permit was completed in 108 calendar days, and the excavation permit in only 13 calendar days—significant triumphs for a complicated timeline.
The challenges have been considerable, if not unexpected for an endeavor of this scope: budgetary restrictions, significant underground infrastructure to relocate, and the complications of building an entirely new stadium only 75 feet away from the existing stadium that will continue to host NFL games and concerts. “For us, innovation has relied on collaboration,” Brad explains, “and that has really been helped out by the visualization tools we use.” LiDAR survey crews scanned the existing arena to populate a point cloud of the environment. Engineers designed BIM models that allow detailed cross-section-level inspection both below and above grade. RaganSmith’s design work and close collaboration with architects, construction firms, city officials, and other stakeholders continues, across 9,000 hours and 300 meetings and counting.
When the new stadium hosts its first event in 2027, football fans will find 60,000 padded seats, 2,000 bathroom stalls (double the present number), and state-of-the-art electronics. “Until the current stadium is demolished, it’ll be an interesting time,” says Brad. “You might have a ticket to an event…and have to pay close attention to which stadium you’re going to.” Micky echoes that: “In just a few years, the existing Nissan Stadium will still be active, and right beside it the brand-new Nissan Stadium will be ready. The two side by side will be pretty cool to see.”
RaganSmith engineers get an additional charge from knowing that their work is central not only to the football stadium, but also to the larger development of this part of Nashville. In addition to a number of adjacent surveying, pump station, and other infrastructure projects, says Micky, “we’re one of the catalysts for Nashville’s Imagine East Bank Vision Plan, which contains over 300 acres of newly imagined development.” The City of Nashville sees the Titans’ new home as the anchor for a vibrant, exciting neighborhood that includes residential, office, retail, and restaurant space—which will need redesigned streets and utilities.
“At the end of the day, we simply want to help create a great community for Nashville,” concludes Brad. In fact, he can watch that community take shape from the windows of RaganSmith’s Nashville office, which overlooks the construction site. Each bit of progress on the New Nissan Stadium across the street is a reminder of their crucial role in transforming the city. If he and Micky are lucky enough to score tickets for the new stadium’s debut, it will be just steps from where their team designed it.