The Sounds of Nashville

Official Review by Franklin Crittenden, Stadium Journey Special Correspondent

Nashville is called the Music City for a good reason. Everywhere you look you can certainly see that Nashville was a city built by Country Music. Even Nashville's AAA affiliate to the Milwaukee Brewers is named after the music produced in the city, called the Nashville Sounds. Baseball has always been a part of Nashville going all the way back to 1860, but for a time baseball completely disappeared from the Music City in the mid-sixties and didn't return again until 1978.

Many in the country music industry embraced the return of baseball to Nashville and several of the Nashville Sounds new stockholders were well known country music icons of the time.

Along with music, Nashville is also known as a sports city and is home to the NFL's Tennessee Titans as well as the the Nashville Predators of the National Hockey League. The Nashville Sounds' home field is Herschel Greer Stadium.

Greer Stadium is located just south of downtown Nashville near the intersection of I-65 and I-40. Greer Stadium was built in 1978 and has served as the Sounds' home field for over 30 years.

Food & Beverage    4

Greer Stadium has a nice variety of items on their menu and their prices are very reasonable. Items available at the concession stand included pulled pork BBQ sandwiches, beef brisket sandwiches, and chicken tenders all priced at $7.00. Hot dogs were priced at $3, and a polish sausage was priced at $4.

Beer is available for $7, and soft drinks are priced at $4. Greer Stadium has all the other ballpark favorites: popcorn, peanuts, ice cream, pizza, funnel cakes as well as everyone's favorite, nachos. There are plenty of concessions stands so the lines are short and service is excellent.

Atmosphere    3

The crowd was small for a Friday night and the few fans that showed up were not exactly standing in their seats. There were more empty seats than full ones and the atmosphere was pretty subdued. I had trouble not lowering my rating for Atmosphere to a two star for that reason, but without knowing the reason for the low turnout or making another visit on another day for comparison purposes I will just stick with three stars. The atmosphere all seemed a little stale to me, maybe my visit was ill-timed or maybe these fans just need a little more to get excited about?

Neighborhood    1

Greer Stadium is located in an area that just isn't very inviting. It is near the interstates, but the area around the stadium is full of run down abandoned buildings and boarded up houses. I hate to say it but I just wasn't impressed with the location at all. There are no nearby hotels, restaurants or night spots and I don't think I would be very comfortable leaving the fenced in parking lot after sunset.

If you really want to get the real taste of Nashville then just head downtown, over to "Music Row" or across town to the Opryland Hotel. There you will find what you would expect from a first class city like Nashville. Nashville is a great city with a plethora of great restaurants night spots and family style entertainment from the Wildhorse Saloon to the Grand Ole Opry to the world famous Neely's Bar-B-Que.

Fans    2

The few fans that were in attendance must be dedicated because they had to pay to park and pay $10 for a general admission ticket as well as come to the run down part of Nashville. Once inside Greer Stadium they all seemed to be having a pretty good time, but I did note that everyone went straight inside. I must say for a city the size of Nashville and a Friday night I was disappointed to see so many empty seats. I just didn't feel the community and the hometown fan-dom that I felt at other minor league venues like in Chattanooga, TN or Montgomery, AL. I know there has been an attempt to have Greer Stadium replaced by the city of Nashville, maybe if they succeed that will breathe new life into the baseball fans of Nashville.

Access    3

There was plenty of paid parking near the stadium and the bathrooms were plentiful and clean inside the stadium, but I would not suggest parking outside the fenced in parking area or walking any distance through the area around the stadium.

Return on Investment    3

Let me put it this way, if it had cost me anymore than I had paid to attend this game at Greer Stadium, then I would have left feeling like I had spent too much. We paid $3 for parking (reasonable) $10 for General Admission tickets and our visit to the concession stand cost us a little over $27.00, so we had already spent $50.00 before we ever found our seats.

Attending a Nashville Sounds game at Greer Stadium is the most expensive minor league game we have attended so far. To top that off, it is the least impressive stadium of all the minor league venues we have visited up until this point.

Extras    3

Once safely inside Greer Stadium there was plenty to do for the kids and there was a great variety of food and drinks available at the concession areas. The product on the field was as good as anywhere we have visited, but the location of Greer Stadium was definitely a turn off.

Final Thoughts

We enjoyed our trip to Nashville very much, but we were really disappointed with Greer Stadium's location as well as the cost of attending a Nashville Sounds game considering the location. The small turn out of the fans was also disappointing. Nashville is a great city with a great variety of things to do and see. The Nashville Sounds appear to be a fine organization, but I just wish their stadium was located in a more inviting and hospitable part of town.