
LP Field - Tennessee Titans & Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl​LP Field is a football stadium in Nashville owned by the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County. The stadium is used primarily for sporting events and music concerts and festivals. The stadium is the home field of the NFL's Tennessee Titans and the Tennessee State University Tigers. It is also the site of the Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl, a postseason college football game played each December, and is occasionally used as a venue for soccer matches. The stadium is also used for large concerts such as the CMA Music Festival nightly concerts which take place for four days every June. The stadium also has numerous public meeting facilities which are used for public events, meetings, parties and gatherings. LP Field is located on the east bank of the Cumberland River, directly across the river from downtown Nashville. Its seating capacity is slightly under 69,000. Its first event was a preseason game between the Titans and the Atlanta Falcons on August 27, 1999. The playing surface of LP Field is Tifsport Bermuda Sod, a natural grass. However, the relatively warm climate of Nashville, combined with the wear and tear of hosting a game nearly every weekend, usually results in a resodding of the area "between the hashes" in late November. Despite the efforts to improve the field conditions, the poor quality of the grass has become a complaint of many NFL players, fans, and broadcasters. During the 1995 NFL Preseason, the Houston Oilers faced the Washington Redskins in an exhibition game at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tennessee. At the game, Oilers owner Bud Adams met Nashville Mayor Phil Bredesen and began discussing the possibility of moving the team to Middle Tennessee,due to Adams' discontent with the teams' lease at the Astrodome and unwillingness of the City of Houston to build a new football-only stadium. Later that fall, Adams and Bredesen announced the team's intent to move to Nashville. The city and team decided to locate a stadium on the eastern bank of the Cumberland River in downtown Nashville, on the site of a blighted industrial development. The Tennessee Titans play at LP Field in Nashville. The team's training facility is at Baptist Sports Park, a 31-acre site at the MetroCenter complex, located just north of downtown Nashville about 5 miles from LP Field. They are members of the South Division of the American Football Conference (AFC) in the National Football League (NFL). The team relocated from Houston, Texas to the state of Tennessee in 1997, first playing temporarily in Memphis for one season before moving to Nashville. For two seasons, the team was known as the Tennessee Oilers before changing its name to Titans in 1999. The Titans have posted an impressive record at LP Field since moving there in 1999, including winning their first 16 games before losing to the Baltimore Ravens on November 12, 2000. Overall, the Titans are 45–27 in the regular season and 2–2 in playoff games at LP Field. Every Titans home game (including preseason) has been a sellout since the stadium opened in 1999. This is due to fans purchasing season tickets associated with the personal seat licenses each season ticketholder must own. The seat licenses helped finance construction of the stadium. There is a long waiting list for personal seat licenses, as well as season tickets. On January 8, 2000, one of the most memorable and debated plays in NFL history took place at then-Adelphia Coliseum. The "Music City Miracle", as it has come to be known, was a last-minute trick play on a kickoff return that resulted in a touchdown and catapulted the Titans past the Buffalo Bills to the Divisional Playoffs. It also ensured that the Titans would go undefeated in the first season in the team's new home. The victory was seen in front of a franchise-record crowd. The Music City Bowl is a post-season American college football bowl game certified by the NCAA that has been played in Nashville, Tennessee, since 1998.The first Music City Bowl was played at Vanderbilt Stadium in 1998. Beginning in 1999, the game has been played at LP Field, home of the Tennessee Titans. Beginning in 2002, the game became known as the Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl. In 2003, Bridgestone became the presenting sponsor of the game, and its full title became the Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl presented by Bridgestone. Both sponsors are based in Nashville. The game initially featured a matchup between representatives of the Southeastern Conference and the Big East Conference. The Big East was replaced by the Big Ten Conference in 2002. Beginning with the 2006 game the Big Ten Conference was replaced by the Atlantic Coast Conference. The ACC also took part in the 2005 game, when Virginia appeared because the SEC did not have enough bowl-eligible teams.
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