Mayor says Nashville has improved its tune with Music City Center

By Lee Roberts

This is Music City Center Sept. 21, 2013. (Photo by Lee Roberts)
This is Music City Center Sept. 21, 2013. (Photo by Lee Roberts)

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (Oct. 24, 2013) – Mayor Karl Dean addressed the 2013 International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers’ 2013 Government Employees and Railroad Conference today at the Doubletree Hotel.  Singing the wonders of the city, he said Nashville has improved its tune with the addition of Music City Center earlier this year.

The $585 million Music City Center officially opened May 20 with much fanfare and the mayor told several hundred IBEW members in attendance that it isn’t the largest convention center in America, but it is the best.

“It is state of the art.  Everything about it is first class, and we’ve created I think, with the Omni Hotel and the Country Music Hall of Fame, a really unique campus,” Dean said.

The mayor stressed that when a person leaves Music City Center, they have access to the birthplace of Country Music, and can enjoy all the attractions and entertainment that makes Nashville such a fantastic destination.

“It is the place to hear music,” said the mayor.

Mayor Karl Dean says Nashville has improved its tune with Music City Center from Lee Roberts on Vimeo.

In a Tennessean report about the center’s grand opening, Dean predicted the facility would open “a new world of opportunity for Nashville’s hospitality and tourism industry.”

In speaking to the IBEW contingent, he reported that when Music City Center opened there were already 123 conventions booked with over a million room nights booked.

Music City Center under construction Nov. 8, 2011 from Lee Roberts on Vimeo.

“We’re going to have the National Rifle Association here next year, which will be 40,000 plus.  The city will be very safe that week,” Dean said.  “It’s a wonderful facility and we can handle about any size of convention.”

Dean said he doesn’t worry about what others are saying about Nashville, although he is proud that the New York Times named the city as the new “it” city and a national travel magazine reported that Nashville is one of the top five cities to visit in the world.

“What I do worry about,” Dean said, “is the things that really make the city run.  I worry about public education, public safety, and economic development.  I fundamentally believe that you have to have a city that gives people quality education, gives them a chance to succeed in life, (which) makes it a city where people want their families to live.”

Dean stressed that Nashville has done well because the community gets what is important and focuses on opportunity.

For more information about Nashville, visit http://www.visitmusiccity.com. For more about Music City Center, go to http://www.nashvillemusiccitycenter.com.