Country music, NHL are unlikely bedfellows in a growing partnership

The last time the National Hockey League held its draft at Bridgestone Arena was in 2003. Alan Jackson was one of the genre's most prominent male stars and Jo Dee Messina's Tim McGraw collaboration "Bring On The Rain" was recently a No. 1 single. Two decades later, before Thursday evening's first round of the NHL Draft, thousands of hockey fans stood in front of the entrance to Alan Jackson's bar on Lower Broadway as Messina performed a headlining set on a stage in the middle of the street.

Ever since Craig Leipold was the director of the Gaylord Entertainment Company-owned Grand Ole Opry and brought the sport to Music City in 1998, the NHL's attempt to grow in lock-step with country music's surging popularity has featured a slow-developing synergy.

As of the conclusion of 2023's NHL Awards and Draft at Bridgestone Arena, that synergy is at a crossroads.

The Nashville Predators' 26-year history as an NHL franchise has coincided well with three different evolutionary eras in country music pushing the genre to unprecedented heights.

In 1997, hockey arrived in Music City as Faith Hill and Shania Twain, plus Hill's husband Tim McGraw and George Strait, led to a growing moment for the genre in the mainstream spotlight.

Maybe Leipold was a bit too future-forward in his thinking, though.

"There wasn't a lot of hockey love in Nashville when we arrived," stated LOCASH's Preston Brust on the red carpet of the 2023 NHL Awards.

"Getting Nashville to believe in itself in terms of what we could do [is a] challenge [that] doesn't ever go away," outgoing Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp chief executive Butch Spyridon told The Tennessean.

"We have taken advantage of opportunities and invested more than what somebody would normally do...If you don't have crazy people like me dreaming a little bit and maybe pushing, then you're going to miss those opportunities."

Growing Nashville's hockey fanbase

Arriving in town at the turn of the 21st century, LOCASH's sentiment is shared by rap-to-rock/country crossover star Jelly Roll, an Antioch-area native. He recalled how "growing hockey into [Nashville's] culture" involved inaugural season games at the then Gaylord Entertainment Center where big screen diagrams explained the rules to new fans.

"Us dumb Southerners had no idea what was going on," he joked.

In the era following the 2003 draft to the Predators hosting the Tampa Bay Lightning at 2022's Stadium Series game at Nissan Stadium, Nashville fans quickly became more proficient in hockey.

The Predators sold out all 41 regular season home games and reached the Stanley Cup Finals in 2017.

During said Stanley Cup Finals, the New York Times noted that the "showmanship, rowdiness and country music the city is known for [permeated] the atmosphere" as Trisha Yearwood, Luke Bryan, Keith Urban, Lady A and Carrie Underwood sang the National Anthem during their playoff run, while McGraw’s 1995 hit “I Like It, I Love It” played after every goal.

Simultaneously, bars celebrating country hitmakers, including Jason Aldean, the Big Machine Label Group, Big & Rich's John Rich, Dierks Bentley, Florida Georgia Line, Alan Jackson, Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton have opened blocks away from the Predators' home at Bridgestone Arena.

More progressively entrenching hockey with modern country music's collegiate-style party environment and the genre's synonymity with Nashville has been one of the vehicles to springboarding the team from nearly moving to Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, in 2010 to being a team now worth over $750 million.

The NHL and country music's moment is happening right now

25-year-old Florida Panthers star Matthew Tkachuk's father, Keith, was entering the sixth year of his NHL career when the Predators first hit the ice in 1998. In 2023, Matthew warmly greeted the 2023 NHL Awards host -- and now well-established country star — Dierks Bentley — on the awards show's red carpet.

Bentley's travel-level hockey-playing eight-year-old son, Knox —who served as an interviewer during the awards' television broadcast — perked up at the mention of Most Valuable Player nominee Tkachuck's name.

The moment offered a fun sense of how the NHL and country music's evolution as industry partners evolves best.

Bentley recalls a moment during 2017's Stanley Cup Finals — against a well-established NHL franchise in the Pittsburgh Penguins — where fan-beloved "collegiate chants" caused Bridgestone to become "the country's loudest hockey barn."

"That's the point where country music, the Predators and the NHL began to feel like how the Los Angeles Lakers, the NBA and superstars were synonymous with each other in the 1980s," he said.

The growth potential for the country music-influenced Predators in the NHL still exists.

Currently, roughly $1.4 billion separates Nashville's franchise value from that of the league-leading New York Rangers.

2023 Forbes data shows revenue-per-fan values in Nashville only slightly trailing those in New York.

However, as of 2022, tourists still spend 50 percent more in New York City, but Nashville is a city whose rising tourist interest is spurring record revenue gains in overall city revenue that show no signs of slowing.

As tourism to Nashville grows — and if the Predators' success is still comparable to country music's mainstream popularity — the potential for the Predators' revenue to expand into the league's upper echelon is significant.

The NHL and country's future potential as partners could be bright

The Predators and Nashville's country music-led community aiding the NHL's overall growth as a league aiming for greater visibility and renown has an uphill battle, though.

Country's resurgence to the top of music was aided by streaming democratizing the music marketplace and allowing country's die-hard fanbase to entrench itself on combined listening and marketing platforms.

The Country Music Association released data in 2021 showing that 51% of U.S. adults listen to country music monthly. Billboard's Hot 100 charts and interest in television programs like the Western drama "Yellowstone" reflect the genre's more considerable popularity.

Nothing comparable for country music to entrench itself exists in sports of yet.

Sports — as all broadcasted properties have evolved since COVID-19 — are more streaming-friendly than ever. However, that has yet to positively change the pecking order of popularity in the case of the NHL.

2023 Statista survey data shows only 13 percent of American sports fans consider themselves "avid" hockey fans. Also, many believe soccer has surpassed hockey as the United States' fourth most popular sport, behind football, basketball and baseball.

Marginally older than Dierks Bentley's son Knox is 22-year-old emerging country performer Alana Springsteen, who performed on the 2023 NHL Awards broadcast. The potential for country and the NHL's fanbases to intersect and grow still exists, she said.

"We know enough about each other to be dangerous," jokes Springsteen.

"Hockey and country music share massive broadcasting platforms to a wide range of people. This clearly has unlimited growth potential."

"This has gone from being unfathomable to being an actual economic movement," says Jelly Roll.

He believes in the genre's power — as does the NHL, clearly — to unify people in support of a common cause.

"Country music staying honest and rooted in who this broad tent of entertainers are can provide something for everybody. If it's not for you, then I'm still happy for you. But I know, deep down, everyone could use [country music]."

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Country music, NHL are unlikely bedfellows in a vital partnership