Breathtaking Bridgestone Arena revitalization

Article posted by Coliseum, March 3^rd, 2026

Image: Coliseum GSVA / Michael Rennschmied

Jacob Lutz, who holds a top brass role with the Nashville Predators, speaks at ease while talking about the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee, US, and says that everything they do is “top-notch”.

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Jacob Lutz is the Director of Technical Operations for the National Hockey League (NHL) team Nashville Predators and the Bridgestone Arena. He oversees all aspects of the broadcast engineering, the event technical production planning, the audiovisual systems, the NHL club technical operations, and the capital technical planning.

In a discourse with Rob Hunden, President, Hunden Partners, US, Jacob Lutz, Director, Technical Operations, Nashville Predators, US, talks about the 650 million dollars remodeling of the Bridgestone Arena which would be known for its architectural grandeur.

Nashville Predators

The Nashville Predators are a professional ice hockey team based in Nashville, Tennessee (US). The Predators compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division in the Western Conference.

Bridgestone Arena

The 17,159-capacity Bridgestone Arena is a multipurpose indoor arena in downtown Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Completed in 1996, it is the home of the Nashville Predators of the National Hockey League (NHL).

The Bridgestone Arena is preparing for a major multiyear renovation aimed at modernizing the venue and ensuring it remains a centerpiece of Downtown Nashville for decades to come. The upgrades are designed to improve the fan experience, expand the event capabilities and future-proof the building for the National Hockey League (NHL), the concerts and the other marquee events.

Rob Hunden wanted to know about the fan experience and Jacob Lutz stated that “Nashville is one of the alternate entertainment destinations in the world and everything we do is top-notch. My job at the end of the day is to create the fan experience and to keep growing that quotient and to keep up to the highest level of expectations of the fans. The Bridgestone Arena hosts over 110 ticketed events in a year – 41 hockey games and few more at the end of the season. And then we also host the private events. The venue is one of the busiest in the world and it is only getting busier. We have all these experiences that kind of make us unique.”

Talking about technology, he tells Hunden that “a big factor is our technology”. The arena is a technological powerhouse and the arena’s cutting-edge infrastructure has been meticulously designed to provide a seamless and immersive experience to the fans. We have our hockey team and we are an Entertainment First Company.”

Hunden talked about how the ice surface is the Predators blowing canvas and what the team does to make the fan experience exhilarating so that they do not prefer to stay back home and watch the game.

Continued Lutz, “The Predators have made it to the Playoffs for several years and what makes us unique is that you can see the on-ice in hockey. When you come to Nashville you are coming to the biggest party on Broadway. You know our ice is our canvas so we use that for ice projection. We use sound and we have the best audio system than any arena in the United States.”

“Something you hear about right now is the high dynamic range (HDR) content and the things that we can do to elevate the game experience we have been able to do it but our key factor is the human capital which is our best resource.”

Hunden was eager to know how they make more money and Lutz stated that “first of all we make money through the human capital. The second part is you know it is very unique so from a sponsorship side you get about five minutes of time and we are able to sell advertisements based on the game clock now. So, another thing in hockey is you have a Power Play and the Tennessee Lottery Powerball is our Power Play sponsor and with this we have been able to pull in live data from the lottery with the winning numbers and we are able to hit one button and the entire building takes over. Through these activations we are able to create the moments of exclusivity that allows us to create more revenue at the end of the day.”

“We are in the process of transforming the Bridgestone Arena. It’s going to be a 650 million dollars rejig between now and 2030. Over the next several years we are working on a project right now to put in well over a billion dollars into downtown. So, there’s a lot that we want to do with this space. Those of you who have been in Broadway you don’t want to know where the Broadway is and the arena begins. It’s our plan at the end of the day. We are going to have the biggest rooftop bar in Broadway. There is a lot that is going to go into this building. We are not quite there but it is going to be pretty spectacular.”

Hunden wanted to know about investment and squeezing more juice into the arena and Lutz replied – “The best part of this project is we are investing in the City and we are not taking taxpayers’ dollars with us. This is a privately-funded project and it is going to be funded through investments within our facility and by investments within the facility. So, it is going to be paid for by the folks that use it and by those of us who want to see it succeed. By maintaining this building and by making it a privately-funded project is the Nashville Predators style of working and we are investing back into the town that has given us so much and you know believed in us so we are believing in the City.”

Wrap-up

Rob Hunden remarked that artificial technology (AI) was changing every six months and doubling in its power to which Jacob Lutz opined that the broadcast media production and distribution company “Ross Video has been a great partner with us. We will see Ross through and through this project and several others and there are a lot of folks that have helped us out especially when our arena got flooded and all the broadcast media joined around us. We played ice hockey three days later. We couldn’t have done this without Ross Video in the room. Immersive technology changes on how we do business.”

Iroquois (US)-based Ross Video powers live productions for the billions of viewers. With the industry’s widest range of high-impact, high-efficiency solutions and services, Ross helps the organizations create and share compelling content, from the leading broadcasters to the stadiums, the corporations and the Governments.

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