New ballpark boosts area already teeming with new homes, restaurants, businesses
By Tom Wood
For months, sounds of construction surrounded the Nashville Sounds’ sparkling new First Tennessee Park in Germantown.
The constant thump-thump-thump of pounding jackhammers competed with the irritating, high-pitched beeps of vehicles backing up. Ka-ching! Cranes lifted steel beams into place, keeping time with a syncopated thrumming of never-ending drilling. Ka-ching!
The chugs of a Sod Installer Roller laying grass over dirt in the infield, the outfield and on the berm behind the left-centerfield wall. Ka-ching! A foreman’s shouted instructions to laborers on where this or that goes. Ka-ching!
Now the prominent sound is of ringing of cash registers – Ka-ching! – as baseball returns to its Music City roots, and redevelopment of this historic North Nashville neighborhood hits the stratosphere.
Since April 17 – when the Nashville Sounds opened their new home – one hears resonances of children squealing and parents oohing and ahhing at the lush greenery and shiny magnificence of this 10,000-seat facility at the historic Sulphur Dell site, of vendors shouting “getcha co-o-old beer here,” of the singing of the national anthem and the umpire’s throaty shout of “Play ball!” followed by cheers, boos and postgame fireworks.