CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – (CLARKSVILLENOW) Montgomery County Mayor Jim Durrett, Nat Harden, with the Nashville Predators, and APSU Athletic Director Ryan Ivey were guests of the Kiwanis Club of Clarksville Tuesday.
The three spoke about the process of bringing a Multi-Purpose Events Center to Clarksville-Montgomery County. Durrett said the process is at a point of taking it to the next step as the county works with the global consulting organization, HVS on the project.
Durrett talked about placement of the events center. “HVS says it needs to be downtown, with the connection to Austin Peay and we firmly believe that it needs to be downtown. People have publicly said you don’t have the infrastructure downtown to support something like this,” said Durrett.
“I think we don’t have it, but we can get it. We still have a long way to go, but I think it’s something our community needs,” Durrett said. He added, with downtown It gives us a perfect spot to create another cultural center inside the community.
When it came to the Predators, Durrett said hockey is the fastest growing youth sport in the U.S. and it could be possible to have tournaments and bring people into the community and they will spend dollars. The events center will have about a $289 million economic impact on the community, about $20 million a year.
Nat Harden, Senior Vice President of Sales and Youth Hockey for the Predators talked about the partnership with Montgomery County. “We’re excited to be able to talk with Montgomery County and Austin Peay and explore the different opportunities that are out there,” Harden said.
“Where Austin Peay comes into play in all of this is obviously President White and her vision and our institutional vision to move Austin Peay closer to downtown and merge downtown. What better way to do that than certainly an arena,” Ivey said.