What Is Bridgestone Arena and Where Is It?

February 19, 2026

Bridgestone Arena is an 18,900-seat indoor arena located at 501 Broadway in downtown Nashville, at the corner of Broadway and Fifth Avenue North. It opened in 1996 and has hosted more than twelve million guests across its nearly three decades of operation. It is the home of the Nashville Predators NHL franchise and one of the most centrally located major arenas in the United States.

What It Does

Bridgestone Arena hosts the Nashville Predators for roughly 41 home regular-season games, plus playoffs in years when the Predators qualify. Beyond hockey, it is one of the highest-volume concert venues in the world: the arena regularly ranks in the top five or ten globally for concert ticket sales in any given year. Taylor Swift, Beyonce, Paul McCartney, and every major touring act with a stadium-scale ambition has played Bridgestone.

The arena also hosts the CMA Awards, the country music industry’s primary annual broadcast television event, typically in November. This makes it one of the defining TV images of Nashville’s music identity. Other events including the SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament, collegiate sports, and major boxing matches have used it.

The Location Advantage

Bridgestone’s position at Broadway and Fifth is unusual for an arena of its size. It sits in the middle of the entertainment district, not outside it. You can walk from the arena to a honky-tonk in 90 seconds. The Country Music Hall of Fame is three blocks away. The Ryman Auditorium is one block away. This proximity is what gives pre- and post-event Broadway its particular character on concert nights: the streets fill with concert-goers from different cities who then collide with the regular tourist crowd in the honky-tonks.

The Location Advantage

Bridgestone’s position at Broadway and Fifth is unusual for an arena of its size. It sits in the middle of the entertainment district, not outside it. You can walk from the arena to a honky-tonk in 90 seconds. The Country Music Hall of Fame is three blocks away. The Ryman Auditorium is one block away. This proximity is what gives pre- and post-event Broadway its particular character on concert nights: the streets fill with concert-goers from different cities who then collide with the regular tourist crowd in the honky-tonks.

The Nashville Visitor Center

Bridgestone Arena houses the Nashville Visitor Center and the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame in its ground-floor public spaces, which means it functions as an orientation point for tourists even on days without events.

Concert Volume

Bridgestone consistently ranks among the top-performing arenas in North America for concert revenue and attendance, typically placing in the top ten globally in any given year. Its year-round event schedule means it is rarely dark for more than a few consecutive days. For a city Nashville’s size, having an arena of this booking capacity in the center of downtown rather than in a suburban location has shaped the pattern of growth around it. The Gulch neighborhood to the west and the SoBro area to the south have developed in part because of the pedestrian traffic Bridgestone generates.

Parking

Bridgestone Arena has a dedicated parking garage at 501 Broadway. Surface lots exist nearby but fill quickly on event nights. The most common local advice for major events is to park at Nissan Stadium across the river and use the pedestrian bridge, avoiding downtown garage prices and traffic entirely. Rideshare pickup zones shift depending on the event; checking the arena’s website before a show for current pickup instructions saves time at the end of the night.

Sources

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