Venue: Bridgestone Arena
Town: Nashville, US
Capacity: 19,395

Bridgestone Arena (originally Nashville Arena, and formerly Gaylord Entertainment Center and Sommet Center) is a multi-purpose indoor arena in downtown Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Completed in 1996, it is the home of the Nashville Predators of the National Hockey League. Designed by HOK Sport (now Populous) in conjunction with the Nashville-based architecture/engineering firm Hart Freeland Roberts, INC., it was designed at an angle on the corner of Broadway and 5th Avenue in Nashville in physical homage to the historic Ryman Auditorium, the original home of the Grand Ole Opry. Bridgestone Arena is owned by the Sports Authority of Nashville and Davidson County and operated by Powers Management Company, a subsidiary of the Nashville Predators National Hockey League franchise, which has been its primary tenant since 1998. The Predators hosted the NHL entry draft here in 2003 and 2023; it was also the location for the 2016 NHL All-Star Game. In 1997, it was the venue of the United States Figure Skating Championships, and in 2004 hosted the USA Gymnastics National Championships. It was the home of the Nashville Kats franchise of the Arena Football League from 1997 until 2001, and hosted the team's revival from 2005 to 2007, when the Kats franchise folded. The arena has hosted college basketball events, including both men's (2001, 2006, 2010) and women's tournaments of the Southeastern Conference and the Ohio Valley Conference. Nashville will serve as a primary venue for the SEC men's basketball tournament nine times between 2015 and 2025 (2015-2017, 2019-2021, and 2023-2025) after the SEC signed a long-term agreement with the Nashville Sports Council in 2013. It hosted the 2014 NCAA Women's Final Four, the 2018 SEC women's basketball tournament and will host again in 2022 and 2026. In odd-numbered years, the arena was regularly one of eight sites to host the first and second rounds of the men's NCAA Basketball Tournament for the first ten years of its existence,