Nashville not sure Miss America pageant is worth the cost

The beauty pageant is leaving Atlantic City, N.J., after 84 years, and Nashville has been mentioned as a possible new home, along with Orlando, Fla.

But the president of the Nashville Convention and Visitors Bureau said he’s not sure Nashville would benefit from the pageant, which could cost the city nearly $1 million.

“They have an enormous amount of requirements,” Butch Spyridon said. “Then they want free (hotel) rooms. Then you have parties, meals. It just gets to the point of what’s the return on the investment for the city?”

Speculation has centered on the Music City because Nashville-based country music channel CMT recent signed a multiyear deal to air the pageant.

Pageant officials have said the show could save $1 million by finding a new venue that could pay a site fee and produce it for less money.

Nashville Chamber of Commerce spokesman Brian Courtney said the pageant hasn’t approached the city yet.

“I don’t think it would serve us well to say we want this here … without a clue of what the financial implications would be,” Courtney said. “At the end of the day, the numbers have to make sense for everybody involved.”

Spyridon said some members of his staff have talked to CMT about hosting the event, but CMT was not able to give many specifics.

Nashville was approached several years ago about hosting the Miss USA pageant, but passed because it would have cost the city about $1 million — more than it wanted to spend, Spyridon said.

“If we sound ho-hum about it, it’s because we don’t know anything,” Spyridon said. “It’s not a disinterest or an attitude problem. There’s a lot of unknowns. We have seen nothing from a bid specification standpoint. We don’t know if they need everything for free — whether they need three days in a performance hall or 10 days.”

If Nashville were to host the event, it would likely be at the Gaylord Entertainment Center, which has a seating capacity of about 14,000, or the Grand Ole Opry, which can seat about 4,400, Spyridon said. However, there are several hockey games and other events already scheduled for January at the Gaylord Entertainment Center, which could pose a problem for the pageant.