Music City Bowl, FCS championship made big bucks for Nashville economy

The combined total economic impact of the 2025 Liberty Mutual Music City Bowl and the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision championship game in Nashville was nearly $70 million, according to the Nashville Sports Council. The two games were played in a span of seven days.

The Music City Bowl between Tennessee and Illinois on Dec. 30 at Nissan Stadium generated $38.2 million in economic impact throughout Nashville, while the FCS championship between Montana State and Illinois State on Jan. 5 at Vanderbilt’s FirstBank Stadium followed close behind at $31.3 million for a total of $69.5 million.

The Music City Bowl has been played annually in Nashville since 1998. The $38.2 million economic impact generated by the bowl was a record, topping the $32.3 million impact in 2021 when Tennessee played Purdue.

This was the first year the FCS championship was played here. It will return in 2026.

“We really didn’t have a great projection on the FCS game, and we ended up having fans stay an average of 3-4 nights. “You start adding up the prices for hotels and food in today’s world, anywhere, but especially in Nashville and it really kind of added up,” Nashville Sports Council president and CEO Scott Ramsey said.

“We were really pleased with those numbers, and then the same way with the bowl. Even though Tennessee was in the game and attendance was down a bit at 52,000, on the surveys we saw a higher percentage of people were from out of town, which is good for our tourism model and certainly increased the spending.”

Attendance for the Music City Bowl, won by Illinois 30-38, was 52,815. Attendance for the FCS championship, won by Montana State, 35-34 in overtime, was 24,105.

The 2024 economic impact for the Music City Bowl (Missouri vs. Iowa) was $26.6 million, so the increase for 2025 was $11.2 million.

Attendance for the Liberty Mutual Music City Bowl was the third largest among non-College Football Playoff bowls behind the Texas Bowl (LSU-Houston) at 64,867, and the Alamo Bowl (TCU-USC) at 54,751.

Over 27 years, the Music City Bowl has now had a total of 1.5 million fans in attendance and generated more than $450 million in total economic impact.

Attendance for the FCS championship game was the largest since 1996 and the seventh-largest in FCS history. The game moved from Frisco, Texas to utilize the higher capacity stadium.

“Nashville proved to be an outstanding host city, with the Nashville Sports Council, Ohio Valley Conference and Vanderbilt University working together to deliver a successful championship weekend,” NCAA director of championships Ty Halpin said. “The city’s hospitality and local support created a tremendous environment for our teams and fans.”

The FCS championship game will return to Vanderbilt’s FirstBank Stadium for the 2026 season and be played on Jan. 11, 2027. Ramsey said work is already being done to keep the FCS championship game in Nashville beyond the 2026 season.

“My understanding is (the NCAA) will allow other cities to bid on it, but I think with the success we had this year, we have a great opportunity to extend it and we’re going to work hard to extend it beyond this year,” Ramsey said.

If you have an item for Midstate Chatter contact Mike Organ at 615-259-8021 or on X @MikeOrganWriter.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Music City Bowl, FCS championship made $69.5 million for Nashville