"Nashville sets itself apart from sister cities by subsidizing its hockey arena with millions of dollars out of its stretched-thin general fund, which is typically used to pay for education, police officers, parks and libraries. A chance to change that is fast approaching.

Metro will pay an estimated $7.8 million this year to the Nashville Predators ownership group and its management company to operate Bridgestone Arena. That figure doesn't include the debt service on the bonds issued in the 1990s to construct the arena.

Other unconventional hockey towns such as Raleigh, N.C.; Tampa, Fla.; Broward County, Fla.; and San Jose, Calif., also built their arenas with public funds. However, local governments there don't subsidize operating costs for the arenas out of their general funds, according to research by The Tennessean. Though other cities also make capital improvements on their arenas, those expenditures typically come from special revenue sources and not the governments' operating budgets.

Metro has the opportunity to discontinue the $7.8 million subsidy by giving notice by Dec. 31, but there are no indications that will happen. Mayor Karl Dean's top aides say they believe the subsidy is working because it maintains the arena as a critical economic engine for downtown. Top Predators executives point out that Bridgestone Arena has become one of the busiest in the country, with a renewed emphasis on booking more concerts and other sporting events such as the SEC basketball tournament."