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When Nashville was selected to host Super Bowl LXIV on May 19, Dick Darr’s name was not mentioned in the many speeches and acknowledgments that followed. His influence, however, loomed large over the proceedings.
Darr, who died on Thursday morning at the age of 76 from complications due to leukemia, understood that it was not enough just to build something. Things had to be built correctly.
It was that approach that made him successful as the co-founder and principal of Capital Project Solutions, an owner’s representative firm focused on commercial construction and infrastructure projects in Nashville and beyond.
And it allowed him to formulate and articulate a vision for how the city should carve out its place in the professional sports landscape and what doing so would mean. Over the last 30 years, things have happened pretty much as he said they would.
As chairman of the “Yes for Nashville” campaign, he led the effort in support of a 1996 referendum that allowed for $80 million in bonds to be issued as part of a $292 million financial package required to build a football stadium and foot the relocation costs for the Houston Oilers, the NFL franchise that was rebranded the Tennessee Titans in 1999.
“This is a way for us to get noticed as something other than a small town with good country music,” Darr told The New York Times in 1996.
That referendum was held on May 7, 1996, nearly 30 years to the day before the Super Bowl announcement. Nearly 60 percent of the voters approved the plan — and it was not long before the city’s small-town reputation was a thing of the past.
“Without Dick Darr and a handful of other community leaders who stepped up 30 years ago, there would be no Tennessee Titans today and no Super Bowl coming in 2030,” said Dave Cooley, a friend of Darr’s and a long-time advisor to former Nashville Mayor Phil Bredesen. “Dick was one of our city’s biggest boosters at a pivotal moment in Nashville’s history. He’ll be sorely missed.”
In recent weeks, Darr told family and friends that he was “excited and proud” about the Super Bowl announcement, which solidified Nashville’s place among the country’s top professional sports cities.
Richard Alan Darr grew up on a dairy farm in Coshocton, Ohio and attended Eastern Kentucky University, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree. He moved to Nashville in 1975 and built a career in the construction industry. Friends described him as someone who understood that there was power in public works projects and that building something was about much more than just bricks and mortar.
He approached projects — and life — with unfailing optimism and was equally adept at rallying supporters of his cause and charming opponents.
At the time of the NFL referendum, Nashville had a population of roughly 500,000 and was the country’s 33rd largest television market. These days, the population exceeds 726,000 and has grown by more than 5 percent this decade alone. Nashville is also now among the country’s top 30 television markets. The downtown area has been transformed with the additions of the Schermerhorn Symphony Center and the Country Music Hall of Fame. Nashville has been the setting for two major television franchises, has added a Major League Soccer franchise and an IndyCar event, and, in 2013, The New York Times dubbed it the “it city.”
“Dick Darr was a friend and ally, not just in the NFL campaign but in my mayoral and gubernatorial campaigns,” Bredesen said. “His positivity and optimism were contagious. His boundless energy helped us move the city and state forward.”
Darr’s work with Capital Project Solutions, which launched in 2008, included oversight of two other notable sports projects: First Horizon Park, which helped make the Nashville Sounds one of minor league baseball’s annual leaders in attendance, and Geodis Park, home to Nashville SC, the city’s newest major professional sports franchise, and the largest soccer-specific venue in the U.S.
Nashville’s pursuit of an NFL franchise came after construction of what is now Bridgestone Arena at a cost of $120 million in taxpayer funds. Attempts to bring in an existing NBA franchise and then an NHL franchise to serve as the primary tenant were unsuccessful.
Against that backdrop, the right thing to do — the only thing to do — as Darr saw it, was to support the Oilers’ relocation to Nashville.
“If we were to turn down this referendum, I think we could pretty well write off any other team moving to Nashville,” Darr said in 1996, via United Press International. “It would be difficult getting another team to be interested.
“There is a line drawn in the sand, and when this thing finally shakes down, it'll be the people in this community that have a vision for Nashville, for what they want this city to become. Our vision is that we want Nashville to be a better place to live, worship, work and raise our children.”
Darr’s life will be celebrated with an Irish wake from 4-7 p.m. Wednesday on the rooftop at Hampton Social (201 1st Ave S, Nashville, 37201). In lieu of flowers, the family has requested donations be made in Darr’s memory to Second Harvest Food Bank or the Boys and Girls Clubs of Middle Tennessee.
This article first appeared on Nashville Banner and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
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