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Tim Mcgraw Nashville Kats

February 2, 2012 by · Comments Off on Tim Mcgraw Nashville Kats 

Tim Mcgraw Nashville Kats, The Nashville Kats were an Arena Football League team, located in Nashville, Tennessee. They were last coached by Pat Sperduto, who coached the team’s original incarnation to two ArenaBowl appearances prior to the original franchise’s move to Atlanta in 2002 (then becoming the Georgia Force).

Sperduto also coached the second incarnation of the Nashville Kats following their return to the Arena Football League as an expansion team in 2005. The Nashville Kats have been rumored to return to the Arena Football League in 2012.

The team began as the Nashville Kats in 1997. The original Kats played in the then-named Nashville Arena (AKA “The Alley”) in downtown Nashville. The team was named for the 1967 hit “Nashville Cats” by The Lovin’ Spoonful.

The team’s logo featured an anthropomorphic tabby wearing a 1950s-style leather jacket, holding the neck of a guitar in one paw and juggling a football with the other.

The Kats were initially coached by Eddie Khayat in 1997 and 1998, who was succeeded by Pat Sperduto for the balance of the team’s time in Nashville (including the second incarnation of the team). The Kats were the league’s Organization of the Year for their inaugural year of 1997, and were in the playoffs for every season of their relatively brief existence.

The team’s success in the playoffs led to consecutive appearances in the ArenaBowl(XIV and XV) each of the original team’s final two seasons, although they were unable to win the AFL’s championship in either appearance.

After being unable to reach favorable agreements with arena management and the primary tenant, the Nashville Predators of the National Hockey League, majority owner Mark Bloom sold the franchise in December 2001 to Virgil Williams, an Atlanta businessman, for nearly $10 million.

The team’s departure from the Nashville market was not related to lack of success neither on the field nor at the box office, but rather their inability to negotiate a favorable lease with the Predators. Following the move to Atlanta, this team would be rechristened the Georgia Force.

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