1998 Expansion

Lore & Background

Nashville in the mid-1990s was a city hungry for a major-league sports identity. The Predators' arrival was not a quiet addition to a crowded sports market; it was a declaration. The NHL's decision to award the franchise to a Tennessee city—over competing bids and skepticism from traditional hockey powers—sparked a wave of local pride that spilled well beyond the ice. The naming of the team, the unveiling of the logo, and the construction of a purpose-built arena all fed a collective narrative: this was *our* team, built from the ground up by people who had never before had a reason to wear a hockey jersey.

The 1998–99 season itself was, by any measure, a rough one. Expansion teams in that era typically endured a multi-year rebuilding period, and Nashville was no exception. Rosters were thin, chemistry was untested, and the scoreboard told a story of a team still learning the speed and physicality of the NHL. Yet the arena was full. Season-ticket holders who had committed to the project before a single regular-season game was played filled the seats night after night, chanting, waving towels, and treating every shift as if it were a playoff. That early, almost defiant loyalty became the franchise's defining cultural trait.

Bob Johnson, a former NHL forward with a player's-eye understanding of the game, was tasked with the unenviable job of assembling a competitive unit from a draft class and a free-agent pool that favored established clubs. His tenure, though brief, established the coaching philosophy and organizational culture that would guide the Predators through their early years. The 1998 expansion was never about winning a Cup in year one; it was about proving that a city of 500,000 could sustain a world-class hockey franchise, and the answer, delivered in the roar of a sold-out Nashville Arena, was an emphatic yes.

In Their Own Story

The October night the arena first hosted a regular-season game, the air inside smelled of fresh ice and cheap popcorn. A kid in a too-big jersey pressed his face against the glass in the third row, breath fogging the pane, watching a puck skate across the surface in long, slow passes. The crowd noise was not the measured hum of a veteran market; it was a wall of sound, half-singing, half-shouting, the kind of noise that made the players on the bench turn and look up from their sticks. Somewhere in the stands, a father explained to his daughter that the team had existed for exactly one season and that she was watching the very first chapter. The puck dropped. The Predators moved. And for the first time in Nashville's sporting history, the city was not a spectator at someone else's game. It was the game.

Reader's Guide

1997 – The NHL Board of Directors formally approves Nashville, Tennessee, as a site for a new expansion franchise, pairing it with Atlanta in the 1998 expansion class. This mattered because it transformed a years-long lobbying and bidding process into a concrete mandate: a new team, a new arena, a new city in the NHL map. For a region that had watched hockey on television for decades, the approval was the moment the dream became a schedule.

1998 (summer) – The team is officially named the Nashville Predators, and the new Nashville Arena (later Bridgestone Arena) opens its doors. The arena was purpose-built for hockey and served as a physical symbol of the franchise's permanence. The naming and the building gave the community something tangible to rally around before a single game was played.

1998 (fall) – The Predators begin their inaugural 1998–99 season under head coach Bob Johnson. As an expansion club, the roster was assembled through the expansion draft, free agency, and the entry draft, and the team was expected to compete at the bottom of the standings. What was not expected—and what defined the franchise's identity—was the near-universal sellout attendance that greeted every home game, establishing a fan culture of fierce, unconditional loyalty that would outlast every roster change that followed.

1998–99 season – The Predators complete their first full NHL season, finishing near the bottom of the Western Conference. The record was unremarkable; the story was not. A small-market team had survived its first year in the league, its arena was full, and the foundation for a two-decade climb toward playoff contention had been laid in salt and ice.

Did You Know?

• The Nashville Predators and the Atlanta Thrashers were the NHL's two expansion teams for the 1998–99 season, making them the 28th and 29th franchises in league history.
• Nashville Arena, the Predators' original home, was purpose-built for ice hockey and opened in 1998, giving the team a modern, dedicated facility from day one rather than a converted venue.
• The Predators' inaugural-season sellout streak became one of the most frequently cited examples in the NHL of an expansion team generating immediate, sustained fan demand, a rarity for a new franchise in a non-traditiona
• Bob Johnson, the Predators' first head coach, was a former NHL player himself, bringing an on-ice perspective to the challenge of building a competitive roster from an expansion draft and a limited free-agent pool.