CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — If you've driven around downtown Clarksville, it's hard to miss. But Danny Butler hopes it's the inside of F&M Bank Arena that will provide all the must-see moments.
"This is so exciting to see it in this space," said Danny Butler, vice president and general manager of Sabertooth Sports and Entertainment, a division of the Nashville Predators.
Sabertooth will run the 5,000-6,000 seat venue for Montgomery County once it's completed. The primary tenant will be Austin Peay State University's basketball games, but NewsChannel 5 is told contracts with minor league sports leagues are also in the works.
"We can host hockey. We can host basketball. We can host indoor football, indoor soccer," said Butler.
The seating in the arena is designed so it can retract, completely opening up the floor so the space can also host trade shows and community events. F&M Bank has all the bells and whistles, from luxury suites to a world-class practice space for the Governors.
"You have everything you’ll need to in here," said Butler, on a construction tour with NewsChannel 5. "They’ll have 24-hour access to the building coming through, with their own swipe cards, so come in, shoot, workout."
Attached to the arena is Clarksville's first-ever Ford Ice Center. It will give local skaters the chance to finally skip the drive to Nashville just for an open sheet of ice.
"We basically took the model of the two Ford Ice Centers Antioch and Bellevue and basically attached it to the arena," said Butler. "We’ll host learn to skate. We’ll host youth hockey, adult hockey, travel hockey and then a ton of different tournaments."
Of course, a space so grand doesn't come cheap. Montgomery County's government is spending $130 million and counting.
"The community has invested a lot into this facility, right? So we have done everything we can to make it a first-class facility," said Butler.
But officials are confident that the investment will be worth it, by putting on events that will be hard to miss.
"The hope is it does a little bit of what Bridgestone Arena did to Downtown Nashville, which sparked everybody to come back and drive a lot of traffic down," he said. "Truly going to drive a million, a million and a half people a year through downtown Clarksville."
F&M Bank Arena's interior construction is slated to wrap up by the end of the year, but the grand opening won't be held until July 2023. Austin Peay Basketball will begin playing there for their 2023-2024 basketball season.
