This page is for the current , which began play in the Arena Football League in 2005. The original Nashville Kats moved to Atlanta, Georgia, in 2002 and became the Georgia Force . The current Kats have assumed the original team's pre-move history.
The are an
Arena Football League team, located in
Nashville, Tennessee .
The Nashville Kats began play in
2005 at the
Gaylord Entertainment Center , also home of the
Nashville Predators hockey team. The majority of the team is owned by
Bud Adams , the owner of the
Tennessee Titans of the
National Football League ; country music singer
Tim McGraw is a minority investor, and when the Kats score a touchdown, the PA system blares out one of McGraw's hits, "I Like It, I Love It, I Want Some More of It!"
The original team was founded in 1997.
The team began as the Nashville Kats in
1997 . The original Kats played in the
Gaylord Entertainment Center in downtown Nashville and 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. 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, even playing in the
ArenaBowl each of their final two seasons, albeit losing both times they reached the AFL's championship game.
The franchise was purchased in December 2001 by
Virgil Williams , an Atlanta businessman, for nearly $10 million (
US ). Their departure from the Nashville market was not really related to lack of success either on the field or at the box office, but rather their inability to negotiate a favorable lease with the Predators, who serve as the arena's primary tenant and manager. This team would become the
Georgia Force .
The team is named for the
Tabby wearing a
1950s -style leather jacket, holding the neck of a
Guitar in one paw and juggling a football with the other. The newly revived team's logo is identical except for the ball, which is now drawn as the lighter colored, brown-with-blue-stripe ball currently used in the AFL, along with the color of the cats' jacket, which is navy blue instead of black, and the lighter shade of blue, redesigned to reflect that of the Titans.
The Kats were revived in 2005, assuming all former team history from the Georgia Force.
The new Kats' first season started horrendously, as it took until week 7 for the franchise to record its first victory. But after that, the Kats won their next 5 games, and finished the season with a respectable 6-9-1 record. The Kats are coached by
Pat Sperduto , who coached the team's original incarnation to two
ArenaBowl appearances prior to the franchise's move to Atlanta in 2002.
The team's current mascot is a jersey-and-shorts-claded cat named
{Link without Title} .
| |
"http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Tampa_Bay_Storm" class="copylinks">Tampa Bay Storm )
|
| |
"http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Orlando_Predators" class="copylinks">Orlando Predators )
|
| |
"http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Arizona_Rattlers" class="copylinks">Arizona Rattlers )
|
| |
"http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/ArenaBowl" class="copylinks">ArenaBowl XIV ( Orlando Predators )
|
| |
"http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/ArenaBowl" class="copylinks">ArenaBowl XV ( Grand Rapids Rampage )
|
| |
"6" align="center" '''Returned to the AFL'''
|
|
