The Our Team campaign to keep the Predators in Nashville hosted a well-attended business breakfast today intended to sell tickets to support the team. Several speakers addressed a packed room at the Adventure Science Center:

• Prospective team owner David Freeman (above left), still adjusting to being in the spotlight, said his approach will continue to be “Please and thank you” when it comes to the business community. Freeman said that the city’s business community “doesn’t owe [the Predators] anything” and that he expects to “earn [its] support.”
• First Lady Andrea Conte (above right) said that she first purchased tickets in 1998 as a civic duty because her husband, then-mayor Phil Bredesen, played a major role in bringing the team to town. Within a few games, she was hooked and has been an avid supporter since.
• Conte told the audience that “we have a lot at stake here” in keeping the Preds in town and that she believes that “once a city loses a team, it starts sliding backwards.”
• Conte currently owns four season tickets and purchased additional seats this year, which she donated to University School of Nashville. (Her son Ben is an alumnus.) She considers the tickets a “valuable asset” that the students can determine how to use for the best benefit of the school and the team.
• Mayor Karl Dean attended the breakfast and spoke with several attendees before leaving for another appointment. First Tennessee’s Mike Edwards, who emceed the event for Our Team Nashville, said during his remarks that Dean jumped in immediately as mayor regarding the lease negotiations with the prospective ownership group and that Dean “understands the value” the Preds bring to the city.
• 104.5 The Zone’s George Plaster, who joked that most of the audience had never seen him in a tie until today (and that the tie was due to be returned by 9 a.m.), said that Nashville is the “best, most underrated city in the country.” Quoting Conte, he agreed that the community “doesn’t need to let this thing slide.”
• Plaster reported that the Preds have now topped the 9,300 mark for season tickets, more than 600 above the total at the end of last season with many renewals and new purchases still a possibility.
• Regarding the Our Team campaign goal of having 10,000 season tickets by opening night on Oct. 4, Plaster said, “I won’t kid you. We need your help.”
• Our Team captain Ron Samuels explained that the Preds have created more than $396 million in on-site revenue during their history and more than $125 million in off-site revenue. “This is significant revenue for our city,” he said.
• Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce Chairman Ralph Schultz said “We need the Preds” and “The Preds are an important part of Nashville’s future.”

Schultz told the group that more than 250 businesses have stepped up to purchase season tickets and provide other support since the Our Team campaign launched this summer. Several business leaders purchased tickets this morning, and many more signed pledge cards to do so in the near future.