Denied! Tim McGraw, Faith Hill’s New Business Venture Fouls Out

Tim McGraw and Faith Hill were hoping to bring the WNBA to Nashville, but the league isn’t interested.

The couple are part of a star-studded ownership group seeking a franchise. This week, three new WNBA franchises were awarded across America, but Nashville will continue to warm the bench.

Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia will join the WNBA in 2028, 2029 and 2030, respectively.
Next season, Toronto and Portland will have an WNBA team for the first time.
This will create an 18-team league within the next five years.

The news doesn’t totally kill the chance of an WNBA team coming to Music City. Former Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam led the pitch to get a team that would be called the Tennessee Summitt, but the billionaire’s presence was overshadowed by the sports stars he’d assembled.

In addition to McGraw and Hill, Peyton Manning was involved in the proposal. Former WNBA star Candace Parker was also hoping to be co-owner of a team that would be named in honor of late University of Tennessee women’s basketball coach Pat Summitt.

“We will continue to keep our eye on future opportunities and evaluate them as they present themselves,” Haslam says in a statement. “I am confident that one day Tennessee will be the home of a major professional women’s sports franchise.”

Currently, the only high-level professional sports teams in Nashville are the NFL’s Tennessee Titans and NHL’s Nashville Predators. There is a movement to bring a Major League Baseball team to Nashville, however, and another country star is attached to that proposal.

Darius Rucker is part of the proposed Nashville Stars franchise. As recently as spring 2024, Luke Combs and Maren Morris were tied to one group trying to bring the MLB to town, although they were labeled as advisors, not investors or owners.

McGraw was previously a minority owner in the Arena Football League’s Nashville Kats until the league folded in 2007.

18 Country Artists That Kind of Disappeared

“Who I Am” and “Ode to Billie Joe” are songs we all know the words to — we’ve sung along to them on more than one occasion — they were huge hits! But what ever happened to Jessica Andrews and Bobbie Gentry?

You’ll often find us reminiscing over some of our favorite artists who took a break from music, whether to start a family, solely write songs … or just plain vanish(?!).

Gallery Credit: Billy Dukes