Apologies for the brief hiatus in the series. Blame junior hockey.

Nashville's been written off as a hockey market by an awful lot of people, but one of the things I wanted to get a handle on first hand when I visited Tennessee a few weeks ago was just what exactly are the major challenges to the NHL's survival there.

Here's what I came up with:

1. A relatively small market

One thing that's rarely mentioned when Nashville's discussed as a hockey market is just how small its population is (about 620,000 in the actual city and 1.5 million in the metro area). The Preds have far fewer potential fans than massive warm-weather cities like Atlanta and Phoenix and have drawn remarkably well given Nashville is the third smallest U.S. city with an NHL team. 

They're the Buffalo of the South.

2. Making inroads in football culture

I'd expected that the Thursday night game against Phoenix would be a good example of low attendance in Nashville, but they filled the Sommet Center pretty well even for that one — mainly because it was late February. The real lows in attendance for the team come in the first half of the season, when the Tennessee Titans are playing in a massive stadium a stone's throw away across the Cumberland River and drawing the majority of the corporate support.

There's no question that, if the Predators were the only major professional team in the market, they'd be far better off. As it is, they compete with football in the NFL, NCAA and even local high schools.

3. Keeping ownership local

Even with David Freeman and company at the helm right now, ownership concerns lead the way in terms of challenges in the market. Nashville doesn't really appear to have a huge corporate community to draw from or any local billionaires looking to buy into a hockey team that's potentially going to, at best, break even and at worst lose money more often than not.

If Freeman ever decides to sell, it's likely outside investors would have to step in, and that's always a dicey situation in terms of solidifying a team in a market I'm not sure the NHL's hell bent on staying in.

4. Low ticket prices

For a Saturday night game against the Red Wings, a contest billed as one of the most in-demand games of the season, we were able to buy great tickets in the lower bowl for $67 apiece a few days before the game on Ticketmaster. For the Phoenix game, tickets were widely available in the upper deck for about $20.

At that rate, it's probably going to be impossible for Nashville to generate $80- or $90-million a season, which is the kind of revenue the top 15 to 20 teams in the NHL pull in. Barring a deep, deep playoff run, I can't see the Preds ever being anything more than one of the lowest 10 revenue-generating teams in the league and that's with a very favourable agreement with the city.

5. The need for full revenue sharing

That last point is exactly why revenue sharing is so vital to the team. There is a fan base in Nashville, it is growing, and there's potential for Tennessee to become much more of a hockey market 15 or 20 years down the line if the league's bigger markets can continue to bail them out. It'll be tough sledding for this team even with that extra $10- to 12-million, but looking at the numbers, they frankly don't have a chance otherwise. Minus revenue sharing, Nashville would not have out earned a single other team last season according to Forbes figures.

Now, almost every market in every sport faces some challenges. The Predators have more than most, even in the NHL, but are they too much to overcome? Does professional hockey belong in Nashville and will it survive there long term?

Stay tuned for Part 4.