of hand. Lanier knew that Houstonians were not willing to spend money for a brand-new stadium less than a decade after helping pay for heavily renovating the Astrodome. Adams then began to shop the team to other cities. He had taken particular notice of the offer made by Nashville to the New Jersey Devils of the National Hockey League to become the primary tenant of a new arena then under construction in downtown Nashville—what is now Bridgestone Arena. While this deal was never consummated (Nashville eventually received an expansion team, the Nashville Predators), Adams wondered what sort of offer he might receive for a venue for his NFL team. After Adams met several times with then-Nashville mayor Phil Bredesen, they announced a deal to bring the Oilers to Nashville for the 1998 season to a new 68,000-seat stadium (originally called Adelphia Coliseum, now known as Nissan Stadium). It was to be built largely with city and state funds, across the Cumberland River from downtown Nashville. Nashville opponents of this arrangement forced the issue to a referendum vote; it passed easily, with over 57% of those voting in favor. When the move was announced shortly after the end of the 1995 season, Adams's opponents in Houston attempted to block the move. The biggest example of this was when then-House Majority Whip Tom DeLay, whose district included portions of Houston and its suburbs, introduced a bill in Congress banning the move. However, it did not pass. Other opponents of the move filed their own lawsuits, but all were dismissed. By the start of the 1996 season, support for the Oilers had practically vanished. The Oilers played most of their games before crowds of fewer than 20,000, and they looked even smaller due to the spacious configuration of the Astrodome. The crowds were so quiet that some of the few in attendance, watching on television, or listening on radio could hear all of the action on the field, including play calling, collisions, and the players talking to one another. In addition, the Oilers' radio network in Texas, formerly statewide, was reduced to a single station in Houston and a few affiliates in Tennessee. Adams, the city, the county, and the NFL were unwilling to let this continue for another season. As a result, Harris County agreed to let the Oilers out of their lease to enable the move to Tennessee a year earlier