Nissan just scored a huge touchdown in Tennessee
The Tennessee Titans will now call their field Nissan Stadium. The name swap replaces the old signage (LP Field) and sets in motion an interesting confluence of branding: the Titans football team with Nissan's newly redesigned pickup truck - also named Titan.
The company's 20-year exclusive agreement is an important landmark for the automaker.
It comes nearly 10 years after Nissan moved its headquarters from the Los Angeles-area to Tennessee in 2006.
That move had caused some California lawmakers to panic because Nissan at the time had become the next in a long line of corporate giants that were ditching California for greener pastures.
Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn said at the time that the lure of lower corporate taxes and a friendlier business climate motivated the big move - after nearly 50 years on the West Coast.
Since the automaker's headquarters officially put down stakes in Tennessee, Nissan has built the highest-volume auto assembly plant in the US, where it produces the Altima, Maxima and Pathfinder, among other models.
Nearly half of the company's 22,000 US employees are also based in Tennessee.
As for the fate of the automaker's old LA-area campus, fears of a regional economic Armageddon never quite materialized. The property was flipped less than five years later and sold off in pieces to 11 different companies.