For Butch Spyridon, it was never so much “if you build it, they will come,” but more like “they’re coming, so build it.”

Spyridon, president of the Nashville Convention & Visitors Bureau, has been one of the most visible proponents of the new Music City Center, now coming out of the ground on 16 acres just south of Broadway and scheduled for a 2013 opening.

The debate over the center, and whether there was a need for such a massive infrastructure project, raged for the better part of a decade. It continues as rising project costs, potential hotel-partner snags and other issues have cropped up during the construction process.

But for Spyridon and the sales team responsible for filling the 1.2 million-square-foot facility, the proof is in the bookings.

“We said that they were lining up waiting to come, that this was way more than speculative,” Spyridon says of projected convention and attendee numbers.

“We had built our brand so well, the whole package of Nashville and Music City, that people wanted to come and they couldn’t because their shows wouldn’t fit in the current center. Now they can, and they are.”

More than 30 major conventions have been booked to date for 2013 through 2025, with more on the way.

Conventions and meetings on the books include new arrivals such as the National Rifle Association, which is set to descend on Nashville in May 2015.

Returning favorites include:

• International Music Products Association, or NAMM, which was a summertime staple until it outgrew the existing convention center/arena configuration a few years back
• The American Trucking Association, which had been both downtown and at the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center in the past before pulling up stakes for larger facilities.

One show even came back a bit early, thanks to the Music City Center.

“NAMM came back to the old center in 2009, but not until we had the new center close to reality,” Spyridon says. “They came back because the new center was going to be here.”

The American Trucking Association has booked a five-year deal, and the Hearth, Patio and Barbecue Association, another returning client, is down for three years in the future.

When these shows and others like them were in town in the past, they tended to fall somewhere around 2,000 to 2,500 attendees and around 1,500 hotel room nights at their peak. Good numbers, but the new facility can handle events with 10,000 or more attendees, which means 2,500 to 3,000 room nights on peak, Spyridon says.

That capacity is what drew the NRA, which with 50,000 expected attendees and a $25 million estimated economic impact is the CVB’s largest “get” to date.

Another large group is the American Association of Homes & Services for the Aging, which is bringing an estimated 10,000 attendees to town in 2014.

“Before, they wouldn’t look at us,” Spyridon says. “The NRA had been here about 20 years ago, but it was much smaller. They were never opposed to coming back, but we didn’t have the room. Now we do, and we have several other very large events that we are very close to bringing in.”

This is not to say that there haven’t been some setbacks since groundbreaking. The back-and-forth between Metro officials and various hoteliers over an attached property — and the incentives to build it — slowed sales efforts, for example, as did some uncertainty about tying the physical center into both that hotel and the Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum, which abuts the convention-center and hotel sites.

Now, Omni Hotels set to build a $273 million, 800-room facility and architects are working on joining the three properties.

“When we separated the hotel and the center this time last year we lost some momentum,” Spyridon says. “And the flood caused us to lose a little more. We had been selling downtown as a package, and we couldn’t close the NRA until we had the hotel deal. And now that the hotel deal is done, we’re talking to groups with more than 15,000 people.”

Those who are selling the Music City Center, both literally and figuratively, also are getting kudos and support from outside organizations in the convention and tourism industries.

“I think [the center] shows that there’s an obvious commitment to the convention industry in Nashville, and the success they are having shows a pent-up desire to take more business into the Nashville area,” says Deborah Sexton, president and chief executive officer of the Professional Convention Management Association, which also recognizes the newly reopened Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center as a major draw.

“As an outsider and someone responsible for meetings, this shows me that the city cares a great deal about this industry, and has created, or is in the process of creating, two distinctly different facilities that can handle meetings and conventions.”

And while much of the local focus has been on whether or not the revamped Gaylord Opryland will compete against the Music City Center, Sexton says what’s being missed is the competitive edge the city has with not one, but two players in the game.

“They don’t compete head to head that often, and are both marketing to groups that want to come to Nashville,” she said. “If they both go to an association, an industry or meeting planners, then they get more people talking about Nashville as a destination, and in a positive way. There’s no downside to that.”