by Jon Styf
The Metro Nashville Mayor’s Office is completing what its are calling the definitive documents for a new deal on a $2.2 billion Tennessee Titans stadium and plan to present the final documents to Metro’s council by March.
Before that begins, East Bank Stadium Committee Chair Bob Mendes sent a list of three questions to the mayor’s office following last week’s committee meeting asking for specifics on when the legislation will be filed, if legislation to rebuild Nashville’s Fairgrounds Speedway into a NASCAR cup-worthy track would come at the same time and specifics of when the capital spending on the Titans stadium project will occur.
The list of stadium legislation needed to be approved is lengthy, including amendments to the current stadium lease, Tennessee State football lease and state agreement for Nissan Stadium.
Both the council and the Nashville Sports Authority will be asked to approve a development agreement, lease, Titans non-relocation agreement, team guaranty, TSU lease, state funding agreement and campus coordination/parking agreement.
The council will also have to approve a 130-acre boundary near the stadium where 50 percent of the state and local taxes will go to a fund estimated to collect a total of $2.9 billion to go toward paying off revenue bonds and paying for future capital expenses and stadium repairs.
The council will also have to approve the sports authority issuing bonds and an intergovernmental agreement while the sports authority will need to also approve the intergovernmental agreement along with a bond indenture, construction funding trust and disbursing agreements and a personal seat license administration agreement.
Council member Emily Benedict has asked the council have at least six weeks to review the documents once they are received and put them in front of the public at public meetings along with offering amendments that will have time to be heard.
The sports authority also heard an overview of the Fairgrounds Speedway project, which is awaiting a full cost estimate, at its meeting last week. The Fair Board has been asked to approve the deal before a final price, expected to be more than $100 million, is reached.
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Jon Styf is an award-winning editor and reporter who has worked in Illinois, Texas, Wisconsin, Florida and Michigan in local newsrooms over the past 20 years, working for Shaw Media, Hearst and several other companies.
Photo “Bob Mendes” by Bob Mendes for Nashville Metro Council At-Large. Background Photo “Nissan Stadium” by Walker Kinsler. CC BY-SA 4.0.
And here I thought that we were told the new, futuristic, world class whatchamacallit was going to ONLY cost $2.1 billion. Where did the other $100,000,000 come from, Kickbacks and bribes?
This white elephant needs to be killed in its tracks.