Live from Music Row Thursday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed all-star panelist Clint Brewer in-studio to examine the lack of good argument for taxpayers to get on board for a Titans stadium overhaul.
Leahy: In studio, all-star panelist, good friend, Clint Brewer. I’m mixing my sports idioms here. Yesterday in the state Senate Finance Committee, the Titans were thrown a curveball. And we got this straight from the author of the amendment that was the curveball, the State Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson, who we interviewed exclusively yesterday afternoon. Here’s a headline: “State Senate Committee Removes Public Funding for Titans Stadium from Tennessee Budget.”
The Finance Committee of the Tennessee State Senate voted on Wednesday to remove public funding for the proposed $2 billion domed stadium for the NFL’s Tennessee Titans from the 2022-2023 budget for the state of Tennessee.
State Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson, a Republican from Franklin, proposed two amendments to the budget that, one, removed authorization for the state of Tennessee to issue a $500 million dollar bond to be used for the construction of the proposed stadium, and, two, removed $55 million in taxpayer funding to service the interest payments annually of that bond debt.
Johnson’s amendments easily passed in a voice vote. “I’ve had problems with this from the get-go,’ Johnson told The Tennessee Star in an exclusive interview late Wednesday. I’m not convinced this is a good deal for Tennessee taxpayers.”
So this is fascinating. Apparently this morning, this very morning, the full State Senate is going to vote on the budget minus the public funding for the proposed domed stadium, and that sets up a potential conflict with the House of Representatives.
They’ve included the funding in it, but there is an effort this morning in the caucus to remove the funding from the final floor vote in the House.
So you’ve got Jack Johnson opposing public funding, and then you’ve got Cam Sexton, the Speaker of the House, and Majority Leader William Lamberth trying to slip it in. And what I hear is, although in Davidson County, there may be support for this among the people, outside of Davidson County it’s very much universally opposed, and a lot of state legislators don’t want to do it. Your thoughts on this football curveball?
Brewer: Is it a curveball or is it a blitz? Is it an interception, maybe? (Laughs)
Leahy: This is why you are so good with words. It’s probably right. It’s more like the ball has been fumbled.
Brewer: It has.
Leahy: It has, and it’s rolling on the field. And we don’t know if the State Senate is going to pounce on it or the State House is going to pounce on it. How about that? Is that better?
Brewer: Yes, that’s pretty good. Here’s the thing. In this whole situation set aside, whether you agree or disagree with state funding for a stadium, I haven’t heard a whole lot of message from any corridor, either in government or on the Titans side of the ledger, as to why people should be for this.
I think there are actually a lot of good reasons to be for it that could be talked about, but they’re not. I think it’s an incomplete job of telling the story. You may still disagree with those reasons, but you’ve got to at least tell them, and they have to be received.
The Titans drive commerce, they drive tax dollars, they drive the brand for the state of Tennessee. They provide a marketing bump for the state and tourism, and a brand and a business standpoint whenever they’re on television.
There are a lot of arguments that could be made in favor of this. I just don’t hear anybody making that argument, and I don’t hear them making it in a way that would resonate in towns outside of Nashville.
Leahy: That’s a problem, isn’t it?
Brewer: Yes. Most of our legislature is from somewhere other than Nashville. And even somewhere other than suburban Nashville, the collar counties. When you do something like this, you’ve got to make it appeal to people all across the state.
You’ve got to give them a reason to do it. And then you’ve also got to remember there’s a professional sports team in Memphis, which is very popular: Memphis Grizzlies. Do they get a turn at the trough if we do this?
Leahy: Are they very popular?
Brewer: Oh, yeah. Yes, very much so.
Leahy: I can’t stand the NBA, but people in Memphis like it, right?
Brewer: Well, nationally, the NBA is very popular. It’s more popular than it’s ever been. And the Grizzlies are very popular, and they’re also a very entertaining team to watch.
Leahy: Really? I guess just because I despise their connection to China, I missed that.
Brewer: It doesn’t take away from the fact that they have very talented athletes. But my point is that I think that you’ve got to give people outside of Nashville reasons to be for this.
Leahy: And I can’t think of any reason to be for it if you’re outside of Nashville, for the state government to get involved in it.
Brewer: It’s fairly abstract, right? I remember when I was part of the team. This is not a direct appropriation or a bond or anything. This is stuff that’s written into state law.
There’s an incentive program for film. And when I worked for the last administration, we incentivized the ABC show Nashville. There was a lot of debate about why should state government get involved in that?
Leahy: Just for the record, I totally oppose any of that …
Brewer: I’m aware of that.
Leahy: But I get that you’ve heard that argument before.
Brewer: I’ve heard it from many people before.
Leahy: And every time you come in here, I say that just to remind you.
Brewer: But the thing is, you can leverage public dollars in a way that can get you things that private dollars never could. Just the sheer volume of impressions, hits, TV time that that series got the state of Tennessee was exponentially more than what the state spent on it. You could take that money and you could never leverage it into the marketing value that that show had.
Leahy: You know what that sounds like to me?
Brewer: It’s just math on my end.
Leahy: No, I understand. But if you go to, like, a public relations agency, and they want to explain why you should pay them a whole bunch of money to represent you, they will trot out their clients and then they’ll say all the earned media they’ve gotten that person. And then they will try to quantify it in dollars and cents. “We got ’em $20 million!”
Brewer: Because if you had to buy it, you couldn’t buy it, right?
Leahy: But you know what? I got a two-letter response to that: B.S.
Brewer: Yes, Mike, I happen to think that the story space on your website is incredibly valuable.
Leahy: That’s a very good point. (Laughter)
Listen to the interview:
– – –
Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
