by Jon Styf
As the Metro Nashville council prepares for its second vote Tuesday night on the deal to build a new $2.2 billion Tennessee Titans stadium, the largest remaining debate involves an amendment added to the deal at the April 4 council meeting.
On Tuesday night, the council will see what is likely its final opportunity to amend the deal.
Two weeks ago, an amendment was added through a 19-18 vote to direct additional Titans rent payments – equal to 3 percent of non-NFL game ticket sales rising 1 percent annually until hitting a 10 percent ticket tax and rent cap – to Metro Nashville’s general fund.
At the meeting, Nashville Director of Legislative Affairs Mike Jameson estimated that amendment could divert $470 million to Metro Nashville’s general fund over 30 years.
Amendments can be heard on the third reading of a bill, which will likely come at an April 25 special meeting, but that would require suspending the council’s rules, something that can be blocked by a vote of just two of the council’s 40 members.
The amendment, however, has created pushback from the Titans and Nashville Convention and Visitors Corporation. So a follow-up amendment is set to be heard Tuesday, which will erase the payments to Metro Nashville’s general fund and instead have additional Titans rent be equal to the greater of $3 per non-NFL event ticket or 3 percent, set to be paid to a Nashville Needs Impact Fund non-profit fund that will also be used to promote, market, recruit and build infrastructure for professional women’s sports including a WNBA basketball or NWSL professional women’s soccer team.
The new amendment would also block the additional rent for many events, including all college athletics events like the Music City Bowl, Tennessee State football, University of Tennessee football, NCAA basketball tournament or SEC football championship games. It also blocks music events such as the Grammy’s, CMA Fest, Academy of Country Music events or WWE wrestling from the Titans additional rent payments.
“By my estimation, applying this would cost taxpayers somewhere in the range of $300-380mm,” Council member Sean Parker wrote about the new amendment while sharing its wording.
After that, the new amendment also directs the council to send 25 percent of the funds that Metro Nashville earns on a 130-acre development around the new stadium to the Nashville Needs Fund.
“The Metro Council already appropriates all of Metro’s revenue annually,” Council Member Bob Mendes told The Center Square. “Other than smoke and mirrors, having an agreement that the Metro Council gets to appropriate Metro’s revenue is nothing more than stating a truism.”
Tennessee for All will be holding a rally against the deal, set to begin at Nissan Stadium at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday before marching to the Metro Council meeting to demand a public hearing on the final version of the stadium bill before it is approved.
A motion from Council Member Angie Henderson to call a public hearing for the deal failed at the council’s April 4 meeting.
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Jon Styf is an award-winning editor and reporter at The Center Square 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.
Why waste the time voting? Just get on with it as was the plan from day 1.