Tonight's the critical night for approval of the new soccer stadium at the Fairgrounds. The 40 member Metro Council will vote on several issues lumped into one vote, as I understand, requiring 27 votes to approve (27 required to approve demolition of existing buildings). One assessment indicates there may be 25 pro votes in the bag with 6 don't knows. They would only need 2 of those votes to win.
The process has been difficult and convoluted with a small, but vocal opposition mostly concerned about the future of the flea market. Every trick in the book has been tried to delay, stall and kill the project.
Another point of contention is the allocation of 10 acres of the property for the use of the team owners to develop as a mixed use, revenue generating property that will help to payoff bonds to build the stadium.
The City has required a Community Benefits Plan as part of the deal which will provide affordable housing among other provisions.
The financing plan is a thing of beauty in my opinion.
- The city issued $225 million in bonds to finance the construction.
- The team owners will put up the $150,000,000 expansion fee.
- Funds from ticket sales and revenues from the new development will ostensibly go to paying off debt.
A little more from the incredible
Soccer Stadium Digest...
Quote:
Last November, the Metro Council approved $225 million in bonding for a new MLS stadium at The Fairgrounds Nashville. That was a major accomplishment for the Nashville MLS expansion bid, and ultimately played a part in the league’s approval of Nashville’s pitch in December. However, the issuing of those bonds is contingent upon the completion of several stadium-related agreements that still need to be finalized. Briley’s administration has filed those four pieces of legislation with the council–including the lease for the development, the demolition of existing buildings on the stadium site along with the implementation of a $1.75 ticket tax, rezoning for the development, and $50 million in general obligation bonds for related expenses such as infrastructure improvements and new fairgrounds buildings.
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If this fails, it would look very grim with regards to keeping the franchise.
What we have now...
And what is proposed...
The stadium is now described as a 30,500 seat facility (per Mayor Briley) and that would be the largest soccer specific stadium in the USA. It will no doubt be busy with concerts, sporting events and other activities. This size stadium will be appropriate for Music City.
And now, NASCAR has expressed interest in the 5/8's mile Fairgrounds Speedway for some purpose not yet detailed.