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LIUNA Local 386, a union of nearly 1,000 area construction and service workers, is wading into the ongoing debate over the future of The Fairgrounds Nashville and its Fairgrounds Speedway.
The labor group, a part of Nashville's progressive political coalition, on Monday launched Make Nashville Fair, a campaign that seeks guarantees for any future renovation of the track and opposing a charter amendment referendum push aimed at ending racing at the fairgrounds.
The union says it expects any racetrack project to use local organized labor with good wages, benefits and safety standards; that the renovation include the construction of a workforce training center; that apprenticeships be made available; that taxpayers bear "no burden" from the project; and that the fairgrounds and speedway be preserved "as a county-wide public community space."
Paris Coleman recently graduated from the Music City Construction Careers training program and joined LIUNA. She tells the Nashville Banner she has family ties to the racetrack and wants to see it maintained.
"It's a core memory as a child, so I don't want to see a monumental thing be taken away, especially when there's other options to build other things around the city instead of them trying to use that land," Coleman says.
Coleman adds in a release that the racetrack "is one of the few affordable things left in this city." She says she would seek work on the racetrack renovation if it moves forward.
Track battle reignites as councilmember and advocacy groups back effort to ban racing, reverse 2011 vote
Nashville SC's Geodis Park was built and currently operates under the conditions of a community benefits agreement with local advocacy group Stand Up Nashville. It binds the franchise to promises like those being requested by LIUNA for the racetrack next door. But the state legislature has since banned CBAs for companies that have received state economic incentives.
The Charter Revision Commission will meet Tuesday to consider the anti-racing group's petition. The petition campaign would need to gather signatures from 10 percent of Davidson County's registered voters to get the question on the ballot.
John Ingram — primary owner Nashville SC — publicly backed the charter referendum push last month. Metro Councilmember Terry Vo, who represents the fairgrounds area, supports the anti-racing petition campaign. But Mayor Freddie O'Connell has expressed skepticism, especially about the referendum group's call for affordable housing to be built on the site of the track. (LIUNA Local 386 endorsed both Vo and O’Connell in 2023.)
“We’ve got 526 square miles to use for potential housing and only 100 acres of fairgrounds," the mayor told reporters last month. "It would almost be like suggesting that we tear down Wave Country and build affordable housing there.”
O'Connell said his office “has been keeping our doors open for the best possible ideas that are most protective of taxpayers.”
In a press release, LIUNA says it agrees with O'Connell that housing can be built elsewhere, while also expressing "concerns about the motivations behind the referendum, noting that it is being funded by a billionaire who, they say, has shown little regard for the needs of working families and everyday Nashvillians."
“The Nashville Fairgrounds and Speedway have always been a place where working Nashvillians could gather, celebrate, and participate without being priced out,” LIUNA official Ethan Link says in the release. “Any development on public land should protect affordable, accessible spaces, create good local jobs, and make sure the people who live and work here are the ones who benefit.”
Speedway Motorsports LLC — which owns Bristol Motor Speedway, Nashville Superspeedway in Wilson County and other tracks around the country — struck a deal in 2021 with then-Mayor John Cooper to renovate the Fairgrounds Speedway with the goal of luring top-tier NASCAR races to the track for the first time in decades. O'Connell, then a member of Metro Council, did not support the deal, saying, "We can’t focus on what is being referred to as a ‘neglected’ tourism venue before we focus on our neglected neighborhoods."
Negotiations continued after O’Connell’s 2023 election victory, with the administration contending that the track is in need of repair and protected by the Metro Charter.
In August, it appeared that the shelved deal could be back on, as Metro Board of Fair Commissioners Chair Jasper Hendricks said an agreement between Metro and Speedway Motorsports would be ready to announce in the coming days. No deal was announced, and Hendricks was hit with a warning for ethical violations related to the racetrack negotiations later in the year.
Board issues warning to Jasper Hendricks, recommends training and disclosure in racetrack case
When then-Mayor Karl Dean sought to redevelop the fairgrounds, facility supporters launched a referendum campaign making it harder for city officials to demolish any part of the city-owned property. That charter amendment passed by a 2-to-1 margin.
"In a city as dynamic and diverse as Nashville, public opinion has changed dramatically since voters last weighed in on the fairgrounds back in 2011," Fairgrounds Preservation Partners co-founder Mike Kopp, a supporter of the referendum, said in a release last month. "It’s overdue time for Nashvillians to once again have their say-so in a city that needs more green space, more affordable housing, and clean waterways. Public-opinion research shows that, when given the option, our citizens will choose common-sense community and public-policy priorities.”
This article first appeared on Nashville Banner and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
