Mayor John Cooper will try to pass a new city deal with Speedway Motorsports, the regional track operator that runs Bristol Motor Speedway, to bring NASCAR to The Fairgrounds Nashville before he leaves office. Cooper’s agreement with Speedway — hammered out over the past few years — appeared to stop and start several times over the course of his term.
In March, the deal narrowly passed the Fair Commission over vocal opposition from neighbors. For the deal to pass this term, it will have to pass on three required readings over the span of four Metro Council meetings in July and August. Neighborhood groups have fought track expansion, relaying fears about noise and the track's event schedule. A final cost for the track expansion has not been made public, but the city budgeted $164 million for debt service over the 30-year life of the lease in March. The mayor's office and Speedway Motorsports tout new sound-mitigation measures and have described the deal as a strong investment for Nashville.
"Mayor Cooper is optimistic that later this summer council will review and approve this unique opportunity to bring private investment to a part of the fairgrounds that has been neglected and forgotten for years," says TJ Ducklo, a communications adviser for Cooper, in a written statement to the Scene. "The proposed agreement, which has already been approved by the Fair Board, shifts facility improvement and ongoing maintenance costs from Metro to Bristol, while not increasing racing at the fairgrounds."
The mayor’s office filed its proposed lease and associated documents for council consideration Friday afternoon. At the same time, Metro Legal Director Wally Dietz is litigating against a new state law that seeks to lower the bar for council approval for the project from 27 votes to 21 votes. The city plans to recoup its money via sales taxes collected on site, advertising and sponsorship revenue, ticket taxes, gross revenue sharing and yearly payments from Speedway and the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp. Metro will receive $17 million from the state of Tennessee and $17 million from NCVC for the racetrack buildout.
The mayor needs council approval to issue a new round of bonds to finance the project. The council will have its first chance to publicly debate the legislation in July. Current Metro law requires the councilmember in whose district the property is located to convene a public meeting ahead of the body’s vote. The mayor’s legislation seeks to amend that provision, allowing Vice Mayor Jim Shulman to choose a councilmember to convene the required public meeting if District 17’s Colby Sledge is “unable or unwilling to do so within the time required” by law. Sledge did not respond to the Scene's request for comment.
Shulman tells the Scene that, last he heard, Sledge and the mayor’s office were trying to nail down a time. The council can’t consider the legislation until that community meeting has occurred.
“We can’t do anything on it until after we pass the budget,” Shulman tells the Scene. “It will come up for first reading June 6 but will be pulled off the calendar — we can’t take it up because of the operations budget. It will be referred to the July 6 meeting.” The council can’t approve new bonds until the city has passed next year’s operating budget.
Representatives from the South Nashville Action People (SNAP), 12South Neighborhood Association and Chestnut Hill Neighborhood Association released a statement opposing the track expansion earlier this year. A few months ago, thousands of Nashvillians came home to flyers from anti-racetrack group Citizens Against Racetrack Expansion for Nashville.
Cooper's senior adviser Ben Eagles helped shepherd the deal through the Fair Board, where it faced questions about noise levels, events scheduling and financial sturdiness. In support of the NASCAR buildout, Eagles points to the fairgrounds’ long history of racing and the legal requirement, enshrined in the charter by a 2011 referendum, that racing continue at the site.
