@startleseasily is a fervent observer of the Metro government's comings and goings. In this column, "On First Reading," she'll recap the bimonthly Metro Council meetings and provide her analysis. You can find her in the pew in the corner by the mic, ready to give public comment on whichever items stir her passions. Follow her on Twitter here.
At yet another marathon meeting on Tuesday, the Metro Council voted to approve the Titans stadium deal on second reading and ... not much else.
Titans Stadium Deal (Taylor's Version)
Leading up to Tuesday’s meeting, the mayor’s administration, the Titans lobbyists, and the tourism industrial complex were working overtime to kill an amendment from Councilmember Brandon Taylor. Passed at the council’s April 4 meeting by a single vote, Taylor’s amendment to increase the user fee for non-NFL events was estimated to generate hundreds of millions of dollars for the city’s general fund over the life of the 30-year lease.
The administration and the team flagged this as a “deal killer,” and the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp — whose CEO Butch Spyridon and public affairs officer Andrea Arnold were in the gallery Tuesday night, proudly donning “Stadium YES!” stickers — solicited letters from several industry groups expressing grave concerns about the amendment. In a truly chef’s-kiss moment, Arnold was forced to update one letter to remove Live Nation as a signatory, but it appears she accidentally left a Live Nation representative’s name on the updated letter. Perhaps the irony of signing on to a letter bemoaning “unnecessarily exploitive” ticket fees proved a bridge too far for Live Nation/Ticketmaster, an industry leader in price gouging.
By Friday, a “compromise” amendment was born, sponsored by CM Jennifer Gamble, who voted for Taylor’s amendment on April 4. Gamble’s amendment cut the anticipated revenue by hundreds of millions of dollars, capping the user fee at the greater of $3 or 3 percent per ticket. It also exempted a host of marquee events from the higher user fee, including college and high school sporting events, Country Music Association events, Academy of Country Music Awards events, Grammy Awards and WWE special events like WrestleMania.
During debate over the amendment, mayor’s office staffer Mike Jameson warned the council that the choice not to acquiesce to this “compromise” would be “fatal to the entire deal.” The council heeded his warnings, voting to approve Gamble’s amendment and killing Taylor’s amendment in the process.
But was Taylor’s Version really a death knell for an otherwise expertly negotiated deal? In December, when the council first considered the term sheet for this deal, the team was a hard no on any revenue sharing. As of about 15 days ago, they had agreed to give Metro $47 million over the life of the lease for a “Nashville Needs Impact Fund,” but they could absolutely go no further than that. Between then and now, they realized they could actually part with another $120 million — the expected direct revenue generated for Metro under Gamble’s amendment. And are we to believe that’s everything? With the team taking three drastically different positions on revenue sharing in as many months, it’s no wonder some CMs are skeptical.
Don’t Let Better Be the Enemy of the Good
Throughout the night, CMs supportive of the deal yielded their time to the administration, asking questions designed to prompt bloviating about how every amendment that didn’t receive the mayor’s blessing was either unnecessary or a full-on deal killer. When supporters weren’t lobbing softballs in the direction of the administration table, they were calling the question to prematurely end debate. Watching the proceedings Tuesday night felt a hell of a lot like being on the Hill, looking on as a powerful supermajority summarily dismisses and silences the voices of their duly elected peers.
In one particularly galling instance, CM Tonya Hancock attempted to shut down debate on CM Gamble’s amendment — arguably the most heavily contested of them all — after only two speakers, including the amendment’s sponsor, got to weigh in. In recent weeks, Hancock could be found on Twitter loudly espousing her support for expelled state lawmakers Justin Jones and Justin Pearson — even generating a work of graphic design in their honor. “We’ve got to use our platforms to make a difference!” Hancock tweeted. The irony of a free-speech champion using procedural maneuvers to silence her colleagues could be funny if it weren’t so disheartening.
Trust, Don’t Verify
Time and again, amendments designed to require due diligence and provide material protections for the city against potential shenanigans by the state and the team were met with fierce resistance from the pro-stadium contingent. Discussing the team’s assertions about whether one amendment would kill the deal, CM Courtney Johnston called on her colleagues to “take what people are saying at face value.” CM Bob Nash spoke of “negotiations in good faith” that have yielded a “great deal” for Nashville. And CM Russ Pulley thanked the Titans for “allowing our exit” out of the current “bad deal.”
Why is it that so many members of this council seem perfectly willing to assume the best intentions for everyone except their own colleagues? Stadium proponents repeatedly accused opponents of deliberately trying to kill the deal out of misdirected spite over the state’s various overreaches. Is it so unimaginable to them that their colleagues might just be trying to get the best possible deal for their constituents?
In the end, the only amendments approved by the council were those sanctioned by the mayor’s office and the Titans. The deal heads to its third and final reading at a special-called meeting Tuesday, April 25. Before they vote that evening, the council will hold a public hearing, limited to four hours equally divided among proponents and opponents of the deal.
Next week's meeting will mark the seventh council meeting in five weeks. Granted, two of those took place on the same day, but we simply cannot continue at this pace. I hereby call on everyone to give our city a break.
