An unannounced community meeting could bump Mayor John Cooper’s NASCAR hopes to next term, delaying a deal with regional track operator Speedway Motorsports — which operates Bristol Motor Speedway — that lacks support among his potential successors. The council can’t consider Cooper’s proposed lease, filed in late May, until after it passes the 2024 budget and has held a community meeting about the proposal.
Council Director Margaret Darby confirms to the Scene that District 17 Metro Councilmember Colby Sledge has scheduled that meeting for July 25, leaving just two council meetings to consider legislation that needs to pass three readings. The scheduling pileup has resulted from competing legislative priorities — like the mayor’s push to approve a $2.2 billion stadium for the Tennessee Titans — and left little time for the office, lobbyists and Speedway Motorsports to push through the 30-year agreement. Metro has no final cost estimation for the track overhaul, but documents presented by the mayor’s office to the Fair Board, which narrowly approved the deal in March, budgeted $164 million for debt service on the project.
Metro law stipulates that the council could not consider the NASCAR deal until the sitting district councilmember — Sledge — has convened a public meeting. When it filed the deal in late May, the mayor’s office included a loophole that would allow any member to call the requisite community meeting. Since the loophole is included in the NASCAR legislation, the loophole itself cannot be considered until after Sledge calls a community meeting, according to multiple lawyers and sources familiar with Metro procedure.
Vice Mayor Jim Shulman, who’s running for reelection, has little to gain by corralling colleagues for extra work on a controversial deal late in the terms in order to appease a lame-duck mayor. The deal’s proximity and unfavorable resemblance to the Titans stadium — a favorite punching bag for mayoral candidates — has soured councilmembers on tourism and development deals. Many representatives describe a “deal fatigue” in the chamber. Proponents on Thursday shared a poll whose findings have been disputed by opponents. Ongoing litigation has yet to determine what vote threshold the deal would need to pass council.
Darby tells the Scene that publicizing the July 25 meeting now rests with Speedway Motorsports.Â
“Information about the July 25 community meeting scheduled by Councilmember Sledge has not yet been posted on the Metro website,” Darby writes to the Scene. “Pursuant to MCL 2.24.230, all other notice is to be prepared and provided by the intended lessee.”
Councilmember Sledge has not responded to multiple requests for comment from the Scene. The mayor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
