The Tennessee Titans will announce details of a “community benefits platform” at a press conference on Thursday at Tennessee State University. Public scrutiny about a new facility that will be paid for with substantial government subsidies has followed a Monday press conference in which the team, along with Mayor John Cooper, confirmed the parties had reached an agreement on new lease terms. Budgeted at $2.1 billion, the new facility would be the second-most-expensive stadium in the world.
In a media advisory, the Titans explain that representatives of the team will appear with “many local community partners” to detail a “community benefits platform and programs overview.”
“As we recommit ourselves to this community, we want to make sure that we’re being as impactful in the community as possible,” Titans spokesperson Kate Guerra tells the Scene. “Our mission statement is to ‘Win, Serve and Entertain’ — that service part is crucial. On Thursday, we’re excited to talk about some of those conversations with those partners.” Guerra declined to name which partners the team was working with.
A spate of community benefits could blunt pushback from residents skeptical of the multibillion-dollar project, which will go up next to Nissan Stadium, the team’s current home, though further details have not been announced. The language mirrors that of the community benefits agreement signed between Nashville SC owners and local nonprofit Stand Up Nashville during negotiations over the MLS team’s new stadium, since named Geodis Park. Organizers and residents also sought a CBA from Cypress Real Estate Advisors, a Texas-based real estate firm redeveloping the former site of RiverChase Apartments in McFerrin Park. Negotiations between Stand Up Nashville and CREA fell apart last month. An initial kerfuffle between loosely aligned nonprofits turned into a full-blown schism by Oct. 4, when Stand Up Nashville organized around the Metro Council’s public comment period to oppose a community benefits agreement between CREA and the Urban League of Nashville and Middle Tennessee.
Guerra dismisses the difference between a CBA and the team’s forthcoming community benefits platform as semantics. “We’re not just going to have one agreement," she says. "We’re going to have a lot of agreements with each of these partners that commit ourselves to supporting and investing in each of them.”
The announcement is scheduled for 1 p.m. at TSU’s Farrell-Westbrook Agricultural Complex on Thursday, Oct. 20.
