Inside Nashville’s deal to secure a new MLS stadium agreement – The Tennessean
Nashville SC owner John Ingram posed for a selfie on stage at a Lower Broadway honky-tonk late last week. Behind him, a crowd of fans sported the club’s blue and gold team colors.
He stood alongside MLS Commissioner Don Garber and Nashville SC Chief Executive Officer Ian Ayre, who held the outstretched selfie stick to fit into the frame the boisterous fans, staying warm with Fireball whiskey shots.
The rally for the team’s inaugural season Thursday night had become a full-blown celebration, a tone that could have been much different if the day had played out differently and one more reminiscent of when they first secured a franchise in late 2017.
The rally could have instead been a gloomy affair.
About 12 hours earlier, Ingram was having breakfast with Garber at downtown’s Omni Hotel when he got the news. He raised his coffee mug for a toast: A new deal was inked.
Mayor John Cooper and the team announced in a joint statement later that morning an agreement was finally reached for the MLS stadium at The Fairgrounds Nashville.
Attorneys for Ingram and the city worked well into the evening the night before to finalize a deal that largely resembled the details that were released in late January, when the league and team went public with their frustrations that Cooper had held off since October on allowing demolition to take place to make way for the stadium.
“I’m so glad we’ve reached a better deal for Nashville,” Cooper said in a statement. “This deal saves the taxpayers money and provides a better site plan for the Fairgrounds. Today is an exciting step forward for sports in Nashville and I’m ready for the first Nashville SC game on February 29th.”
The city will issue $225 million in bonds for the stadium and pay $25 million for related infrastructure — as it had promised in 2017 when a stadium deal was first brokered allowing Nashville to secure an MLS expansion franchise.
But Cooper, who as a council member voted against the initial deal, wanted more concessions. To accommodate the mayor’s demands, the team will pay $54 million more in potential expenses: $19 million more for infrastructure and $35 million for stadium debt payments the city was previously on the hook for if sales and ticket revenues came up short.
The team will pay for all overrun costs on the stadium, which is now estimated to cost $335 million in total.
Details of the so-called “Parcel 8C,” the 2.4 acres closest to the Fairgrounds Speedway racetrack that had been at the center of the impasse, are up for future deliberation.
It will remain as part of a 10-acre mixed-use development that’s part of the stadium project, but will account for an “open plaza” that highlights multiple operations at the fairgrounds.
Exactly what will go on the parcel and how that plaza will look remain unknown as the “statement of principles” agreed to by both parties leaves lingering questions and flexibility. Cooper had sought to remove the parcel in its entirety to make a “multi-functional” plaza-like space that links two 30,000-seat stadiums — soccer and auto racing.
Ingram said full removal was impossible without affecting the team’s community benefits agreement with Stand Up Nashville. That agreement, which includes 20% affordable housing units, child care services and a community incubator space at the development, will stay intact.
The plan could involve reallocating some or all of the development on the parcel, whether via density redistribution or another parcel all together, both of which could require further approval from Metro planning, codes and council members.
“We have an agreement in principle to develop it. We will develop it. And it will have buildings on it and hopefully it will have green space,” Ingram told reporters in a briefing before Thursday’s event.
Cooper earlier in the day said he’s looking forward to good-faith conversations to have an open space linking the two venues.
“I have to make that extra effort to create the kind of public space — connecting to greenways — that we’re going to expect out of a well-designed city going forward,” he said.
The plans for the site still faces questions from Stand Up Nashville, who have criticized officials for not being transparent with negotiations.
As part of the agreement, Cooper also agreed to support modifying a clause in the original deal that has proved a hindrance in financing the mixed-use development.
The legislation currently penalizes Nashville SC if the club fails to play a single game in a 24-month period during the first 30 years of its lease at the stadium. If the team fails to meet the terms, the 10-acre land slated for development would revert to the city.
The lease has not yet been signed by the team.
Demolition contracts were fully executed Friday, and fencing around the old expo buildings is set to go up early next week. Work will begin “immediately,” but fairgrounds officials said buildings won’t be torn down for at least a month as work to prep the site gets underway.
How the deal came together
The pressure to reach an agreement grew last week ahead of Garber’s visit to Music City for an event at Underground Nashville on Thursday.
Relations had been strenuous in recent weeks after Ingram blasted the mayor, saying the team was “out of time.” The stadium deal could not be delayed any more while waiting for a yet-to-be finalized agreement to bring NASCAR back to the Fairgrounds Speedway, he said.
Ayre said Thursday ticket sales had suffered during the stalled talks.
Cooper remained steadfast that the future of racing at The Fairgrounds Nashville is a priority and key to what he says will be the “best destination” in the city.
Cooper’s office said negotiations were “progressing well” after the acrimonious nature of the talks spilled into public.
But those familiar with the talks said communications between the two parties truly geared up after the mayor’s meeting with Gov. Bill Lee and Speedway Motorsports executives on Tuesday.
“NASCAR also came calling on Nashville,” wrote Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp. President Butch Spyridon and Nashville businessman Colin Reed in an opinion column in The Tennessean. “We were once again eager to join other leaders in beginning these conversations.”
Spyridon had personally been in several meetings with Cooper discussing possible solutions to issues surrounding the fairgrounds, including the meeting in Lee’s office, along with Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner Bob Rolfe.
Cooper declined to share with reporters specific details of the meeting with the state and in what capacity the city is asking for the state’s help in a possible racing deal.
The group has been lobbying the city and multiple mayors for more than a year on a plan that includes a 30,000-seat grandstand, an expanded concourse, premium seating, pedestrian tunnels and sound barriers at an overhauled track.
The pathway for the group, one of the nation’s top racetrack operators, remains open with the stadium deal.
In a letter to Cooper on Thursday, Speedway Motorsports CEO Marcus Smith said the “goal is within reach” based on the plans and terms they’ve discussed behind closed doors in recent months.
“I’m super interested in this,” Cooper told reporters shortly after the soccer deal was announced Thursday. “One of things that is not completed … is the funding for the Speedway at this point to be at the NASCAR level of an event.”
Racing, he said, “is very profitable for the city” and would only bring more people to the site, making it one of the top destinations in the city.
“We need to get Nashville at the point to take advantage of that,” Cooper said.
Smith said an agreement on racing would help the city get there.
Ingram told reporters Thursday there’s been no communications between the team and Speedway Motorsports, which has already been in talks with Track Enterprises, the city’s new racetrack operator.
Who was the hero of the deal?
The cheering for the final agreement spread throughout the day Thursday. The hero in the deal, however, differed on who was asked.
But indisputable is that Cooper’s renegotiation resulted in a better deal that means zero taxpayer and budget burden on stadium construction, and Ingram reaffirmed his commitment by dedicating more private dollars to the project.
“Very pleased the mayor held his ground and renegotiated the bad deal that we both voted against on Council,” council member Angie Henderson said in a statement on Twitter. “Details matter; finances matter; public space matters. No more special deals for a preferred few. As I said on his election night, new day forward.”
Cooper was an outspoken stadium critic while serving as an at-large council member. When former Mayor Megan Barry first pitched the deal, he took aim at the proposal, saying part of the vetting process will be “sorting through what’s real and not real,” pointing to Metro’s significant upfront payment.
Cooper, known as a thorn in the side of two mayors for his fiscal debates, voted against the deal — and others he questioned during his time on the council. Fiscal responsibility was a centerpiece in his campaign to unseat Mayor David Briley.
Once he entered the mayor’s office, he took time to sort through the deal, as he said it needed three years ago.
The numbers showed the stadium and infrastructure cost estimates higher than what was first approved. In the city’s bid to snag the franchise, city leaders had pushed an expedited timeline. Critics say that speedy push led to faulty initial cost estimates.
“That deal was quite frankly not implementable,” Cooper said Thursday. “I believe (the new deal) is the best available deal.”
Council member Zach Young said he was “both pleased and proud” of the news.
“Like I have said all along, the most realistic approach to the Fairgrounds is an ‘all of the above’ solution,” Young said in a statement.
“Mayor Cooper stayed true to his campaign promise of being a relentless defender of Metro’s money. As business leaders, we witnessed him transform from the ‘no deal Mayor’ to the ‘better deal Mayor,’ ” Spyridon and Reed said in their op-ed.
Cooper spent political capital and angered many on path to new deal
But before the new deal, there had been a growing chorus in the city calling for immediate demolition to allow stadium work to begin. Cooper had to spend sizable political capital to get the new deal. He angered some people along the way — including many of the city’s most prominent business leaders, the Metro Board of Fair Commissioners and a growing soccer fan base.
Many on the Metro Council had backed the original deal and grew frustrated with Cooper for continuing to stall a final deal, especially after details of the team’s concessions and his meeting with racing executives went public. At a recent council meeting, some donned Nashville SC scarves.
Council member Colby Sledge, who represents the fairgrounds area, questioned the legal liabilities the city could face with the Cooper stalling the deal.
Others called on the mayor to move his focus to other priorities facing the city.
“It’s absurd to spend more of this term re-litigating the soccer conversation in a time of crisis,” Council member Freddie O’Connell said, in a newsletter to constituents. “We have a complicated budget discussion ahead of us to resolve multiple years of fiscal tension. We are in the midst of critical transportation listening sessions. We continue to lose affordable housing by the day. In short, there’s a city to run.”
Cooper had been in the minority in voting against the stadium project but as mayor pledged to have a close working relationship with the council. The last few weeks could test that.
Then on the morning of the new agreement’s announcement, the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce collected more than 100 signatures from companies and business leaders to send a letter calling on him to move forward with the stadium.
The delay, the group argued, would harm the team and “contribute to growing concerns that Nashville may not always honor its commitments.”
The team itself launched a Build the Stadium campaign with a petition collecting 8,000 signatures of people asking Cooper to follow through on the already-approved deal. And Thursday’s event was planned where Garber was likely ready to reiterate what he had told Cooper on his visit to the MLS league’s office in New York.
The message? He would not have awarded an expansion team without the commitment made by the city to build a soccer stadium at the fairgrounds.
“I could not imagine that one person would hold up the commitments of the city and the passion of the people who live here,” Garber told reporters. “So I was surprised we were where we were and hopeful and optimistic we’d get to where we are today.”
As Ingram took the stage, he was introduced as the “man of the hour” with supporters chanting their thanks for the stadium.
Ralph Schulz, president and CEO of the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce, called the agreement “great news” for the city.
“Public-private engagement on projects like these ensures we’re building a strong region for the future,” he said.
Not all are cheering new deal
But those who have fought the stadium deal at the fairgrounds all along are not cheering. Shane Smiley, a stadium critic with the Nashville Flea Market Vendors Association, said he got so upset Thursday when he heard the news, he vomited.
He’s been rallying behind the Save Our Fairgrounds coalition, which includes flea market vendors. The group sued the city over the MLS stadium plans in September 2018, arguing the construction at the fairgrounds and the elimination of 3,500 parking spaces would make it impossible for the Nashville Flea Market to operate there, as is required under the Metro Charter.
“The fairgrounds have been a community gathering space since 1891. The mixed-use development carved from the heart of the fairgrounds for the profit of a group of billionaires disrespects the intent of the facility and interferes with the charter protected uses,” Smiley told The Tennessean.
The group has supported Cooper’s stance on the mixed-use development and holding off on demolition.
But with the new deal, demolition is set to happen before Save Our Fairgrounds’ ongoing lawsuit to block the soccer stadium plays out.
Attorney Jim Roberts, who is leading the lawsuit, planned to file an injunction Friday to stop the demolition from happening.
“We’re obviously very disappointed,” he said. “We know Mayor Cooper knows this is a bad deal. Turning a horrible deal into a bad deal doesn’t change the fact that it’s illegal and violates the Metro Charter.”
The group won an appeal, and now a judge has ordered a trial. A hearing is set for Friday to select a date. Nashville SC has filed a motion to intervene in the case.
“They’re going to wish they hadn’t done this,” Roberts said. “We’re prepared to fight this to the bloody end.”
Yihyun Jeong covers politics in Nashville. Reach her at yjeong@tennessean.com and follow her on Twitter @yihyun_jeong.
Published 11:00 PM EST Feb 15, 2020
