After a yearlong buildup, Nashville’s bid for a Major League Soccer franchise has reached a decisive moment as the Metro Council takes up a plan Tuesday to use municipal bonds to pay for a $275 million stadium at the city’s fairgrounds.

For Nashville’s MLS ownership group, led by billionaire businessman John Ingram, securing the stadium financing would mean meeting all the requirements asked of them by the league to land one of two expansion franchises MLS plans to award in December.

For Mayor Megan Barry, who has partnered with Ingram on the project, Tuesday stands as her first major test with the council — and her first verdict on a series of big-ticket items she pushing that includes a sweeping mass transit plan.

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To get the stadium through, she must overcome some lingering concerns from council members, fueled primarily by a plan to give the MLS team's owners 10 acres of land around the stadium to privately develop.

Tuesday presents some major questions for Nashville: Will the city help bankroll its fourth city-owned sports facility? Is Nashville willing to pay millions to become a soccer city? And after years of controversy about the future of the fairgrounds, will Metro leaders finally find a way to redevelop it?

Here’s what’s at stake Tuesday, where potential pitfalls for the stadium plan linger, and what happens next if the stadium is approved.

What they’re voting on

Although the total price tag for the 27,500-seat stadium is $275 million, the vote Tuesday is to issue $225 million in revenue bonds. Other votes would remain, but this is the key one. Its approval would signal to MLS that Nashville’s stadium is secured.

The resolution needs just a simple majority in the council to pass.

The council’s Budget and Finance Committee and two other committees will take up the resolution on Monday night, perhaps previewing how the final vote Tuesday could unfold.

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Under the financing plan, the ownership team led by Ingram — majority owner of Nashville Soccer Club — would pay $25 million up front and $9 million a year over 30 years to help retire Metro’s annual $13 million debt for the project. Revenue from sales tax generated from the stadium as well as $1.75 ticket tax is designed to cover the remaining $4 million. Metro would be on the hook if revenues fall short.

Later, Barry’s administration plans to later ask the council to approve two separate $25 million general obligation bond transactions to pay for fairgrounds improvements and infrastructure work.

Resistance to 10-acre private development could cost votes

Criticism over a 10-acre private mixed-use development that’s part of the stadium plan has fueled the most pushback. Concerns from some council members remain unaddressed after a substitute resolution presented by Barry on Thursday kept the private development in the deal.

Under the plan, Ingram and minority owners — which includes Steve and Jay Turner of the development group MarketStreet Enterprises — would lease 10 acres of city-owned fairgrounds land for 99 years to develop. This would be in addition to eight acres where the stadium would sit.

Skeptics say Metro is already sacrificing enough city land to build the stadium. Full development details remain unavailable, but the plans calls for a mix of affordable and market-rate housing, retail and restaurants, office and commercial space and a hotel. Half of the development's property tax revenue would go toward fairgrounds upgrades.

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Ingram and the mayor’s office have not budged amid the criticism, arguing the development is essential for the deal to work and to improve the experience for fans.

But it could cost them votes. Councilman Jeremy Elrod has filed an amendment that would remove the private development from the project. At-Large council members John Cooper, Bob Mendes and Jim Shulman, as well as the Budget and Finance Committee chairwoman Tanaka Vercher, have each questioned the private development component publicly.

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The private development is a potential pitfall, but will it add up to enough votes to kill the bond resolution?

It’s unclear whether the opposition extends beyond just a faction of council members.

Owner guaranties criticized as well

A revised bond resolution released by Barry added some new specifics to owner guaranty language in the proposed stadium deal. But the proposal still only identifies the team owner’s legal entity, Nashville Soccer Holdings LLC, as the guarantor.

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Some council members had asked for the agreement to include the names of individual owners to protect Metro in case the league goes under, Ingram were to leave the ownership group, or the owners are unable to deliver on required payments or construction overruns.

The owner-guarantee issue could be cited by some on the council who vote against the project.

Nashville’s prospects to land an MLS team soar if stadium is approved

Nashville wouldn’t be guaranteed a franchise if the stadium is approved, but it could become the favorite along with Sacramento to win one of the two bids MLS intends to announce next month.

Of the 12 cities vying for MLS teams, MLS commissioner Don Garber has singled out Nashville, Sacramento, Detroit and Cincinnati as places that have shined during the expansion process.

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Sacramento is widely considered a shoo-in to land one of the two teams, having already secured a stadium deal. Multiple cities among the group of 12 have either struggled on the stadium front or not finished deals, including Cincinnati and Detroit.

In a last-minute shift, Detroit has now offered up Ford Field, home of the NFL’s Detroit Lions, for a future MLS franchise, abandoning efforts for a soccer-specific stadium, which MLS has said is part of its expansion criteria.

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If MLS stands by that requirement — MLS has said the league “continues to prioritize soccer-specific stadiums" — then Nashville should have a clear leg up if its financing is approved Tuesday.

It would cap a meteoric rise after starting the expansion process as an underdog.

And if Nashville isn’t awarded a team in December, Music City would be an overwhelming favorite to be one of the next two expansion franchises awarded in 2018.

What happens if the bond resolution is approved Tuesday?

Approval of the resolution does not automatically trigger the issuance of the bonds. Instead, Nashville would need to be awarded a franchise before the Nashville Sports Authority is authorized to sell the bonds.

In addition, the Metro fair board would need to finalize a long-term stadium ground lease with the sports authority, which would own the stadium.

Before debt is issued, the council would have to approve by 27 votes a proposal to demolish existing buildings from the site to make way for the stadium. The fair board would have to sign off on infrastructure improvements.

Future votes await

If Nashville is awarded an MLS franchise, the council would later take up a capital-spending plan authorizing $25 million in public infrastructure related to the stadium and $25 million for fairgrounds upgrades.

Both would be paid for by general obligation bonds.

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The mayor's office would later file legislation to demolish aging builds from the fairgrounds site that are on the stadium's future footprint.

At some point in 2018, the Barry administration and owners would file a bill to re-zone fairgrounds property for the stadium project.

What if the Metro Council votes no?

Nashville would be eliminated as a contender for the December round of MLS expansion if the council votes against the stadium bond resolution.

It would be back to the drawing board for Ingram and Barry to try to rework a stadium deal that could pass before MLS announces two more expansion cities later next year.

Supporters versus critics

Barry and Ingram received a big boost from soccer enthusiasts on Oct. 24, when a large number of soccer fans, recreational players and others packed a public hearing on the stadium, far outnumbering opponents.

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Vocal criticism has come from longtime supporters of the city’s fairgrounds, many who hold lingering mistrust from when former-Mayor Karl Dean unsuccessfully tried to redevelop the fairgrounds in 2010 and 2011. Barry has promised to retain existing uses — auto racing, an annual state fair and flea market and expo center events — but critics see the stadium and private development plan as a way to bulldoze the fairgrounds.

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Save Our Fairgrounds — which had offered “conditional support” for the project — on Friday announced that it now opposes the MLS project. The group has also been critical of plans to build a city park on floodplain property.

How we got here

Nashville was awarded a United Soccer League franchise, Nashville Soccer Club, in May 2016. Three months later, Nashville businessman Bill Hagerty — the current U.S. ambassador to Japan — launched a 22-member MLS steering committee of business heavyweights to begin pitching MLS to come to Music City.

Ingram, chairman of Ingram Industries and part of the prominent Ingram family in Nashville, bought rights to be the lead investor of Nashville's MLS bid last

December. MLS named Nashville one of 12 cities in contention in January.

Nashville's expansion efforts were helped this summer with record-setting crowds at a CONCACAF Gold Cup soccer match and English Premier League games at Nissan Stadium.The Ingram-led ownership group expanded with the additions of Nashville's Turner family and the Wilf family, owners of the Minnesota Vikings.

Soccer in the meantime

Nashville SC, which plays in the second-tier United Soccer League, is set to begin play at First Tennessee Park in the spring.

The Nashville SC club would elevate to become Nashville's MLS organization if Nashville is awarded a team.

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The next round of MLS expansion teams are to begin play in 2020, meaning Nashville's MLS team would have to play one year at a temporary stadium site, perhaps First Tennessee Park. The team would move into the new fairgrounds stadium in 2021.

Proposed MLS stadium by the numbers

Overall project cost: $275 million

Stadium construction cost: $250 million

Capacity: 27,500

Acres on the fairground site: 8

Value of stadium footprint: Approximately $15 million, according to a Metro appraisal

Value of 10 acres for private development: Approximately $11 million

Targeted opening date: 2021

Location: Fairgrounds Nashville, south of downtown, 625 Smith Avenue, Nashville, TN 37203

Reach Joey Garrison at 615-259-8236, jgarrison@tennessean.com and on Twitter @Joeygarrison.

What they’re voting on: $225 million in revenue bonds to help pay for the $275 million stadium project. Votes on two separate $25 million general obligation bonds would come later.

Critics point to private development: The proposal also includes a 10-acre private development. Critics say the city is already giving up too much land. Will this cost key votes?

Owner guarantees: The resolution up for a vote Tuesday includes guarantees on what the team owners must pay the city. But the language only names the team's legal entity and not the individual owners.

What happens if the bonds are approved: The bonds would not immediately be issued. Nashville would still need to win a franchise. Plus, the city would need to raze some fairgrounds buildings, something that requires 27 Metro Council votes.