Nashville MLS stadium: Fairgrounds presses Mayor Cooper to 'decouple' stadium talks from racing

The Metro Board of Fair Commissioners is calling on Mayor John Cooper to move forward with the Major League Soccer stadium and to "decouple" talks with racing at Fairgrounds Nashville.

Commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday to write a formal letter to encourage Cooper to follow through on the already approved $335 million stadium.

The vote came following conversations behind closed doors with Metro legal during a rare executive session by the board at its monthly meeting.

"We've got to get this done," Fair Board Commissioner Jason Bergeron said. "We went through a very public MLS process, the council approved it and the (fair board) approved it multiple times."

The deal, he said, should not be stalled for a deal the city has not yet made with Speedway Motorsports, a group that has made a $60 million pitch to renovate the speedway to bring NASCAR back to Nashville.

"We need to decouple any notion of racing from this right now ... that process hasn't even started because (Speedway Motorsports) has failed to engage," Bergeron said.

Cooper's spokesperson Chris Song said negotiations with Nashville SC's ownership group is "progressing well" and that the administration looks forward to announcing an agreement soon.

"The Mayor’s Office is intent on a responsible, successful site plan for the Fairgrounds. Metro’s commitment to the stadium deal has never been in question," Song said in a statement.

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Talks spill into public view

But just two days ago, Nashville SC started a petition and urged soccer fans to lobby Cooper to allow construction to begin on the club's 30,000-seat stadium at the fairgrounds.

In an email sent to supporters Sunday night, Nashville SC urged supporters to join its "Build The Stadium" campaign.

The club plans to take things a step further Thursday when it hosts league commissioner Don Garber for a panel discussion regarding the stadium and the future of MLS in front of Nashville SC fans.

Talks of a new, highly-anticipated MLS deal went public late January after Nashville SC majority owner John Ingram and the league released a joint-statement expressing "deep disappointment" that Cooper is holding up progress on the deal.

The team took public details of the talks with Cooper, saying the team offered to cover $54 million more in potential expenses to accommodate the mayor's demands. Those include $19 million for infrastructure work related to the stadium and taking on all debt payments for the stadium, including $35 million the city was on the hook for if ticket and sales tax revenue falls short.

But at the crux of the impasse is the 10-acre mixed-use development — specifically the parcel closest to Fairgrounds Speedway — that is part of the stadium deal.

Speedway Motorsports has said the close proximity of the proposed development to the racetrack makes the flow in and out of the track nearly impossible and creates a potential public safety issue. Nashville SC has agreed to redesign 100 feet of the parcel next to the racetrack.

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Cooper, who has held off approving demolition since October, has not said publicly if he supports a deal with Speedway Motorsports, and his office says the deal remains under review. His office told The Tennessean last week that the city and the state are in talks with a group interested in the racetrack.

The group went public with their plans in May after the fair board pressed them to "bring a real proposal to the table" after talks between Speedway Motorsports and former Mayor David Briley's administration went on behind closed doors, keeping the public and the fair board in the dark.

"They went back into hiding," Bergeron said Tuesday, saying he has "serious doubts" about partnering with the group for the site's racetrack.

In a statement Tuesday, Bristol Motor Speedway executive vice president Jerry Caldwell said the group has remains optimistic that the fair board commissioners and Cooper will be supportive of a partnership to update the city's speedway.

The group, he said, has done thing they've been asked to do and met with everyone they've been asked to meet with.

“We’ve presented the city – Mayor Cooper and the Fair Board – with a plan to restore the historic speedway and give it an economically viable future. In meetings with Mayor Cooper, his team and other city officials during the past several weeks, we've been asked to evaluate different operating scenarios and have provided information to the city as requested," Caldwell said in a statement to The Tennessean.

Bristol Motor Speedway, he said, became excited about its future in Nashville after it was awarded the MLS franchise and committed to building a new soccer stadium.

"It is within the city's reach to have a thriving multi-use sports and entertainment complex to create a true landmark for the city," he said.

Start demolition work, fair board member says

Fair Board Commissioner Caleb Hemmer previously called on Cooper to start demolition as a good-faith move after the "very tense situation" with the public back-and forth between Cooper and the team in recent weeks.

Hemmer asked the mayor to consider immediately signing demolition paperwork, calling the old buildings at the site "obsolete." They need to come down to make way for the stadium.

The old expo buildings are no longer in use by the fairgrounds, and utilities have already been prepared for demolition. With no historical significance and salvage, they need to be removed regardless, Hemmer said.

The fair board reiterated that moving forward with demolition would signal a "good-faith" effort by Cooper to Nashville SC, MLS officials and Nashville residents.

Commissioner Erin McAnally, who the board voted would write the letter on behalf of the board, said the issue went beyond the stadium deal.

"It's not just about soccer. ... We have responsibility to this property," she said.

"I feel like there is a lot of momentum here," said Commissioner Bonna Johnson. "As a board, we are wanting to move forward."

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Nashville SC moves into court

Meanwhile, Nashville SC's ownership group wants to step into the fray of an ongoing effort by Save Our Fairgrounds to stop construction the stadium. The team filed a motion in chancery court Friday arguing it has a right to intervene in Save Our Fairgrounds lawsuit, saying it could lose its team if the effort is successful.

Save Our Fairgrounds, which includes Nashville Flea Market vendors, is arguing the stadium deal violates the Metro Charter and that the construction at the fairgrounds and the elimination of 3,500 parking spaces would make it impossible for the flea market to operate there.​

The request for intervention by the team comes as the lawsuit heads into a new phase, with a potential trial on the horizon.

In a written order filed Feb. 5, a judge ruled the case can proceed to trial and a hearing is set for Friday to select a date.

The judge's ruling recognized that the soccer stadium is an allowed use of Fairgrounds Nashville, by recognizing the agreement between the city and the ownership group.

Save Our Fairgrounds President Duane Dominy said it was wrong for the fair board to encourage Cooper to move forward with work on the stadium before the legal fight plays out.

"Moving forward while there's a lawsuit determining whether or not they violated the charter ... is that appropriate? It could cost them a lot of money," Dominy said after the meeting Tuesday.

The fairgrounds, he said, does not have the ability to host a fair, as required by Metro Charter.

But the Tennessee State Fair manager, Scott Jones, said Tuesday the fair is planning to come back to the location in this year. He said he remains optimistic but has questions regarding logistics.

Council member also calls for demolition

Legal questions by the fair board come after Council member Colby Sledge, who represents the fairgrounds area, asked the Cooper administration to provide legal opinion on what authority the mayor has to hold up demolition and what liabilities the city could face by stalling or not following through on the already approved deal.

Metro Law Director Bob Cooper, in response, said the mayor's executive authority gives him the discretion to "determine the appropriate time to proceed with procurement contracts," including the demolition contract at the fairgrounds.

While discretion is not "unlimited," he said the mayor has not "abused" this authority at this time.

Law Director Cooper declined to comment on Metro's legal liability, citing attorney-client privilege and not providing the team any "confidential and valuable" information.

Now, Sledge is leading a separate effort to push through demolition work and jump start construction. Metro Council will consider legislation next week that, if approved, would validate the demolition contract without Cooper's signature.

Dominy told reporters Tuesday that council members are attempting to operate "outside the law."

"They want to ignore the fact that there's a lawsuit pending to determine whether or not their actions are void, if in fact they violated the charter," he said.

At-large Council member Steve Glover called the legislation a "bad move and a slippery slope."

"It is literally bypassing the mayor and department heads," he said. "It's scary to me that the legislative body can go ahead and not rework how deals are done."

Glover said he opposed moving forward with demolition until all legal questions play out.

Yihyun Jeong covers politics in Nashville for USA TODAY NETWORK - TENNESSEE. Reach her at yjeong@tennessean.com and follow her on Twitter @yihyun_jeong.