Grand Prix of Nashville, pitched for Nissan Stadium, takes step forward

Joey Garrison | The Tennessean

Show Caption Hide Caption Grand Prix of Nashville, pitched for Nissan Stadium, takes step forward Nashville would be the home to an annual Grand Prix motor race, billed as a five-day party leading up to race day on Sunday, under a proposal from a group of heavyweight racing investors.

Grand Prix auto-racing outside Nissan Stadium?

Nashville would be home to an annual Motorsports Grand Prix event, billed as a five-day party culminating with race day, in an ambitious proposal spearheaded by a group of heavyweight racing investors.

After a year of talks with Mayor Megan Barry's office, a team led by Joe Mattioli, former president of Pocono Raceway, and Matt Crews, former CEO of Baker Curb Racing, pitched their idea for the Grand Prix of Nashville to the Metro Sports Authority on Thursday.

The Grand Prix of Nashville's 1.72-mile racing track would be installed using temporary buffers and grandstands on the parking lots surrounding Metro-owned Nissan Stadium, home of the NFL's Tennessee Titans, and on Interstate Drive.

The event would be more than just racing.

The group has hopes for an action-packed slate of events beginning on a Wednesday leading up to the main race Sunday including a downtown street festival, riverfront concert, a celebrity race, a drone race, autograph sessions with drivers, a gala for charities, and other festivities.

Although the group lacks an agreement with an auto-racing sanctioning body, the organizers want to begin the event in 2019.

"Our goal at the Grand Prix of Nashville is to build on past successes like this past weekend," said Crews, executive vice president of the Grand Prix of Nashville, pointing to the massive crowd that descended downtown for the NHL's Stanley Cup Final and CMA Music Festival

"Nashville throws a great party," he added. "Like this recently Stanley Cup has shown us, and like the NHL All-Star Game last year, Nashville delivers every time it is given a shot on the big stage."

Sports Authority approves MOU to begin negotiations

The sports authority voted to approve a memorandum of understanding between Metro, the racing group, called GPNTN LLC, and the Titans, which operates Nissan Stadium, that calls for the parties to begin "reasonable and good efforts" to negotiate a master agreement.

The non-binding vote — which did not obligate any financial contribution from the city — marks a preliminary step forward. Ultimately, though, the group needs to secure private funding, an estimated $2.5 million in initial commitments, and reach a contract with an auto-racing sanctioned body.

"Today, the Sports Authority authorized the organizing group behind the Grand Prix of Nashville to move forward with studying the feasibility of bringing this event to our city," Barry said in a statement.

"This could be an exciting opportunity so long as it can be done in a way that fits the community and minimizes any negative impact on residents, workers, and visitors in the area."

INDYCar, IMSA possibilities for Grand Prix of Nashville

The Grand Prix of Nashville's boosters say they're interested in partnering with either INDYCar or IMSA, which is owned by NASCAR. They said the sports authority's vote would allow those conversations to begin with those sanctioning bodies as they seek a five-year agreement.

"We are keeping our options open and having ongoing discussions," Mattioli said. "Both sanctioning bodies have strong interest about being in Nashville, but we're being very diligent about making that decision.

"Both have indicated their excitement about the market. Really, I think it's a toss-up right now."

Mattioli, of the famed Mattioli racing family, has more than 40 years of experience in track ownership and promotion including 24 years as president and CEO of Pocono Raceway. He's also a past promoter of racing at the Metro-owned Fairgrounds Nashville.

He said his team wants to model their Nashville event off the Grand Prix of Long Beach, an IndyCar series race that held its first event in 1975 and is considered one of the marquee events on the circuit.

Racing team eyes $2.5 million in initial private funds to jump-start talks

Mattioli called the Grand Prix of Nashville an "international event" that would be broadcast to a worldwide audience. And for the race weekend, he said he foreign presence of auto-racing would transform Nashville into an "Epcot village."

He likened the layout of the event proposed for Nissan Stadium to the former Washington D.C. Grand Prix that he produced around Robert F. Kennedy Stadium.

"Events is what I do," he said.

Mattioli said he's not looking for city funding for his project but added that he certainly wouldn't turn it down. He said he thinks his team could reach the $2.5 million benchmark in initial funding within the next 10 days.

"When we demonstrate that we can raise the $2.5 million, either in letters of credit, in sponsorships, etc, that's really the trigger to sit down and start the negotiations," he said. "Based on conversations, we think we're very close to having that."

Group had first looked downtown before shifting to Nissan Stadium

Other members of the Grand Prix of Nashville team include car dealer Mike Gillespie and track designer Tony Cotman, who is designing the track for the Nashville event.

Country music singer Kix Brooks and Ralph Schulz, president and CEO of the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce, attended Thursday's meeting in a show of support for the Grand Prix of Nashville.

Grand Prix of Nashville's board members include: John Hope Bryant, founder and CEO of Operation HOPE; former McDonald's CEO Ed Rensi; Rod Essig of Creative Artists Agency; racing promoter Gary Baker; Andy Moats, executive vice president at Pinnacle Financial Partners. The group is represented by attorney Charles Robert Bone, who ran unsuccessfully for Nashville mayor in 2015.

The group had originally eyed the streets of downtown Nashville on the opposite side of the Cumberland River for the circuit, but later scaled back their proposal to instead be contained in Nissan Stadium's footprint.

Bob Flynn, vice president of facilities and gameday operations for the Titans, said the organization's main focus is to ensure that everything is restored back to normal around Nissan Stadium following the race weekend.

"I think it's something that we ought to look at," Flynn said of their proposal.

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