There is a lot of noise emanating from Fairgrounds Speedway Nashville these days.

Some of it has racing fans filled with anticipation over a discussed NASCAR return to Music City, while an equal amount concerns political infighting between the Metro Fair Board and the Formosa family that holds a multiyear agreement to host racing at the historic Tennessee venue.

Like most things in racing, politics or life, the situation at Nashville is complicated.

The most common questions from fans are: "Will NASCAR come back in 2021 or is the city going to build around the speedway for Major League Soccer utilities?"

Both outcomes are plausible and the next several months are going to be hugely important for racing’s long-term future at Walsh and Craighead.

There are a lot of questions and I’m going to try to answer as many of them as possible here:

Are forces within the NASCAR industry still working to negotiate a return to Fairgrounds Speedway Nashville?

Yes.

Executives from both Speedway Motorsports, Inc. and Bristol Motor Speedway have routinely met with the mayor since this process first began during the winter of 2017.

The race track itself, owned by the City of Nashville, requires funding for upgrades just to be NASCAR compatible. There is also the no small matter of the Nashville Soccer Club stadium details to be worked out and how the race track would coexist with the stadium and a revamped entertainment complex.

As it stands, the shortest-term plan calls for a single NASCAR weekend at Nashville in addition to the slate of monthly racing at the facility.

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Why is the fair board saying Speedway Motorsports hasn’t offered a real proposal?

Speedway Motorsports and the Formosa family are starting at the top, and that means the mayor’s office.

Should SMI and Mayor David Briley reach the framework of an agreement, the Fair Board would presumably take on a greater role in the process of shaping what this relationship would look like.

The Nashville Tennessean newspaper reported that SMI pitched a plan that called for $54 million in bond payments and $2 million in cash from the city to revitalize the speedway, but Briley rejected it, citing a desire to not use public funding.

By all reported accounts, the mayor insists on private funding as part of any proposal.

The board would like to be more privy to these negotiations, and it also wants to see a proposal that doesn’t call for taxpayer money. The fair board also already has plans to revamp the speedway and the surrounding area and simply wants to know if those plans are changing.

The following statement was provided to Autoweek by Bristol Motor Speedway president Jerry Caldwell. Bristol is the SMI venue closest to the Nashville market and a sort of liaison for the process. It details the current strategy SMI has in working to bring NASCAR back to the Music City.

That strategy appears to be something closer to a private-public joint-effort.

“Our very first step has been to engage Mayor Briley to explore potential renovation of the speedway that would allow major races to return to Nashville,” Caldwell said. “This renovation can be accomplished through a cooperative partnership by utilizing revenues from increased activity at the fairgrounds and private investment without the use of current metro tax dollars.

“Recognizing that the city has an obligation to maintain their racetrack long into the future, we are offering an opportunity for private partnership that delivers an attractive, long-term solution to improve a historic, public treasure that has been in decline in recent years.

“We look forward to sharing our proposal with the fair board, Councilman (Colby) Sledge and the neighboring community. We are confident that this partnership will achieve a brighter, more successful future for the speedway, the fairgrounds and the community. We appreciate interest by the mayor and fair board so far because in the end we all want the same thing: a first-class facility.”

Keep in mind that the city itself owns the race track, so it’s challenging to ask SMI to carry the full weight of revitalizing a track it doesn’t own, while at the same time, the city has not always shown a willingness to want to revitalize the track on its own.

In fact, there have always been forces within city government that would rather shut the track down, especially in light of Major League Soccer coming to town. These politicians believe that NASCAR represents the old Nashville and MLS represents the new progressive vision for the city.

Others believe having soccer and stock car racing as the anchors of a multipurpose entertainment facility could be viable for both visions, and a revenue-generating one at that.

One proposal has the race track paying for itself using revenue generated from NASCAR events by way of a ticket tax, where the fans who attend would therefor be responsible for upgrades.

As of mid-April, the various stakeholders are still negotiating what form the race track funding would take.

What’s up with the rendering that circulated on social media last week?

The photo at the top of the story, with a revamped race track next to the $275 million stadium, was first publicly shared by Autoweek last week and was met with bewilderment from the fair board and even local media who stated that hadn’t seen it until it was published.

The render was from last fall and was from a previous proposal from Speedway Motorsports Inc.

Building is not imminent and there are several elements that likely wouldn’t work with what the stadium and mixed-use buildings would require. At the same time, the Formosas claim that some of those buildings are currently planned to be built on top of the track’s entrance, something they fear would strangle the race track.

Fair board chairman Ned Horton asked if the development group was aware of these challenges on Tuesday at the group’s monthly meeting.

“They are aware of it," said Ron Gobbell, who is in charge of the fairground’s redevelopment.

"As they develop those designs, we’ll be bringing them back," he said.

Construction for the mixed-use commercial, residential building is not set to begin until the end of this year, once again adding to the sense of urgency for SMI and NASCAR to bring an acceptable offer to the mayor’s office.

As for the upgrades to the track itself, the city had already allocated $860,000, but that isn't anywhere close to the amount the track would need to be NASCAR ready.

"It just keeps going on and on," fair board member Jason Bergeron said at the meeting. "We have no concrete proposal and no real engagement with the community…"

He too wants to see SMI and the mayor’s office reach a conclusion too.

"At some point, I'm a lot more interested in seeing us going ahead with renovating this track with the funds that are there and working with the Formosas under their current contract," Bergeron said. "We just can't keep waiting forever."

Councilman Sledge feels the same way.

"Fair Park was designed to mitigate the Brown’s Creek flow," Sledge said. "(Speedway Motorsports) put very little thought into how their proposal impacts all the various parts that we’ve already gone through the public process for.

"The current proposal is not only not feasible but doomed from the start. If their proposal stays within the current footprint and all the operations around it … then I’m willing to have that conversation."

Are the Formosas really in breach of contract?

The fair board sent a letter to Formosa Productions on April 8 detailing a breach of contract in the form of curfew and missed payments.

In the letter, the board stated that Tony and Claire Formosa, the father-daughter duo that run the track, owe $31,930 from concessions commissions from last season, violated track rental curfew on March 27, after being asked not to following a 2018 violation, and failed to pay rent on time.

The Formosas have since paid their January through March rent, doing so on April 4.

The promoters’ lawyer stated on Tuesday that there is no listed due date for rent in the current agreement, meaning the two sides need to reach a new agreement on when rent is due. Additionally, there was a discrepancy between what an invoice alleged was owed and what the letter to the track stated was owed.

That’s not to suggest that the speedway has not hit hard times.

The 2018 All-American 400 was twice postponed and then outright canceled earlier this month, leaving Formosa Productions without revenue from its biggest grossing Super Late Model event. NASCAR Cup Series superstar Kyle Busch was even slated to attend, with the track anticipating a large crowd that never paid off.

In addition, the World of Outlaws will race at the track on June, with a representative from the series saying it hopes to have more than 10,000 fans attend to make the event a success.

What comes next?

As the fair board has repeatedly pointed out, the next step should and will be a proposal from Speedway Motorsports Inc. to the mayor’s office.

But time is running out to make this happen since construction on the mixed-use buildings are currently slated for late fall.

Since the story first broke that SMI was exploring the idea of bringing NASCAR back to the Fairgrounds, the league’s championship banquet was moved from Las Vegas to Nashville. The sport is also working towards a schedule upheaval and rumored new venues.

But in the case of Nashville, it very much comes down to SMI and the city reaching an agreement on the funding before the sanctioning body awards any dates.

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