Metro Council meeting of Aug. 21st to be dominated by the issue of the MLS stadium and the future of the fargournds.

by Rod Williams, Aug. 19, 2019 - The Council will meet Tuesday August 21st at 6:30 PM in the

Council chamber at the Metro Courthouse. By far the most important agenda items concern the MLS stadium and the future of the fairgrounds.  There are three resolutions on the agenda and three bills on second reading regarding this issue.  A resolution is passed by a single vote of the Council and a bill must be passed at three different council meetings. This is an opportunity to kill the MLS deal or at least reopen negotiations for a better deal and kill the proposal to give the developer ten acres of fairground property. The best chance to kill the deal is by having enough council member to vote "no," vote "abstain," or not vote on Bill BL2018-1289.  To pass, this bill requires 27 positive votes on third reading. 

Below is a description of  each of the pieces of legislation on the agenda concerning the MLS stadium.

Resolution RS2018-1356  by Steve Glover expresses the intention of the Metropolitan Council to suspend action on any agreement related to any lease and redevelopment of the Nashville Fairgrounds until all necessary procedures have been completed. This would simply say that Metro would not make any decisions regarding the stadium and would not incur additional expenses regarding the stadium until the hurdles that stand in the way of the deal being approved are resolved. This is an attempt to not put the cart before the horse. This sounds like common sense, however, it has been dispproved by the Budget and Finance Committee.

Resolution RS2018-1372 calls for a county-wide referendum election to ascertain the will of the people regarding the issuance of revenue bonds by Metro to fund the construction of the Major League Soccer Stadium at Fairgrounds.

Notice that this resolution applies to the portion of the financing of soccer stadium to be financed by revenue bonds.  That is, the bonds would be repaid by the revenue generated by the facility. These are bonds issued by the Sports Authority.  In any case in which something is financed by revenue bonds, such as a parking garage or a sewer line or a sports stadium, if the revenue is insufficient to pay the debt, the debt becomes a general liability of the government.  However, it is assumed the revenue will repay the debt. Parking garages and sewer expansions are pretty safe bets.  As long as there is not an oversupply of parking spaces downtown, parking revenue can pay the bonds to cover the cost of parking garage construction. Also, people have no choice in paying their water and sewer bill, so those are pretty safe investments. If, however, a city loses a sports franchise, the revenue would not be there to pay off the debt and the debt would have to be paid by tax payers.

The staff analysis says that the Charter authorizes the Council to call a referendum on a bond issue financed by avalorem taxes or other taxes, or any other revenues, or a combination thereof. So, this is probably not a legal call for a referendum but the one below would be.

Resolution RS2018-1373 calls for a county-wide referendum election to ascertain the will of the people regarding the issuance of general obligation bonds by Metro for the construction of a new Major League Soccer Stadium at the Fairgrounds.

Bill BL2018-1289 approves the demolition of certain buildings and structures necessary for the construction of a new Major League Soccer Stadium at the Fairgrounds Nashville, and amending Title 5 of the Metropolitan Code to impose a privilege tax on the sale of tickets to events at the new Major League Soccer stadium. This is probably the best chance to still kill the stadium and land giveaway. It takes 27 votes to demolish buildings at the fairgrounds.

Bill BL2018-1291 declares the ten acres to be given away as surplus property and approves a ground lease for the property. The fair board has already declared this surplus, now the Council must do so.

Bill BL2018-1293 approves a privilege tax on the sale of tickets to events at the new Major League Soccer stadium. 

There is one other bill pending which is not on this agenda but which was on first reading last council meeting and will be on public hearing and Second Reading next meeting and that is  Bill BL2018-1290.  It is the bill to rezone the 10 acres at the fairground that is to be given to the stadium developer. This has been approved by the Planning Commission. Member of the Public will be permitted to speak on this bill. It will only take a simple majority of those voting to pass this bill.

To access the Council agenda, follow this link. To view the Council staff analysis follow this link.  

I will be providing a summary of the balance of agenda in a separate post. Please check back.

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