Photo: Nissan Stadium, Nashville, TN Photo Credit: Nicolas Henderson / CC
The Center Square [By Jon Styf] –
The Metro Nashville Sports Authority won’t receive a Nissan Stadium facility evaluation until mid-November, according to Metro Law Deputy Director Tom Cross.
Cross announced at a recent sports authority meeting that the group will not competitively bid the process, but instead will hire Venue Solutions Group after not looking at any other firms.
The group did a 2017 study of Nissan Stadium showing the stadium would require $293.2 million in capital improvements over 20 years.
The council requested the analysis before voting on any agreement with the Titans related to bonds on a proposed new $2.2 billion stadium.
On Aug. 18, Titans CEO Burke Nihill estimated the city’s repair obligations for Nissan Stadium under its current lease would be $1.839 billion.
Venue Solutions Group is run by Russ Simons, who worked on ingress gate design and crowd management when Nissan Stadium was built and was also formerly the Senior Vice President and General Manager of Bridgestone Arena, where the Nashville Predators play.
“The instructions are going to be a little bit different this time than last time because we are going to need them to assess what will be required not only to bring the stadium up to the condition that the lease required but to keep it in that condition through 2038, which is when the lease would end if the Titans extended it as far as they possibly could,” Cross said.
Nashville’s East Bank Stadium Committee is set to hear about what the council’s legal department believes is the lease’s obligations at a Thursday afternoon meeting.
Cross also said that the report is expected to go over the $200,000 allotted in the city’s budget and will cost at least $250,000, with that figure potentially increasing as consultants have to travel and evaluate similar NFL stadiums.
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Venue Solutions Group expects the report to take 14 weeks to write if a deal is completed this week.
“I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that a delay in getting a deal approved would also mean that it would be more expensive,” Cross said when asked about the report delaying a deal with the Titans.
During the meeting, the Metro Nashville Sports Authority also announced that it would be changing its public records procedure to charge the public for records. In the past, the sports authority had emailed records free of charge to the public.
Now, it will allow Tennessee residents to come to the Metro Nashville offices to review the records or charge for the time spent collecting and legally reviewing records that will be emailed. If copies are produced, the public will be required to pay 15 cents per page for black and white documents and 50 cents for color sheets.
Joshua Thomas of Metro Nashville Legal said that Metro Nashville’s public records policy previously stated the new process but the sports authority had simply been emailing records to requesters. He said that the sports authority has received 30 to 35 requests this year.
About the Author: Jon Styf, The Center Square Staff Reporter – Jon Styf is an award-winning editor and reporter who has worked in Illinois, Texas, Wisconsin, Florida and Michigan in local newsrooms over the past 20 years, working for Shaw Media, Hearst and several other companies. Follow Jon on Twitter @JonStyf.
