Nashville Council Members Will Receive Copy Of Titans Stadium Renovation Plan

Image Credit: Jeff Noble / CC

The Center Square [By Jon Styf] –

Nashville’s Metro Council hoped for a study to evaluate the definition of “first class” in its current lease agreement with the Tennessee Titans.

For $315,000, per Nashville Scene, the city paid for a study on the matter and instead received an evaluation of the Titans-led renovation plans.

“The report was a complete waste of money,” Council Member Erin Evans wrote. 

Venue Solutions Group’s presentation was part of a series of meetings from the city’s East Bank Stadium Committee as the city council prepares to decide whether it will accept the terms of a $2.1 billion stadium deal between the Titans, city, Nashville Sports Authority and state of Tennessee.

Council members believed the study was meant to look at Nashville’s obligation of its current lease in terms of renovations related to the vague “first class” and “comparable facilities” terms in that lease.

During a presentation from Venue Solutions Group on its study of the Titans’ renovation plan, both VSG and Metro Legal’s Tom Cross said that Metro could not get a copy of the Titans’ renovation plan because it was “proprietary.”

Council members, including Freddie O’Connell, asked for it anyway.

And, in the final minutes of Monday night’s East Bank Stadium Committee meeting, James Wagner from the Titans stepped to the microphone and said “We’d be happy to share the Gensler plan. We haven’t been asked to share it.”

While that relieved some of the anxiety related to the secrecy of the renovation analysis, it didn’t answer questions from council members.

“This does not provide me with the information I need to make a sound decision,” said Council Member Delishia Porterfield. “Why do we not have the information that we need to make a financially and fiscally responsible decision?”

Despite the issues surrounding the legal definition of “first class” in the current lease, the new term sheet related to a new Titans stadium also includes that terminology.