VITAL POLICY – “STADIUM FEVER” and the Opposition to Taxpayer Funded Sports Venues in Tennessee
Taxpayer Money Proposed for Nashville Stadium
With a proposal floating in the Tennessee Legislature to provide half a billion dollars ($500,000,000.00) for a taxpayer funded stadium in Nashville, conservative activists are lining up against the plan.
The Tennessee Conservative is reporting that Governor Lee proposed the bond authorization as part of an amendment to the 2022-2023 budget. Last year, the legislature made a tax deal that allows the Tennessee Titans to keep a portion of the sales tax proceeds to pay for development around the stadium. A similar “tax zone” was created last year to help pay bonds for a minor league stadium in Knoxville. According to observers of sports teams and their public partners, the Tennessee government seems to have “stadium fever.”
At least two prominent organizations are lining up to stop the state of Tennessee from intermingling taxpayer money with a stadium project in Nashville to benefit the Tennessee Titans, The Beacon Center of Tennessee, and Americans for Prosperity (AFP).
AFP contends that the Titans franchise, with annual profits of $354 million, has enough capital and cash flow to renovate the existing stadium or build a new one without risking taxpayer money, and that government has no business being in the stadium business. AFP is collecting hundreds of signatures on its webpage to oppose taxpayer involvement in the stadium plan. For analysis, see their press release linked here. Americans for Prosperity: Don’t Build a Stadium on Taxpayers’ Backs – Americans for Prosperity
The Beacon Center of Tennessee, famous for its annual Pork Report on taxpayer waste, issued the following statement for this article.
“The recent news that Governor Lee is seeking to allot up to $500 million in taxpayer-backed bonds to build a new Titans stadium is extremely disappointing. As we have long said, it is not the job of either state or local governments to help fund the pet projects of millionaires and billionaires. The government should never force hard-working Tennesseans from across the state, or even Nashvillians, to back funding for a stadium that many of them will never even visit. While we love football and love the Titans, we should be following examples like the Super Bowl champion Rams in Los Angeles, which relied on no upfront tax dollars for the construction of their state-of-the-art stadium. It
worked there, and it can work here, too.” – Mark Cunningham, Vice President of Communications and Outreach, Beacon Center of Tennessee
To learn more about the Tennessee Conservative, Americans for Prosperity-Tennessee, or the Beacon Center of Tennessee, their websites are linked here respectively.
https://tennesseeconservativenews.com/
https://americansforprosperity.org/state/tennessee/
David Seal is a retired Jefferson County educator, recognized artist, local businessman, and current Chairman of the Jefferson County Republican Party. He has also served Jefferson County as a County Commissioner and is a lobbyist for the people on issues such as eminent domain, property rights, education, and broadband accessibility on the state level.
