Nashville MLS Stadium, Fairgrounds Plan Changes, Police Called

NASHVILLE, TN -- A new Fairgrounds Nashville master plan revealed Tuesday relocates the once-controversial 10-acre privately-owned mixed-use project associated with the forthcoming Major League Soccer team to a location much closer to the proposed stadium.

Originally, that acreage was to be on a lower portion of the fairgrounds property near Walsh Road. The new plan puts it on a higher elevation between the racetrack and stadium on the south side of the fairgrounds.

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Now, the original proposed site of the mixed-use development will be used for rebuilt fairgrounds events buildings and an expo center, which originally were placed where the mixed-use development is in the new plan.

Laura Womack, the fairgrounds executive director, said the change will allow more fairgrounds events to continue uninterrupted while the stadium is under construction, according to The Tennessean.

The meeting, which about 100 people attended, was, at times, quite tense, as the chairman of the fair board and one of the leading voices of opposition to the stadium got into a confrontation which led to police being called.

Board chair Ned Horton told The Tennessean stadium opponent Shane Smiley was "chirping in my ear" and threatened to "knock (him) the f--- out."

"He was just talking about how the (fairgrounds) vendors hate it, blah, blah, blah," Horton told the paper. "But I talked to someone afterward who liked the idea."

Smiley said Horton "pushed" him during a conversation.

"I was having a conversation with Ned, and he pushed me, and I pushed him back," Smiley said. "He touched me and laid hands on me and I pushed him back to get him away from me, and it was done.

Horton told the paper someone else called police and while officers took down information, neither man pressed charges and no citations were issued.

The deal to give 10 acres to the team's owners — which include John Ingram, scion of one of the city's richest families, and the Turner family, founders of Dollar General and development giants MarketStreet Enterprises, along with the Wilf family, which owns the NFL's Minnesota Vikings — for a mixed-use development, which they say will include retail, hotel, affordable and market-rate housing, was easily the most contentious part of the stadium deal when it came before the Metro Council in November. A number of councilmembers and fairgrounds supporters opposed the giveaway, but ultimately, those concerns were not enough to torpedo the deal, which the council approved 31-6 after tabling an amendment to remove the land without a vote.

The fair board will vote on the revamped master plan June 12.

Image via Nashville Soccer Club Holdings