City must decide importance of two American pastimes

Auto racing and baseball are both sports with longstanding traditions in Nashville. They are also two sports whose future in the city is justifiably uncertain.

Nashville, as a city, needs to make up its mind as to whether it will try to keep these two very American pastimes as part of our local culture.

Dollars and sense are presently driving the decision as to whether racing and baseball will remain in this city.

The fights of the embattled Nashville Sounds minor league baseball franchise to see a new stadium financed through public dollars are very well documented. The team literally dropped the ball on what most observers regarded as a very sweet deal partnering them with a developer to build a new stadium and mixed-use development.

The team has since flirted with a move to the suburbs while also trying to rekindle a relationship with Metro government to possibly find a new stadium deal in Nashville. Meanwhile, their lease on the city-owned Greer Stadium is running out with no renewal in sight.

The trials and tribulations of the Nashville Speedway at the Tennessee State Fairgrounds are less well known. A preliminary study unveiled at a public meeting this week confirmed what most folks in town already knew or suspected, that the track and the fairgrounds have both lost money in recent years. The fairgrounds sit on what many in the development community consider a prime piece of real estate.

The traditions for both sports are something the city should be very reluctant to part with as they run deep into Nashville’s history.

The Nashville Speedway was, during the infancy of motor sports in the South, a world-class track that drew the sport’s best. In its day, the fairgrounds played host to legends of stockcar racing. It was one of a handful of tracks that helped give birth to the modern day NASCAR circuit.

Minor league baseball very much predates the at-times hapless Sounds franchise. The Nashville Vols and Nashville Elite Giants both entertained baseball fans for countless summers during the first half of the last century at the Sulphur Dell ball fields.

Perhaps the best part of both of these sports is that they are attainable for regular folks. There are no pricey PSLs to buy, no expensive season ticket blocks and no high-dollar merchandise to tempt kids. There is a simple, low-priced ticket and people racing and playing ball at these lower levels for the simple love of these sports. That is certainly an attraction worth keeping alive in any city.

Keeping these sports hosted with decent facilities is an entirely different matter.

The Sounds have been seeking a new stadium deal for some time with a heavy public financing component as their current digs at Greer appear to be a crumbling mess, even with a new seven-figure round of improvements.

The racetrack has been losing money as has the entire fairgrounds. The problems there are bigger than just the issue of racing’s financial viability at the site, but that is still one factor to consider.

Sadly, the city presently does not have the luxury of considering the historic value of these sports to the city in its decision-making process. Both sports are a drain on public dollars in their present form with very little return in terms of sales tax dollars seen from the other professional sports in town. Both sports appear to need either a public facility to exist in the case of the track and public financing in the case of the Sounds.

In truth, it is incumbent upon the owners of both sports franchises to provide the city and fans with business models that are viable in order to continue to receive the public favor they both need. In the absence of that kind of private sector solution, the Sounds may have to go to the ‘Burbs and racing may have to fade from Nashville altogether.