Nashville judge still reviewing MLS stadium lawsuit as expansion decision looms
Joey GarrisonA Nashville judge held off on delivering a ruling Friday in a closely watched case in which plaintiffs are seeking to block the city’s construction of a new Major League Soccer stadium at the Metro-owned fairgrounds.
Davidson County Chancellor Ellen Hobbs Lyle agreed to take the complaint against Metro under advisement after hearing nearly two hours of oral arguments. She said she plans to continue to review the facts of the case.
It means the court’s final ruling could come after MLS announces whether Nashville has been awarded an expansion franchise. A league announcement is expected no later than Thursday. Nashville is one of four cities in the running for two expansion spots.
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The stadium's construction, and bonds to pay for it, are contingent on Nashville landing an MLS team.
The group Save Our Fairgrounds sued Metro this month, arguing that the addition of a 27,500-seat $275 million soccer stadium on the fairgrounds would compromise protected fairgrounds activities such as an annual state fair, auto-racing and flea markets. A Metro charter amendment approved in 2011 by Nashville voters protects all existing fairgrounds functions, but plaintiffs say a stadium would make it impossible to conduct such events.
Metro: Fairgrounds 'fears' are speculative
Metro has asked the judge to dismiss the case.
Metro attorney Catherine Pham on Friday argued that Save Our Fairgrounds has no standing to bring the case to court because they’ve not demonstrated any harm or injury in the case. She said plaintiffs lack a private right of action in the case.
Pham said the lawsuit relies on “assumptions” and that fairgrounds activities, in fact, can co-exist if a new MLS stadium were built. She called plaintiffs’ arguments “speculative” because Nashville still has not been awarded an MLS team.
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“This lawsuit is really about fears — that maybe the plaintiffs reasonably have, that they’re afraid things might not go their way — but that is not enough to bring a lawsuit,” Pham said. “You have to have standing. Those fears have to be based on something that’s not contingent or speculative.”
She said no one can definitively say that a soccer stadium and a state fair can’t operate alongside each other.
Fairgrounds would be 'wiped out' by MLS, plaintiffs argue
The lawsuit also takes aim at a new Metro park planned for flood-prone areas of the fairgrounds, arguing that it too would compromise the site’s protected uses.
Jim Roberts, attorney for Save Our Fairgrounds, and two co-plaintiffs, including former fair board member Neil Chaffin, added up all the property that would be lost to new development — 12 acres for the stadium itself, 10 acres for an adjacent private development, 46 acres for the park area, and many more acres for parking.
“A significant portion of this property is being wiped out by MLS,” Roberts said. “It’s not that these people couldn’t co-exist. It’s under what they’re trying to do they cannot co-exist.”
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Roberts called plans for the fairgrounds a “shell game” that goes against the wishes of Nashvillians as expressed in the 2011 referendum.
“The idea that these folks didn’t expect to be able to enforce their rights and force the government to follow what’s (stated) in the Metro charter, I think is disingenuous,” Roberts said.
Hobbs denied the plaintiffs' motion to add a supplemental briefing to their case, which she said should have been made earlier in the week.
Nashville, Detroit, Cincinnati and Sacramento are four finalists for MLS’ next wave of expansion. League officials discussed expansion at the MLS Board of Governor meeting on Thursday but a decision has not been announced.
Reach Joey Garrison at 615-259-8236, jgarrison@tennessean.com and on Twitter @joeygarrison.