NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — The debate over the future of Nashville’s historic racetrack is heating up, but some say the billionaire next door is doing everything he can to make sure NASCAR doesn’t move into the neighborhood.
Nashville SC owner, John Ingram, first told Metro Nashville Council members back in 2018 that he had every intention of being a good partner to racing and all other uses of the fairgrounds.
“I stand before this council tonight to say we at soccer support racing, the flea market, and the rest of the uses of the fairgrounds, and we plan to be good neighbors and to be friends,” Ingram said.
Ingram hoped to gain support for his new $335 million Geodis Park soccer stadium and adjacent 2.4-acre property he had asked to develop, when he said he would personally be responsible for maintaining relationships with Nashville’s charter-protected racetrack.
“When I give my word, it means everything to me,” Ingram said.
Former Nashville Mayor John Cooper heard those words and envisioned a future where Nashville could benefit from having two 30,000-seat stadiums walking distance from one another. Cooper’s plan was to transform the speedway and return NASCAR to one of the country’s oldest racetracks.
NASCAR hasn’t held a Cup Series race on the track since 1984. The debate over what to do with the track in the meantime has spanned five mayors, but Cooper appeared the closest with a deal in 2021 where Speedway Motorsports would invest in rebuilding the racetrack.
The deal ultimately stalled by the time Cooper left office as mayor, but he says Ingram knew all along that the intention was for the grandstands to one day have the same number of seats as the stadium.
“I don’t understand why coexistence seems to be too hard, because that’s a recent finding that coexistence is too hard,” Cooper said.
Not at all how Ingram sees it.
His team turned us down for an interview but sent the following statement:
“Since a proposal was first pushed forward in 2023, we have been very clear about what our issues are regarding a massive expansion of the racetrack at the Fairgrounds. There simply isn’t a way for the site to absorb that level of added impact. Over the past months, we’ve been repeatedly asked to join neighbors and numerous community organizations that have expressed support for the fairgrounds, flea market, fair and other events, while strongly opposing racing – especially an expansion of it. We are aligned with their vision of what the Fairgrounds could be, and will support their efforts to ask voters to weigh in on the future there.”
Ingram’s team also shared a letter from 2023 where Ingram said, “we are not against racing,” but went on to name five groups that they claim to support.
Some of whom have said, “enough is enough” and hope to get the necessary 50,000 signatures on a petition to challenge the city’s charter in November, protecting racing.
Darden Copeland represents Save My Fairgrounds, a group advocating for the preservation of the racetrack and vividly remembers meetings between Ingram and racetrack officials.
“He went into this with eyes wide open. He knew exactly what he was getting into, but he’s just changed his tune,” Copeland said.
A “Statement of Principles” showed both Ingram and city leaders agreed to a “potentially renovated Nashville Speedway" as part of the stadium deal. Another letter from Ingram, dated 2020, showed he was willing to “accommodate future racing expansion possibilities.”
“At best, he’s changed his mind. At worst, he’s lied to us,” Copeland said.
Copeland says Ingram has hired no less than nine public affairs and lobbying firms to oppose racing. We asked Ingram’s team and they declined to respond to the accusations other than to say their vision is aligned with groups that now say affordable housing is a much better use of this land.
I asked Copeland, “Do you think this has anything to do with affordable housing?”
“No, not at all. I think most Nashvillians see through that,” Copeland responded.
Nashville passed a referendum in 2011 with more than 70 percent of voters agreeing to preserve all uses of the fairground including racing. Any new changes to the charer require either 27 Metro Council members to agree or 50,000 signatures to put the issue to a countywide vote.
I asked Cooper, “Sitting where you are right now, do you feel like we’re back at square one?”
“Well, we don’t have to be,” Cooper responded.
Speedway Motorsports has shown interest in reviving NASCAR’s history in Nashville and bringing racing back to one of the country’s oldest tracks. A deal that Cooper says could preserve not just Nashville’s commitment to the past, but define how we keep these commitments in the future.
“We’ve been very good at not missing opportunities as a city. Let’s not miss this opportunity,” Cooper said.
Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell once criticized the plan as a low priority for the city when compared to the cost of living, housing, and transit.
A recent Vanderbilt University poll found that 26% of Nashville residents are in favor of bringing NASCAR to the racetrack, while 36% call for eliminating the racetrack.
O’Connell was asked about these numbers and said, “I think you could look at it and say strong support for an expansion was weak, but I think we've seen pretty consistently that there are groups of passionate supporters, groups of passionate opponents, and then a lot of Nashvillians who recognize I think that this is a regional concern, and so we're going to continue having conversations with all the important stakeholders, the communities closest to the race track, people interested in how we preserve our community. We're going to continue to have our chartered obligation with limited impact to taxpayers, and then of course the fairgrounds staff and supporters and board members, and then the team. So, we're just, right now we're continuing to engage with all those stakeholders.”
If you have any questions or comments about the racetrack debate, you can email me at Levi.Ismail@newschannel5.com
