Nashville this morning hosts a "joint Metro fair board and sports authority meeting" for Mayor Megan Barry's administration to "continue the rollout" of a $250M soccer stadium project. The public can then "weigh in at a special fair board meeting" this evening. The Metro Planning Commission and city council "would have to approve a special rezoning to allow the private development on the fairgrounds site." This is in "addition to three other pieces of legislation for the stadium project to move forward." Metro Council members are "raising questions" about the proposal, which would let John Ingram's prospective MLS ownership group build on "land owned by the city" (Nashville TENNESSEAN, 10/5).
Meanwhile, North Carolina legislators as late as yesterday appeared willing to "investigate the financial cost of moving state employees off government property to make way" for a potential MLS stadium in the Raleigh area. But as today approached, the "idea appeared to be fading into the night." A sum of $200,000 previously proposed to study and plan for the effort did not "make it into the final version of the bill that House and Senate leaders tentatively agreed to" last night (Raleigh NEWS & OBSERVER, 10/5).
