A billionaire developer is sending paid canvassers to your neighborhood with a petition to demolish the Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway.
Here's what you need to know before you answer.
WATCH THE FULL STORY
THE PETITION IS A REAL ESTATE SCHEME.
HERE'S HOW IT WORKS.
STEP 1
Hire a long list of PR agencies, political operatives, and lawyers to fuel opposition to the track and manufacture a grassroots movement.
STEP 2
Create a petition to tear down the track with language so confusing that voters don't know what it does and the city makes you rewrite it multiple times.
STEP 3
Hire a New York campaign consultant and hundreds of out-of-state door-knockers to collect signatures in Nashville’s neighborhoods and public spaces. Tell everyday Nashvillian’s that their signature will help "expand affordable housing”—whatever you have to say to get the signatures. If you collect about 50,000, you will force a city wide vote to demolish the track and free up the real estate you want so badly. THIS IS WHERE WE ARE NOW.
120 YEARS
OF NASHVILLE HISTORY
The Fairgrounds Speedway is the second oldest continually operating racetrack in America.
1904
The Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway opens as a horse racing track.
1958–1984
The track hosts 42 NASCAR Winston Cup Series races
2009
Then Mayor Karl Dean calls for the track to be demolished and the property redeveloped. Nashville pushes back.
2011
Nashville votes in a 2-to-1 landslide to protect racing at the Fairgrounds — writing it into the city charter. The track is protected by law.
2018
John Ingram promises Metro Council he will "support racing" and "be a good neighbor" in exchange for approval of his $335M soccer stadium next door.
2026
Ingram funds a petition campaign to permanently end racing at the Fairgrounds. A Nashville judge rules the original petition language was deliberately misleading to voters. THE FIGHT CONTINUES.