City Council adopts South Broad stadium MOU

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF) – The Memorandum of Understanding for the South Broad stadium plan was approved Tuesday night.

Last week at city council, the MOU was presented and had some key changes to the stadium plan.

Before city council could vote on the new MOU, they had to withdraw the original plan.

Jermaine Freeman with the city said last week, “What we are essentially asking the council to do here today is to withdraw the resolution that has been on your agenda for the past few weeks.”

This new MOU is now a plan that both the city and county support.

Cory Gearrin the Deputy County Mayor said, “I think that is a very fair position to hold. This is a collaborative effort that we have put a lot of time and energy in to both on the city and county side. I think that’s exactly right.”

One major point of change was the the amount of tax increment financing was decreased to $26 million. 

However, “It would only be payable from the city’s increment. That’s probably the biggest change from the last couple of months,” said Mark Mamantov, a bond lawyer.

The Sports Authority debt also increased.

“It would be an additional $5 million of debt issued by the sports authority that is being used to bridge that last $5 to 6 million gap,” said Mamantov.

The county will also be allocating funds to schools.

Gearrin said, “$10 million upfront and then $5 million over a subsequent four year period distributed to schools that are serviced by the TIF area.”

Some additional changes are that the lookouts will contribute $3 million upfront.

And the lookouts will now pay all opening expenses except parking revenue.

The county commission will vote Wednesday morning on the Memorandum of Understanding.