Now that the city’s mayor has given the go-ahead, work is underway to prepare for the demolition of unused buildings at the future Nashville SC stadium site.
Last week, Nashville SC ownership and Nashville mayor John Cooper reached an agreement that ended a months-long impasse over the project that stalled Cooper’s needed approval to demolish unused buildings at the site of a future soccer-specific stadium at The Fairgrounds Nashville. Cooper signed off on demolition as part of the agreement, allowing the planning for a new stadium to move forward.
While that action represents a crucial step in the planning process, there is still work that has to be done at the site to prepare the buildings for demolition. Between that site work and paperwork that is needed for demolition, there are still some steps that have to be completed before the buildings actually come down. The process to knock out those tasks is underway, and Fairgrounds official sound eager to see work on the new stadium launch. More from News Channel 5:
While the deal was reached between the city and Nashville SC officials, [Fairgrounds Nashville executive director Laura] Womack said things like contracts, permits, any abatements or inspections necessary, as well as work on the area’s infrastructure must be done before demolition begins.
When it comes to infrastructure, Womack said while the old buildings are no longer in use, things like the water system that was built for the old facilities also service the Speedway.
“As you can imagine, a lot of that is intertwined, and so those systems need to be separated so that we can make the Speedway completely independent at this point,” Womack explained.
Regardless of when the project kicks off (Womack expects demolition to begin in the next month), Fairgrounds officials and Nashville SC fans are excited about the progress and excited for what’s to come at the Fairgrounds.
Nashville SC will begin MLS play as an expansion team on February 29, with home matches to be played at Nissan Stadium as a stopgap solution until the new stadium is completed.
Rendering courtesy Nashville SC.
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