Someone has been paying people to stand outside Geodis Park in Nashville, stop strangers on their way into soccer games, and tell them that the Fairgrounds Speedway is getting demolished. It’s a done deal, they say. They’re asking for signatures if one seeks affordable housing instead. But none of that is actually true, and hidden cameras caught that.
NewsChannel 5 obtained secret recordings of petition canvassers in green “Sign our Petition” shirts making what the station described as false claims to collect signatures. In one recording, a canvasser told a man flat out that the demolition was confirmed. When the man asked if that was certain, the canvasser said, “Yes. That’s confirmed. Either way, it’s getting demolished.”
As it turns out, there are no demolition plans. NASCAR cannot demolish city-owned property. The sport has actually said publicly it wants to come back to the track if Nashville moves forward with renovations. The petition these canvassers are collecting signatures for would place a charter amendment on next year’s ballot, replacing auto racing as a protected use of the fairgrounds with affordable housing. It does not guarantee a single unit of housing gets built. It just ends racing…