Legalized gambling at the new stadium?
I’ve become convinced that the Titans intend to operate a live sportsbook gambling business at the new football stadium. I also think the Mayor’s Office knows this. The only conclusion I can reach is that they’ve decided to keep this part of the deal out of the public eye.
When I first saw the gambling provisions in the deal documents last month, I assumed that my concerns were years down the road. But now, I think there is an active plan to have a sports gambling business at the new stadium. Imagine gambling in what the Mayor has called “Nashville’s next great neighborhood”…right next to the the affordable housing the administration talks about. It’s outrageous.
What’s got me more fired up about this over the last 24 hours? The gambling provisions in the deal documents and how badly the team wants to keep them unchanged has been nagging at me. But due to the crush of everything going on in Metro and at the State lately, I hadn’t had time to do basic research about the NFL and live sports betting. I finally found the time to look at it.
ESPN reported on March 23, 2023, “Four teams currently operate sportsbooks at their stadiums -- the Washington Commanders, Arizone Cardinals, New York Giants and Jets. But the Commanders are the only one with a sportsbook inside their stadium, while the others have sites outside.“
This is a new development in the NFL. The Commanders’ onsite sportsbook just open in January 2023.
The NFL apparently is deepening its ties to legalized gambling. A few weeks ago in late March, the NFL voted to allow live sportsbooks to be open in their stadiums on game days beginning in the 2023 season. This is expected to be a profit center for the NFL. Covers.com reports “Revenue from in-stadium sportsbooks will not be shared with other franchises until a threshold of around $20 million. After that threshold, revenue will be pooled with all other NFL teams.“
For now, Tennessee only allows online sports betting. But with the Titans proven track record of successful lobbying in the Tennessee General Assembly and the State taking over 6 of 13 seats on the Nashville Sports Authority, we have to be realistic and expect that the new stadium will include a live sportsbook gambling business. As the deal stands now, neither the city nor the Metro Council will have any say in whether this happens.
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Does the Mayor’s Office know this or are they asleep at the wheel? I think they know.
The lease for Nissan Stadium does not mention gambling. I’ve been through that 1996 document several times over the years and never noticed any gambling references. That’s why the gambling references in the new proposed stadium documents stood out.
As proposed to the Council initially last month, the documents addressed 5 types of gambling. Here are the categories and how they were treated in the initial documents:
Casino: If legalized in Tennessee, the Titans would decide in their sole discretion whether to add this use.
Other establishment where gambling is permitted, including wagering on “real world sports competitions”: If legalized in Tennessee, the Titans would decide in their sole discretion whether to add this use.
Online gambling by patrons in the stadium: Allowed.
Games of chance/raffles: Allowed.
Gambling or games of chance operated by the Tennessee lottery or another government entity: Allowed.
The documents were also clear that the Titans will have full and exclusive control over any casino or gambling uses on the entire stadium campus. Based on this alone, we must conclude that the Mayor’s Office has been aware of the team’s intent to add a sportsbook gambling business to the campus. There are too many details in the documents for the Mayor’s Office to have not noticed.
This is unacceptable to me and I believe it is unacceptable to the broader Nashville community. I proposed an amendment for the Council’s April 4 meeting to give the Council much more control. My proposal was:
Casino: If legalized in Tennessee, the Metro Council would have to approve the use by ordinance (3 readings).
Other establishment where gambling is permitted, including wagering on “real world sports competitions”: If legalized in Tennessee, the Metro Council would have to approve the use by ordinance (3 readings)
Online gambling by patrons in the stadium: Allowed.
Games of chance/raffles: The Metro Council would have to approve the use by ordinance (3 readings)
Gambling or games of chance operated by the Tennessee lottery or another government entity: The Metro Council would have to approve the use by ordinance (3 readings)
The team and the Mayor’s Office griped about my amendment. They complained at Council meetings on April 3 and 4 that my language would prevent the Titans from running an annual raffle where they raise money for charity. Nobody mentioned that my language would also screw up plans to have a sportsbook business without further Council approval. In fact, the administration implied that I was in the wrong for offering an amendment to pending legislation and messing with the Titans’ charitable fundraising.
Between the Council meetings on April 4 and 18, the administration offered me an alternative version. Their version would have required a Council resolution (1 reading) to allow a casino use, but left “legalized sports betting” under the full, exclusive control of the team. We had a short back-and-forth and were not able to reach an agreement.
On April 13, I asked the administration to clarify that their version would leave live sports betting exclusively under the team’s control:
I am understanding that the type of games of chance that are hosted in the current stadium are different from what is called "legalized sports betting" in the proposed changes. I am okay with changing this one to allow[] the currently existing games of chance to continue in the new stadium. I am not okay with allowing "legalized sports betting" without further council approval. Let me know if I am understanding the distinction between existing games of chance and "legalized sports betting", and let me know whether my suggested path is ok with you all.
On April 14, the administration response came back that the team would not agree to my approach:
Because amendments 8 [about gambling] and 9 [about the team guaranty] impact the Team as much if not more than Metro, we sought their input on your revision requests. In a nutshell, they couldn’t agree to go beyond the revisions as we had proposed – especially on no. 9.
I responded the same day asking them to confirm my assumption that the team intends to add legalized sports betting at some point in the future without needing Council approval:
About the gambling one, I understand that they don't want to negotiate the point. I assume that means that I am correct about the distinction between the current games of chance and future possible "legalized sports betting" and that the team wants to potentially implement "legalized sports betting" in the future without separate council approval at that time.
I never received a response.
At the April 18 Council meeting, the administration offered their version of the amendment. Under their amendment, Council approval by resolution (1 reading) is required for a casino usage. The administration’s amendment leaves the team fully in control of whether to add a sportsbook gambling business.
The administration’s amendment also continues to leave “gambling or games of chance operated by the Tennessee Lottery or other Governmental Authorities” as an allowed use without Council approval. I deeply distrust this language. I don’t know what it intends, but the plain meaning of the words would allow a State-owned gambling operation on the stadium campus without any input from Nashville or the Metro Council.
If the deal passes on third reading as expected on April 25, 2023, Nashville will no longer have any say on whether the new stadium campus will have a live sportsbook gambling operation and Nashville will no longer have any say on whether there will be a gambling operation run by the Tennessee Lottery or the State of Tennessee.
Amendments are not allowed on third reading. Anyone who objects to these terms needs to vote “NO” on April 25.
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Maybe I should have been more upset about this before now. But finding out that the Washington Commanders just added a live sportsbook operation to their stadium a few months ago and that the NFL just approved on-site gambling operations to be open on game days is galling. The Mayor’s Office and the team have had dozens of proxies pushing this deal in the community for almost a year now — and nobody has ever mentioned these gambling uses.
I’ll admit that I’m also annoyed that there’s been such a substantial effort from these same folks to paint me as some sort of crackpot who doesn’t know what he’s talking about on the stadium deal. The reality is that, if I weren’t raising my hand on this issue, nobody would know about it outside of the Mayor’s Office and one or two other Councilmembers. It is a near certainty that there are more surprises buried in these documents that we don’t know about yet.
I know this deal is probably fully-baked. Most likely, there are no minds to change in the Council. I write this post mostly to make a record for the future about the gambling components of the deal. I also encourage people who have been following and are involved to stick with the process through the public hearing on April 25. Whether you are for or against the deal, please email Council members and tell them how you feel and consider coming to the public hearing on April 25.