Convention Center Debate On Sunday

With the Metro Council set to take a final vote on the land acquisition bill for the new downtown convention center, a debate on Sunday will discuss the merits of the deal.

Nashville’s current convention center lost about $850-thousand dollars last year. Metro Finance Director Rich Riebeling says most operate with a loss, but he says the new one proposed for Nashville will have a parking garage with more than 1,800 spaces.

“And that’s the key difference. The current—the current convention center has no parking revenue. And if they had some parking revenue…you add that revenue into it and it can go from an operating deficit to potentially, hopefully making money.”

The Metro Council will vote to buy the land next week, but the plans for the building itself haven’t been submitted for approval. Several council members are sponsoring a debate over the project this weekend between Nashville Convention and Visitor’s Bureau Director Butch Spyridon and Heywood Sanders. He’s an urban development professor at the University of Texas in San Antonio who’s criticized convention centers, including Nashville’s, for being a waste of money.

The debate will be held from 2 to 4 pm in Vanderbilt University’s Turner Recital hall.