Members of the Metro Sports Authority said at a meeting Friday they didn’t fully understand the Sommet Center lease agreement when they approved it. The latest questions have to do with the financial guarantees put in place to recoup the city’s subsidy to the Predators if the team goes bankrupt or leaves town.
Owners of the team must file audited financial statements each year showing their combined net worth is more than $62 million. Metro attorneys told the Sports Authority they have no way of knowing for sure, but the owners could be using their stakes in the team as part of their financial guarantee.
Finance committee chair Rusty Lawrence says such a guarantee is virtually meaningless if the team goes bankrupt. That’s something he didn’t know when the board ratified the lease two years ago.
“Now we look at it and we say, maybe the deal was not quite as good as we thought it was going to be.”
Sports Authority member J.D. Elliot said the body relied on what it heard from the mayor’s office and sensed momentum to get the deal done or risk the team leaving town.
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