City's bulldozers wreck part of Sounds' parking lot for opening night

Metro has moved forward on the Fort Negley visitor center in Greer Stadium's parking lot

Email | Print By Richard Lawson

In the ongoing dust-up between Metro Government and the Nashville Sounds, the team may have learned that it's not a good idea to tick off the guy who controls a fleet of bulldozers.

The city chose today, which happens to be opening day for Sounds baseball, to begin tearing up part of Greer Stadium's parking lot to begin building a visitors center for Fort Negley. Just yesterday, Mayor Bill Purcell held the Sounds in default of their obligations on a deal to build a new downtown ballpark.

Glenn Yaeger, the team's general manager, has spent the afternoon trying to figure what to do with bulldozers ripping up part of the parking lot to begin work on a visitor center for the Fort Negley site nextdoor, where a Union fortress stood during the Civil War.

Yaeger said the work only affects about 90 spaces, but that they are at the entrance, making it hard to get into and out of the parking lot. "We want to be cooperative," he said of making way for the center. But he said he had no idea the work would start on opening day.

Yaeger said Metro is doing the work without first amending the team's lease.

Not so, said Molly Sudderth, Mayor Bill Purcell's press secretary. "It does not violate his current lease," Sudderth said. "We've looked it up."

Metro clearly wasn't kidding around when officials said last month it would move forward on the $2-million, 4,500-square-foot center in early spring regardless of the outcome of the deal to go downtown. The visitor center is supposed to be open by September.

The timing of the bulldozers is sure to kick up more dust between the Sounds and Metro. Yaeger's fretting this afternoon about the parking lot delayed him in delivering a detailed response to the default letter sent yesterday by Sue Cain, Metro Legal's acting director. He hadn't received the letter sent by certified mail to his home address in Illinois, but he was provided a copy by NashvillePost.com.

Note, 7:48 p.m. Thursday: Yaeger responded to Cain's assertions in a letter sent late today. NashvillePost.com story at this link.