Sounds cry uncle on Capitol Hill

Team will suspend efforts to get sales tax break

Email | Print By Ken Whitehouse

It looks like Mayor Karl Dean has won a round in the ongoing battle between the city and the Nashville Sounds.

NashvillePost.com has learned that the Nashville Sounds are "suspending their efforts" to advance sales tax legislation in the state legislature. The team had sought legislation that would have used sales tax revenue collected by the team to help finance a new ballpark.

The team has been seeking a new ballpark for several years but has butted heads with Dean and previous Mayor Bill Purcell over how the task would be accomplished.

Last week, the Sounds had won a vote in a senate subcommittee supporting the sales tax measure. Eddie Davidson, Dean's Capitol Hill lobbyist, called the Sounds' move an "act of bad faith" and said the mayor would cease speaking with the team because of it.

Davidson has been observed this past week working the halls of the legislature to block the bill from advancing any further. By Wednesday, NashvillePost.com confirmed through sources that the Sounds' proposal was dead on the Hill.

Today's move by the team appears to be an acknowledgement of its prospects in the legislature. General Manager Glenn Yaeger and his new consultant, Jeff Diamond of the Ingram Group, will now have to seek new talks with Dean and company.