News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
A potential partnership between the city of Cookeville and Tennessee Tech University for Tucker stadium upgrades, but how would that work?
City Manager James Mills said that should the council decide to financially commit, there are several options. He said that could be anything such as bond issues, general fund payments, or some kind of usage agreement.
“We’ve not gotten that far yet in the discussions,” Mills said. “I mean we may be looking at in-kind work, or it may be a financial commitment. Those things will all be worked out but there are different sources of where those funds could come through, the hotel-motel tax is a potential source, but there are other different sources of revenue should the council decide to participate financially.”
Mills said that for the city to make that commitment, it is important that the partnership will make legal and financial sense. He said that the city currently has a lot of projects on the table to be completed, but still wants to do what it can.
“There’s no doubt that the stadium needs to be upgraded,” Mills said. “Of course, their plans are to completely rebuild the stadium on the west side. But I anticipate there will be many more discussions between the council and the university over the next several weeks to try and work out how the city could assist the university in their plans to redo the stadium.”
Mills said that he thinks the city is excited to help the university as much as possible. He said that Tech plays a large role in the local economy, so the city hopes to support it the best it can. He said that the better off the university is, the better off the city is.
