Bristol, TN Supports Cultural Heritage Center

August 17, 2011

The Bristol City Council voiced support Tuesday for a plan that would provide up to $600,000 in financial support to the proposed Birthplace of Country Music Cultural Heritage Center museum.

“We have put a lot of our eggs in Bristol Motor Speedway, but we need to create another tourist attraction,” Councilman Ben Zandi said Tuesday in supporting the city’s Cultural Heritage Center package. “We need to make this investment for our future.”

The council, which met Tuesday for its monthly work session, is expected to officially approve the $600,000 proposal at its Sept. 6 meeting.

Councilman Joel Staton echoed Zandi, saying that Bristol needed to openly commit to supporting the country music facility. “It’s time for us to step up to the plate,” Staton said during the work session.

Under the proposal, the city would provide $100,000 a year for three years, beginning in July 2012, to support start-up and promotional costs for the projected $10.3 million Cultural Heritage Center, which the Birthplace of Country Music Alliance officials believe can be opened sometime in 2014. The center would be created in a building the alliance already has acquired downtown, at the corner of Cumberland and Moore streets.

The city would make another $300,000 available during a five-year period that the alliance, which will oversee the Cultural Heritage Center, could draw on if the new facility is suffering early operating losses.

Bristol City Manager Jeffrey Broughton said making the additional $300,000 available to BCMA would serve as a critical “backstop” to protect the Cultural Heritage Center from struggling during its first years of operation – even though BCMA officials predict the facility will be an early money-maker.

“One thing we don’t want as a community is to have a facility that’s [sitting] there, but doesn’t have the staying power to stay open,” Broughton told council members. “That’s the worst thing we could have happen.”

The package is a revision of the original financial request made by BCMA: Earlier this summer, the organization asked both communities of Bristol to each commit $100,000 a year for a five-year period.

Bristol, Va., officials have yet to decide whether that city will provide its annual $100,000 share to support the museum. But Broughton said it would benefit both Bristol communities to support the Cultural Heritage Center. He also suggested that Bristol, Va., officials were open to backing the project.

“I think they’re first looking to see what we’re going to do,” Broughton said.

Source article by Roger Brown via Bristol Herald Courier