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Board adopts FY26-27 strategic work plan as commissioners press for faster plans to close fair and flea-market shortfalls
Summary
The Board of Fair Commissioners unanimously adopted the FY26-27 strategic work plan and debated budget shortfalls at the Nashville Fairgrounds, with staff presenting March 2025 preliminary financials that showed mixed results and commissioners asking for quicker expense-allocation data and mitigation proposals.
The Board of Fair Commissioners on April 7 unanimously adopted the fiscal-year 2026–27 strategic work plan and agreed to postpone any changes to the board’s mission statement. The board also discussed preliminary March 2025 financials and signaled urgency about addressing revenue shortfalls at the flea market and the fair.
The board voted to adopt the work plan and to table further discussion of a revised mission statement. The motions were moved and seconded on the record and passed by voice vote with all members present indicating “aye.”
The finance report presented preliminary March numbers prepared 04/07/2025: revenues for March were reported at approximately $2,700,000; other financing sources about $1,000,000; and expenses around $3,100,000, producing a reported net gain of about $673,352 before depreciation. The presenter reported depreciation expense of $1,024,134, which produced a reported net loss of roughly $350,000 when depreciation was included. Division-level results cited during the meeting included a flea market deficit of about $336,660 (later reported as a loss of roughly $262,630 in a different breakdown) and a fair loss shown at $793,614 in one summary.
Commissioners repeatedly pressed staff for more granular allocations of overhead and payroll to individual business lines. Commissioners argued the current flat 25% allocation for indirect costs across divisions masks which operations are profitable and which are loss-making; several asked staff to use newly available event billing and project-hour data to reallocate costs and produce forward-looking projections rather than rely on the current snapshot.
Director Rick Womack described several revenue and cost controls planned in the strategic plan, and staff said they will provide refined allocations and projections based on event bill-backs and tracked project hours. Staff reported that phase 1 of a fee change — a 4% building rental increase and a 50% increase for move-in/move-out fees — was implemented July 1, 2024, and a second phase is scheduled for July 1, 2025.
The board asked staff to prepare mitigation options and scenario analyses for next year’s budget, focused on the flea market and on entertainment line items that board members said are vulnerable in a downturn. Commissioners discussed potential policy-level trade-offs (for example, continuing to host loss-making events for public/charter reasons) and asked for faster, data-driven recommendations.
Votes at a glance: - Adopt FY26–27 strategic work plan; table further discussion of mission statement — motion passed by voice vote (unanimous “aye”). - Bylaws update authorizing the executive director to sign event license agreements up to five years (see separate article) — motion passed (unanimous “aye”). - Authorization for the executive director to execute the contract with North American Midway Entertainment Amusement South LLC for Midway and carnival services at the Nashville Fair (see separate article) — motion passed (unanimous “aye”).
The board directed staff to return with refined allocation data and concrete mitigation options for the next meeting. Several commissioners recommended a dedicated follow-up session to dive into revenue and cost structure and to prioritize near-term corrective steps.
