Financially-struggling Music City Bowl being pushed into partnership with Nashville CVB

The Music City Bowl is in a financial hole and only got partial help today in terms of money.

But it is getting help in strategic planning for the future and managing sponsorships, both of which could be unwelcome intrusions by bowl officials.

A committee overseeing the new Music City Event Marketing Fund approved $750,000 of the $1.08 million the bowl sought.

With the full amount, bowl officials projected net income of $190,000. If the finances go as projected otherwise, the bowl would swing to a $60,000-loss that will have to be covered. This year's match between Vanderbilt University and Boston College isn't expected to be a sellout like last year. Boston College sent back 10,000 tickets and Vandy is selling it's allotment of tickets but not much beyond that.

Working with the hotel and tourism industry, city officials created the fund over the summer to help provide a consistent revenue source for the bowl and the Country Music Association's Country Music Festival. A tax of 50 cents per occupied hotel room in Davidson County provides the revenue for the fund.

The committee is working with a budget of about $1.9 million because the fund will collect only nine months of the hotel tax. On a 12-month basis, the projection is $2.5 million.

When the fund was being created, projections showed more than $3 million going into the fund but that was before the economy dipped substantially and hotels started having lower occupancy.

The committee also approved $750,000 for the CMA. The remaining $400,000 will be reserved for new events.

The actual funding amount for the bowl was only the beginning. Scott Ramsey, the bowl's director, left the meeting before he could see the train about to hit him with Colin Reed, president and chief executive officer of bowl sponsor Gaylord Entertainment and member of the committee, as the conductor.

Since the bowl asked for money and got it, that opened the door for the committee to get involved in the bowl's business.

"They are going to have to stick their neck out some," Walt Baker, director of the Nashville Hotel & Lodging Association and committee member.

Sandra Fulton, another committee member, immediately added, "And it's our neck, too."

Reed laid out the case for requiring a strategic plan for the bowl with the Nashville Convention & Visitors Bureau sitting next to bowl management helping create the plan.

The committee also approved having the Nashville Convention & Visitors Bureau manage sponsorships for the bowl.

Sponsorships have been a sticking point for the bowl. It hasn't been able to find a title sponsor for years.

Gaylord stepped in at the behest of former Mayor Bill Purcell. Gaylord has backed off its role and Bridgestone Americas is sponsor but apparently not willing to step up to title sponsor.

The CVB had offered to pay half the salary of an experienced salesperson for corporate sponsorships but apparently never heard back from the bowl.

There is a long history of tension between the CVB and bowl management, essentially the Nashville Sports Council. The CVB and the sports council once were part of the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce.

All three created the bowl 10 years ago to give the city an event near the end of the year to add some life to downtown and fill hotel rooms.

The sports council split from the chamber in 2007 and the CVB before that. Now, the two are being pushed back into a partnership on an event the two organizations helped create.