The city of Springfield fought Wednesday in a Superior Court hearing to steer its disputes with MGM Springfield out of closed-door arbitration — and keep issues in court and before the public.
MGM has said the city is unfairly delaying the company’s plans to sell the $970 million casino to a Canadian private equity firm, Clairvest.
MGM claims in its request for arbitration that the city owes $500 million in damages now that the sale has languished for two years.
But the city says MGM Springfield has not lived up to its host community agreement from 2013. Approval for the sale is tied up to those failures, including not having the required number of table games or slot machines identified in the host community agreement, not having the promised 3,000 jobs and not developing the building MGM owns at 101 State St.
