Rumor check: Is USC buying the State Fairgrounds? Here’s what we know

The University of South Carolina says an ongoing rumor that the state’s flagship university is buying the S.C. State Fairgrounds in Columbia is not true.

However, the university is interested in a development project near the fairgrounds and Williams-Brice Stadium, according to a Columbia-area state senator.

Representatives of the university and the State Fair have both given an emphatic “no” when asked if a sale had happened or was happening despite growing rumors and anonymous Twitter handles purporting a sale happened.

“The Fairgrounds are not being purchased by the university,” USC spokesman Jeff Stensland told The State newspaper.

State Fair General Manager Nancy Smith also told The State that the fairgrounds, which are owned by the nonprofit State Agricultural and Mechanical Society, are not for sale.

State Sen. Darrell Jackson, a Richland Democrat whose Senate district includes the university, told The State Tuesday that the university has told him personally rumors of buying the Fairgrounds are not true.

“USC has said to me that the rumors about the Fairgrounds are not true, that they have no interest in buying the Fairgrounds,” Jackson said. “They have said to me personally that they do not have any interest in buying the Fairgrounds. However, (they’re) working on another project in proximity to that area.”

Stensland declined to comment on Jackson’s remarks.

For weeks, a rumor has circulated that the university, whose 77,000-seat Williams-Brice football stadium sits adjacent to the 87-acre fairgrounds, was purchasing the fair property. Various versions of the rumor include plans for a mixed-use development near the stadium and fairgrounds.

The annual S.C. State Fair draws tens if not hundreds of thousands of people each year to the capital city. The fairgrounds also is a packed parking and tailgating site for USC football fans.

Morgan Hughes, Alexa Jurado and Chris Trainor contributed reporting.