From what I know, a town and airport were denied their request to close an airport, which is a small airport with little traffic, for a jet event which had been previously held there with no problems. The local FAA official turned down their request, from what I was told probably due to one full scale pilot who complained that he was inconvienced.
The town officials spoke to the locally based U.S Senator who made some inquiries. Those inquiries were met with some resistance from the local FAA official and it was bumped up the chain.
In my opinion the town officials had every right to question the decision made by the local FAA person since events such as this are held all over the U.S with no problems whatsoever. Like MArk said it is all about the Benjamins, and whose palm is greased where.
The AMA was brought into the Sullivan problem very early from what I was told, but did NOTHING according to my sources until it was already too late. They are caught now trying to put out a fire which in all likelihood will cost us many fly-ins throughout the US. I am sincerely hoping that SM makes it thru this turmoil, since I love that event and plan on being there. Right now I am very pessimistic. If the FAA truly plans to uniformly enforce the rules, as they are written, there is no way that the Superman site can hold the event. The real test is to see if they are really interested in uniformly enforcing these stupid regulations.
The town of Metropolis will have a lot to lose in losing this event, since the impact from the jet events can be very good for small towns (ie, Metropolis, Sulllivan, Bardstown).
Tommy