Three years ago, Tennessee lawmakers passed legislation allowing the Chattanooga Lookouts to move into a new stadium and retain a previously existing sales tax deal where the Lookouts kept 5.5% of the state’s 7% sales tax for sales at the stadium.
It was reported at the time that the Southern League MLB team, a Double-A affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds, was considering building a new $86.5 million park on the 141-acre Wheland Foundry/U.S. Pipe parcel in the South Broad District.
Sen. Todd Gardenhire (R-Chattanooga-District 10) stated in early 2022 that Chattanooga could potentially form a sports authority for this new stadium and that the sales tax deal was meant “to offer tax increment financing in the city and county wants to do a stadium for the sports authority.”
Since the buzz around a new stadium began, the media and Tennessee taxpayers have been repeatedly fed the narrative that a new stadium was non-negotiable for the MLB and without it the Lookouts could be nixed from the equation.
“MLB has made it very clear that if the local governments can’t figure out how to provide new facilities for the Lookouts, MLB stands to pull the Lookouts from the market,” then Senior Advisor for Mayor Tim Kelly, Jermain Freeman, said in July 2022.
Lookouts owner Jason Freier even specifically went on record saying, “We need to get this done; staying in the existing stadium is not an option.”
However, an email recently provided to The Tennessee Conservative implies that while massive improvements did need to be made to the existing stadium, they were in fact, “manageable” at one point.
This email, between Freier and Marv Goldklang, majority owner of the Charleston RiverDogs, tells a different story and provides a glimpse into discussions that were being had about the new Lookouts stadium as far back as 5 years ago.
In the January 2020 email, Freier shares with Goldklang that MLB Deputy Commissioner Dan Halem had a “nice conversation” with former Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke.
