Lookouts Stadium Still on Track for 2025; More to Come Thursday
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF) – Today is Opening Day in the Scenic City as the Chattanooga Lookouts are back in action against the Mississippi Braves.
As their 2023 season gets underway, many are still wondering what the future holds for the Lookouts in the Scenic City.
Last year, a brand new minor league ballpark was announced for the Lookouts on the Southside.
Artist rendering of the future Lookouts stadium.
It would replace the former heart of Chattanooga’s industry that has long fallen into disrepair.
However, two years away from its planned opening, there is a lot of work to be done.
Jose Moreno, the manager for the Chattanooga Lookouts said, “Everybody’s excited. Chattanooga is a nice city. It’s going to be great for us. I think that’s a great setup for development for the kids. The league is real good. The competition is real good. The new stadium is going to be a real plus for us.”
A 79 million dollar plus stadium on the Wheland Foundry site is projected to built by 20-25.
As of Opening Day 2023 however, no groundbreaking has yet been held.
Nick: Jermaine Freeman, a senior economic development advisor for Chattanooga, says to expect big updates on the stadium later this week at a Sports Authority meeting.
Freeman said, “The master developer who is working on the site, Jim Irwin, who is a world renown master developer, he’ll be releasing some updated renderings and location information about the stadium.”
Freeman says that this should wrap up the geotechnical work going into planning the stadium like where parking lots are going to be and other infrastructure related to the stadium.
He says the next big step is hiring an architect to build the stadium, which he expects the groundbreaking to begin in late summer.
The projected opening day in April 2025 for the Lookouts in their new park is still the plan, which would give the architects about 18 months to build the new stadium.
Freeman says the Lookouts are very confident the stadium will be ready.
Freeman said, “This is a pretty flat site, there’s not a whole lot of excavation work that needs to happen in just making sure you have a flat path for the area.”
The 79 million dollar price tag, a source of debate, may fluctuate due to inflation and other economic factors.
Freeman said, “We’ll find out through the process of working with an architect. As the architect has a chance to really sit down and put pen to paper, where do we stand as far as costs. None of us can control interest rates.”
That presentation by Jim Irwin will be at this Thursday’s Chattanooga Sports Authority Board Meeting.
That will be held at the City Hall Annex Building at 10:30 Thursday morning.
