The Chattanooga Lookouts have a new chairman and CEO, and they also have a ballpark that is entering its 16th season of operation.
One of Jason Freier's biggest challenges in the months ahead will be determining where the Lookouts will reside. Freier spearheaded the construction of one new stadium in Fort Wayne, Ind., and he is overseeing the building of another in Columbia, S.C.
"The reason that ballparks last or don't comes down to two things -- how they're designed on the front end and how much money is pumped into it in terms of maintenance and improvements and things like that," Freier said Wednesday as a guest on "Press Row" on ESPN 105.1 FM. "There are plenty of ballparks now that are better than the day they were opened, and there are other ballparks half their age that are nearing the end of their life expectancy.
"Turner Field in Atlanta was built in an area of town that probably wasn't the best place to put it at the time, and the ballpark wasn't designed ideally for baseball, because it hosted Olympic track and field and then was re-purposed for baseball. As far as maintenance, if you went to Turner Field last season, it wasn't much different from seven or eight years ago."
AT&T Field has been the home of the Lookouts since April 2000, and on Wednesday it housed a news conference to introduce Freier, the chairman and CEO of Atlanta-based Hardball Capital, and his partner in the purchase, John Woods. The event included Chattanooga mayor Andy Berke, Hamilton County mayor Jim Coppinger and more than 15 local investors who assisted Freier and Woods in buying the storied Class AA franchise from Frank Burke for more than $12 million.
Among the local owners are Marshall Brock, Casey Hammontree, Richard Mashburn, Forrest Simmons, McKittrick Simmons, Joseph Wingfield and The Lamp Post Group.
"I think this will give us a lot of instant credibility in town and a lot of instant relationships," Freier said. "We don't have any local investors in Fort Wayne, which was our first foray into this. We didn't know anybody in that market, and it took us a period of years to develop relationships and credibility."
According to Hardball Capital, the construction of Fort Wayne's Parkview Field in 2009 has helped spur more than $200 million in downtown investment. Ground breaking for Spirit Communications Park in Columbia began in January, and it will have a cost of $37 million.
Could Freier eventually lead a push for something similar in Chattanooga?
"I think that's one of those things that we'll have to operate here before we can answer," he said. "When we went to Fort Wayne, we went into a ballpark of similar age, and we looked at renovations at the existing site versus new, and the latter just made sense. We also owned a team in Salem, Virginia, where the decision was just the opposite, because it made more sense to invest in the ballpark."
When asked about the possibility of a drive for a new stadium, Mayor Berke said, "I don't know what the future holds. They let us know what their history has been as far as building new facilities, but right now we're standing in a beautiful ballpark that overlooks our city."
Freier said there would be some changes coming to AT&T Field this season but declined to offer specifics.
"We just got the keys to the ballpark a couple of hours ago," he said.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.