Trust us. We’ve got this.
That was the impression given by the Chattanooga mayor, the then-county mayor, the Chattanooga Lookouts owner, the property owner, the master developer and their attendant staffs when it was announced in June 2022 that a new stadium for the minor league team would be built on former foundry property and potentially revive the surrounding area. It would cost around $79 million, including interest, and not a penny more. Development around the stadium could reach up to $1 billion. What a deal!
That much development still may happen. Proponents say it will definitely happen. But nothing’s guaranteed. That’s the conundrum about choosing whether to go forward with the project.
But now the cost for the stadium is around $129 million, including interest (not including infrastructure costs). And there’s a $40 million loan that will need to be paid back with the help of tax revenue from a 470-acre special tax district that otherwise would have benefited taxpayers. The young men who will play for the Lookouts this spring will be approaching old age by the time everything is paid off.
City and county officials in the next several weeks will have to take votes to make that trust walk about the project or pull back. We suspect enough of them will vote to go forward, figuring so much already has been done that it would be folly to yank away the opportunity to remake a prime entrance into the city.