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Lookouts cut $500k check for first lease payment at Erlanger Park

Staff File Photo by Seth Carpenter / Steve Weisberg takes a selfie with Looie the Lookout during the inaugural game for the Chattanooga Lookouts at Erlanger Park. The Lookouts wrote a check for $500,000 to the city and county a month later for the team's first lease payment.
Staff File Photo by Seth Carpenter / Steve Weisberg takes a selfie with Looie the Lookout during the inaugural game for the Chattanooga Lookouts at Erlanger Park. The Lookouts wrote a check for $500,000 to the city and county a month later for the team's first lease payment. Staff File Photo by Seth Carpenter / Steve Weisberg takes a selfie with Looie the Lookout during the inaugural game for the Chattanooga Lookouts at Erlanger Park. The Lookouts wrote a check for $500,000 to the city and county a month later for the team's first lease payment.

By Daniel Dassow 4 min read

The Chattanooga Lookouts made their first lease payment to the city of Chattanooga and Hamilton County for the team’s new ballpark in the form of a physical check for $500,000.

The Lookouts owe the city and county’s joint Sports Authority $1 million in two payments for the first year at Erlanger Park. The stadium opened April 14 at the Southside site where U.S. Pipe operated a foundry for more than a century.

The Sports Authority owns the $115 million stadium as a publicly funded venue. The majority of the cost was covered by $85 million of debt issued by the Sports Authority, which will be paid back partially by the lease payments.

(READ MORE: Chattanooga christens Erlanger Park. Lookouts stadium wins over crowd)

The Lookouts owe the Sports Authority two equal payments a year, on May 15 and Nov. 15, according to a lease agreement signed in October 2024. The Chattanooga Times Free Press obtained the agreement through a public records request to the city.