Could the 2020 season be the last one for the Chattanooga Lookouts?
Major League Baseball is proposing that its minor leagues be reduced from 160 teams to 120, beginning with the 2021 season. Both Baseball America and The New York Times reported on the MLB proposal this weekend, with the New York Times listing four Class AA franchises on the chopping block: the Lookouts and the Jackson (Tennessee) Generals of the Southern League plus Binghamton (New York) and Erie (Pennsylvania) of the Eastern League.
The Lookouts have played the past 20 seasons at AT&T Field, which opened in 2000 and replaced Engel Stadium as Chattanooga’s home for professional baseball.
“From the perspective of MLB clubs, our principal goals are upgrading the minor league facilities that we believe have inadequate standards for potential MLB players,” MLB deputy commissioner Dan Halem told Baseball America, “improving the working conditions for MiLB players, including their compensation, improving transportation and hotel accommodations, providing better geographic affiliations between major league clubs and their affiliates, as well as better geographic lineups of leagues to reduce player travel.”
Jackson’s ballpark opened in 1998, making it the only one older than AT&T Field among Southern League teams.