Jason Freier, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Hardball Capital spoke to the editors of the Times Free Press at the newspaper’s office on September 25, 2018. Hardball Capital is the owners of the Chattanooga Lookouts and several other minor league teams. Chattanooga Lookouts managing owner Jason Freier helped the Double-A franchise survive contraction from Major League Baseball, and he’s confident the latest hurdle can be cleared.
Lookouts co-owner and investor John J. Woods, who spearheaded the purchase of the team in 2014 and was able to convince Freier to run the franchise’s daily operations, has been charged by federal regulators with defrauding more than 400 investors through a Ponzi scheme. Woods graduated from East Ridge High School in 1983 and was a walk-on football player at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga before transferring to Tennessee Tech.
“We were deeply troubled to learn of the enforcement action by the Securities and Exchange Commission against one of our minority investors,” Freier said Monday in a statement. “My No. 1 priority is protecting the interest of the Lookouts, and John has shared with me personally that he will do whatever is best for the team, including divesting his interest if appropriate.
“We are taking all steps necessary to ensure the Lookouts remain a treasured part of the greater Chattanooga community.”
Freier, the CEO of Hardball Capital that also operates the Fort Wayne (Indiana) TinCaps and the Columbia (South Carolina) Fireflies, said by phone that more than 75% of Lookouts ownership is through Hardball Capital and its investment group, which does include investors from Chattanooga but not Woods.