A Chattanooga panel on Monday unanimously agreed to send a financing plan for a new multiuse stadium to the City Council for its consideration, pushing the proposed project closer to reality.
But advocates for the nearly $80 million stadium and a special tax district to help fund the Chattanooga Lookouts facility on the rundown former U.S. Pipe/Wheland Foundry site were peppered with questions about the project at a Chattanooga Industrial Development Board meeting.
Jimmy Rodgers, the panel’s chairman, asked at the meeting what happens if the Lookouts minor league baseball team files for bankruptcy and can’t make the $1 million or more annual lease payment over 30 years that’s helping finance the stadium that would go between Interstate 24 and Broad Street.
Brent Goldberg, the city’s chief financial officer, said the Lookouts group headed by managing owner and chief executive Jason Freier is “one of the most well-regarded ownership groups in minor league baseball.”
“It would have to be catastrophic,” he said.