The Cincinnati Reds continue to follow the progress of a potential new stadium for their Class AA affiliate, the Chattanooga Lookouts, but the clock hasn’t stopped ticking.
Of even greater concern for those wanting professional baseball to remain in Chattanooga is that the Reds won’t be rendering the final verdict.
“I continue to be very optimistic, and part of it is the great work of the Lookouts ownership group with Jason Freier and the management with Rich Mozingo,” Shawn Pender, the Reds vice president of player development, said this week. “Hopefully they’ve positioned themselves, because the reality is that there are not a lot of options at this point. As far as the Reds are concerned, Chattanooga is an absolutely perfect place for us. It’s in a great location to Cincinnati and to our Triple-A affiliate (Louisville), which helps with travel, and the Southern League is awesome.
“We’ve always loved the city. It has continued to grow, and we’ve had nothing but tremendous experiences there, but the stadium has to get done for us to remain there, and it’s not a Cincinnati Reds decision. It’s a Major League Baseball decision.”
The Reds and Lookouts had a 21-season partnership from 1988 to 2008, and that relationship resumed in 2019 following Chattanooga’s affiliation stints with the Los Angeles Dodgers (2009-14) and the Minnesota Twins (2015-18). Several weeks after Chattanooga’s 2019 season ended, the Lookouts were named in a New York Times article among the minor league teams that would be contracted by Major League Baseball.
Despite the Lookouts being centrally located within the Southern League, their aging AT&T Field did not have the needed amenities that Major League Baseball required for its players as they work their way through the developmental ranks.
Chattanooga wound up surviving contraction – the Southern League’s Jackson (Tennessee) Generals weren’t as fortunate – and following the COVID-canceled minor league season of 2020, Major League Baseball announced a 10-year player development pact between the Reds and Lookouts. The deal, however, was not without uncertainties.
“I feel sure that Major League Baseball and the Reds have the ability to get out on the back side of this thing if they want,” Mozingo said in February 2021, “whether that’s in three years or five years or whenever that is.”
Freier, Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly and Hamilton County Mayor Jim Coppinger have targeted the 2025 season as the starting date for the Lookouts in their new Southside home, which would be financed by the sale of 30-year bonds for $79.4 million and does not involve any money up front from the team.
Pender revealed a timetable for the Reds but does not know whether Major League Baseball would be in step.
“Major League Baseball will predicate – as they have in the past – when these deadlines are,” Pender said. “From our standpoint, if we were able to get a commitment and a deadline as to when the stadium would get completed, we would show patience, because this is exactly where we want to be.
“We would rather be there and remain in a subpar stadium for another year or two to get to a premier stadium.”
Major League Baseball has not commented on contraction situations other than to claim the list of community casualties in the 2019 New York Times article was inaccurate.
Funding could be approved for the multipurpose facility at the former Wheland Foundry/U.S. Pipe site within the next month, but the Reds would remain in the background during the construction, according to Pender.
“This is definitely a Major League Baseball and an ownership thing,” he said, “and that’s with every team in baseball. I’m sure that we’ll be included in the design or some spec ideas, but at the end of the day, this is between Chattanooga ownership and Major League Baseball. Everything from the lights to the batter’s eye to the distance from the dugouts have all been very detailed, and I know that Jason and his group are on top of it.
“We’re just hoping to be able to get this confirmed.”
There are those in Chattanooga who would love confirmation that a new stadium would ensure the Lookouts sticking around for at least another half century. The Lookouts have a history dating back to 1885 and have been an annual spring and summer fixture since 1976 – with the exception of the COVID cancellation – yet they were nearly axed in a facility built in 2000 that didn’t take long to become outdated.
If Major League Baseball contracted teams before, what’s to stop it from contracting again?
“I would hope that doesn’t happen for a number of reasons,” Pender said. “Obviously I’m a player development guy and an old scout, and I just think baseball is a game that requires a lot of playing experience, and those experiences in my opinion can only be accomplished in a minor league system. You’re playing a number of games at a number of different levels to provide a number of opportunities.
“I like having the four full-season levels, and if you’re going to reduce any more, you can really only do it in A-ball since you already have Single-A and high-A. We’re about as grass-roots as we can get with the full-season affiliates, so I’d like to think that this is going to be permanent. I can’t imagine there being another change in the next 20 years or so.”
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.