‘Elevating and celebrating’: Inside the battle-tested VIP section at Erlanger Park opening
Staff Photo by Seth Carpenter / Fans wait in line to enter Erlanger Park for the inaugural game in the new home of the Chattanooga Lookouts. Staff Photo by Seth Carpenter / Fans wait in line to enter Erlanger Park for the inaugural game in the new home of the Chattanooga Lookouts.
Elected officials and business leaders celebrated the opening of Erlanger Park in a VIP section at the stadium brimming with people for whom the $115 million project represented years of tense work when the outcome was uncertain.
The Coca-Cola Pattern Shop, a foundry workplace turned branded event space, played host Tuesday night to a who’s-who of leaders who developed and approved the stadium. They ranged from the widely recognizable, like Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly, to lesser-known figures who were crucial to the deal, like Kelly’s former chief of staff, Jermaine Freeman.
Freeman, who was present for virtually every major step of the process, no longer works for the city. He is executive director of economic and workforce development at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
The VIPs had each experienced going to bat for a project that faced public scrutiny over its complicated financing deal, primarily from Hamilton County Mayor Weston Wamp. The county mayor has continued to cast doubt on the ability of development around the stadium to cover debt payments on the $115 million public investment and did not attend the first home game.
Staff Photo by Seth Carpenter / Fans watch the Chattanooga Lookouts play the Montgomery Biscuits during the inaugural game for the Lookouts at Erlanger Park.Staff Photo by Seth Carpenter / Fans watch the Chattanooga Lookouts play the Montgomery Biscuits during the inaugural game day for the Lookouts at Erlanger Park.Staff Photo by Seth Carpenter / The Chattanooga Lookouts play the Montgomery Biscuits during the inaugural game for the Lookouts at Erlanger Park.Staff Photo by Seth Carpenter / Fans watch the Chattanooga Lookouts play the Montgomery Biscuits in the inaugural game for the Lookouts at Erlanger Park.Staff Photo by Seth Carpenter / McLean Nation lifts up his niece, Peyton Frazier, 2, during the Chattanooga Lookouts inaugural game at Erlanger Park.Staff photo by Larry Sullivan II / Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly speaks before the Lookouts inaugural game at Erlanger Park.Staff photo by Larry Sullivan II / Jason Freier, managing owner of the Chattanooga Lookouts, speaks before the inaugural game at Erlanger Park.Staff photo by Larry Sullivan II / Erlanger Health President and CEO Jim Coleman, right, speaks before the Lookouts inaugural game at Erlanger Park. Mayor Tim Kelly stands over his right shoulder.Staff photo by Larry Sullivan II / Chattanooga leaders line up around the infield before the Lookouts inaugural game against the Montgomery Biscuits at Erlanger Park.Staff Photo by Seth Carpenter / Plushies of Looie the Lookout fill up shelves in the gift shop at Erlanger Park during the inaugural game for the Chattanooga Lookouts at the new facility.Staff Photo by Seth Carpenter / Fans wait in line to enter Erlanger Park for the inaugural game in the new home of the Chattanooga Lookouts.
“All that I ever wanted to do is to help people sort of just see Chattanooga a little differently,” Freeman said in an interview. “We can create great outdoor public spaces. We didn’t have to settle for a large piece of property in a prominent part of our city remaining in blight in perpetuity. We could reimagine something and see something greater for ourselves. That’s all that I really cared about. That, and seeing all the rest of the development that will come after it.”
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