Folks around these parts have every right to express whether Erlanger Park will be a boon for Chattanooga or a boondoggle.
Personally, I hope it’s a boon, even though boondoggle is way more fun to say.
My personal experiences at Erlanger Park are pretty much limited to a couple of tours during its construction and one game during the opening homestand, so that hardly makes me an expert, but I think this $115 million facility is not only serving as the new home of a storied Class AA baseball franchise but a smaller-scaled Riverbend as well.
Erlanger Park’s best feature by a mile, and that’s no small statement given its multitude of nice features, is the comfortably spacious 360-degree concourse that allows fans to walk and socialize with people they haven’t seen in weeks, months and years. That was always my favorite part of Riverbend, which has been on pause since celebrating its 40th event in 2023.
“That’s interesting, because I know I found myself walking around all six days,” Lookouts president Rich Mozingo said when the Riverbend topic arose. “I made laps around that ballpark and always ran into people I knew. I ran into a friend of mine who didn’t miss a game at Engel Stadium. She was there all the time, but for the 26 years at AT&T Field, I would see her and her husband every now and then.