So, over the weekend TFP writers Mike Pare, David Paschall and Andy Sher broke some news and offered a solid overview of the potential Lookouts baseball deal and its linchpin, a new stadium on the Southside.
It is 100% clear to me from Paschall's story that without a new stadium, the Lookouts will not be in Chattanooga long term.
It is also 100% clear that the multimillionaires who own the Lookouts want the city and the county to pay the lion's share of the cost for that new stadium, which is estimated at $86.5 million including $10 million in contributed land at the former foundry site.
Everything after is anything but clear.
Do I want the Lookouts to stay? Absolutely. I bet in my two decades in town, there is not a single "going out" social activity I have done more often than attending Lookouts games. My entire family loves going.
Now, Lookouts managing owner Jason Freier - who owns three minor league teams and has made a pot of money - wants our tax dollars so he can charge us - at least - $6 for a beer and $5 to park so he can continue to add to his pot of money. Hey, why spend your money if you can get public funds, right?
And if our community doesn't offer it, someone else will. Hey, his company is not called Hardball Capital for nothing, you know.
Freier has curried favor for this project with outgoing Hamilton County Mayor Jim Coppinger and Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly.
Our state legislators, as Pare's story makes clear, are not as convinced and have rightly called for more details.
Speaking of specifics, Kelly and his crew and the Chamber of Commerce folks should consider what an exodus to the Southside will mean for core downtown establishments and those around the aquarium. You have to believe the Mellow Mushroom and Big River folks have some strong feelings about this, too.
Granted, the options are either move in town or the Lookouts will move out of town, as Paschall writes, but as we develop the Southside, is it not possible that we may be creating a downtown with an aquarium, a pizza joint or two, a bunch of high-priced condos and apartments and tumbleweeds, no?
Speaking of feedback and input, there was a second "conversation" among the Republican candidates for county mayor on Sunday, the same day the Lookouts matter was front and center in this paper.
But rather than ask those candidates about the issues in which the next mayor will have some influence - like this stadium and surrounding development, like the best ways to balance how to spend tax dollars and COVID-19 relief largesse - the local Republican primary is doing its best to imitate a national Republican contest. Questions about critical race theory or abortion offer candidates a chance to grandstand, which is a grand waste of time.
But as for the stadium, the devil is in the details, and our state legislators are correct to demand details of what is expected from public funds, and what we can expect to get back for that public investment. And they are right to keep asking Freier and his group how much of the freight they are going to pay on this venture.
Conversely, the new Chattanooga Red Wolves soccer facility is getting state funds, but only after Red Wolves owner Bob Martino has made a sizable investment of his own money into the project. And let's not forget, the last time we had these stadiums talks, the city was only on the hook for a generous land deal with then-owner Frank Burke, who paid for AT&T with private funds.
Every dollar that goes to the Lookouts stadium won't go to another local project, such as school building needs or wastewater projects or investments in local roads.
I believe we all understand state and local government bending over backward to offer incentives to help a Volkswagen come to town, but that's a ton of jobs and a ton of taxpayers in our town.
That's an investment in our fiscal future.
A ballpark does not carry anything close to the same weight or fiscal reciprocity.
Rather, this feels a lot like a blank check for a baseball park with better facilities and amenities for a team owned by a multimillionaire - and players paid and managed by a multibillion-dollar conglomerate known as MLB - that will come from the pockets of John Q. Taxpayer.
In a perfect world, I think we all want the Lookouts to stay. But like all trades in baseball, there is a price, and without some new or increased tax revenues, giving a big chunk to a baseball team means less for someone or something else.
Contact Jay Greeson at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6273. Follow him on Twitter @jgreesontfp.
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Jay Greeson