The Chattanooga Lookouts today introduced the team's new ownership. Included in the ownership are over 15 members with strong local ties as well as one of the most successful Minor League Baseball operators in the country, according to a news release.
Jason Freier, chairman and CEO of Atlanta-based Hardball Capital, the main business of which is the operation of minor league baseball teams. The group was introduced to the Chattanooga community by Convention & Visitors Bureau President and CEO Bob Doak and welcomed by Mayor Andy Berke of Chattanooga, Mayor Jim Coppinger of Hamilton County, Chamber of Commerce CEO Bill Kilbride and River City Company President and CEO Kim White among others, at a news conference at AT&T Field this afternoon.
The new Lookouts' ownership group will be headed by Jason Freier, who will be chairman, CEO and co-managing member and John Woods who will be co-managing member.
Freier is the chairman and CEO of Hardball Capital. Hardball owns and operates the Fort Wayne TinCaps of the Midwest League and the Savannah Sand Gnats of the South Atlantic League and is the former owner of the Salem Avalanche of the Carolina League.
Woods, a native of Chattanooga, is an executive director of investments at the Atlanta branch of a national investment bank and wealth management business.
"Lookouts games are a treasured part of my childhood and returning to Chattanooga as an owner of the Lookouts is a dream come true," said Woods.
We are excited to become a part of the Chattanooga community," said Freier. "So many strides have been made to make Chattanooga a great place to live, work and play as well as a center of innovation.
Woods and Freier also introduced more than a dozen other members of ownership with strong ties to Chattanooga. Those owners include:
* Marshall Brock, a fourth generation Chattanoogan and a member of Chattanooga's Brock Candy family.
* Casey Hammontree, a partner with Tenth Street Capital, a local investment firm.
* Richard Mashburn, founder and CEO of Mashburn Outdoor, parent company of ATMedia Outdoor.
* Forrest Simmons, a senior wealth advisor for Keel Point.
* G. McKittrick Simmons, managing partner of Sweetwater Holdings.
* Joseph Wingfield, operater of his family business, Wingfield Scale Company.
* The Lamp Post Group.