The Chattanooga Lookouts open their fourth homestand of the season Tuesday night against the Rocket City Trash Pandas.
It will be the most normal evening of the year so far at AT&T Field.
Chattanooga's 2021 season began in early May with mask mandates and with a 40% capacity cap, resulting in crowds of roughly 2,500 at the 6,340-seat facility. Tuesday's contest will be the first at 70% capacity, so up to 4,500 will be able to attend.
"As far as coming out on a Tuesday night in June, you're not going to see the on-field contests where they used to be, which were right in front of the dugouts," Lookouts president Rich Mozingo said Monday. "Our national anthem won't be behind the plate but rather on third base, but outside of a few little things like that, it's going to look pre-COVID. Actually, it's going to look very pre-COVID.
"Tuesday's crowd and Wednesday's crowd should be at the average of where we were a couple years ago, which was between 3,400 and 3,600 or something like that. It's going to look like nothing ever happened for the last 18 months."
Chattanooga is 23-18 roughly a third of the way through the season, sharing first place with Birmingham in the Double-A South's North Division and with Rocket City right behind at 22-19.
Mozingo is not only celebrating an increase in capacity but the fact that entertainment acts are no longer prohibited this season. The Lookouts recently scheduled the inflatable Zooperstars for late August.
Staff photo by C.B. Schmelter / Fans sit in the stands on opening day at AT&T Field on Tuesday, May 4, 2021, in Chattanooga, Tenn. The Chattanooga Lookouts were slated to open their season against the Rocket City Trash Pandas, however, inclement weather forced the game to be postponed."Think about how this has been for them," Mozingo said. "They haven't been able to book any locations until recently, so it's going to be a big deal for them also."
The Lookouts sold out 16 of their first 18 home games with the 40% capacity in effect, and more sellouts could be in store later this week. A fireworks show has been booked for Friday, and Saturday's contest will contain another used car giveaway.
So what will the updated configuration look like?
"We've got our whole upper box seat section still socially distanced," Mozingo said. "We're only going to sell those in a socially distanced manner, and the capacity in the general admission seats - while it's not going to be mandated that you sit three seats away, two seats away or five seats away, there is going to be enough room for them to socially distance themselves.
"It won't be mandated to socially distance in the GA area, but you will have the ability, and we will sell all the seats in GA that we can."
Nick Lodolo, the top overall prospect in the Cincinnati Reds organization, is not scheduled to start in this six-game series for the Lookouts due to blister issues with his left hand. Lodolo's first six starts have yielded a 2-0 record and an 0.90 earned run average.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.