Approved at today’s Class AA Southern League meetings: the Chattanooga Lookouts have been sold to Hardball Capital, owners of MiLB teams in Fort Wayne and Savannah.
Terms of the transaction were not released.
That the Lookouts were for sale was not a secret: owner Frank Burke announced he was selling the franchise after the death of his father, Dan Burke. As far back as 2010 Burke shopped the team as a way to settle a family estate. And a sale of the team was announced earlier this year.
Hardball Capital and Jason Freier own the Fort Wayne TinCaps (Low Class A; Midwest League) and the Savannah Sand Gnats (High Class A; Carolina League). Fort Wayne has been one of the biggest success stories of the past decade in Minor League Baseball: the opening of Parkview Field attracted some $100 million in new investment in downtown Fort Wayne, providing a successful model for a new ballpark as an economic driver. They are replicating the formula in Columbia, S.C., where a new ballpark will be a driver of new development in the downtown area.