Closed down recently for safety reasons, Engel Stadium is on the mend and could host between 100 and 150 events next year, as Chattanooga rallies to preserve a historic asset.
Engel Stadium is the former home of the Chattanooga Lookouts (Class AA; Southern League), but after the team moved to AT&T Field, the 1929 ballpark sat unused and deteriorated quickly.
But a group of volunteers have stepped forward to form a nonprofit to raise money for repairs. There’s a lot of work to be done; though the ballpark received some basic repairs after serving as a set on the movie 42 (the Jackie Robinson biopic), things like lead-paint remediation and other basic repairs are still on the preservation punchlist. The goal is to renovate Engel Stadium a la Rickwood Field and turning it into a facility that hearkens to the past (with historic signs and the like) and is still a working ballpark. It won’t be easy, but at the end of the day the preservation of a jewel like Engel Stadium impact the quality of life in a community like Chattanooga.