After deteriorating over the last few years, Greer Stadium is coming down, as work to demolish the former home of the Nashville Sounds (Class AAA; Pacific Coast League) is underway.
First opening in 1978, Greer Stadium hosted Minor League Baseball action through the 2014 season, the last before the Sounds opened Nashville’s First Tennessee Park. Greer Stadium’s condition has deteriorated in the years since the Sounds’ departure and, after years of debate over the site’s future, Nashville officials are now moving forward with demolishing the ballpark.
Crews have begun work at Greer Stadium, and the plan is to incorporate the ballpark’s 21-acre site into the campus of the Civil War-era Fort Negley. More from The Tennessean:
Work at the abandoned Greer Stadium has begun with demolition to be on track for July, with plans to incorporate the site into the campus of the Civil War-era Fort Negley historic site.
Mayor David Briley has announced that work is cranking up at the former ballpark with abatement work and waste removal underway. After demolition, archaeologists will excavate the site for historical interpretation.
The stadium that was built in 1978 but has sat empty since the Nashville Sounds left in 2014.
“You may recall this time last year I announced a plan to convert the old Greer Stadium property to green space to be enjoyed by our entire city – and to honor the history of Fort Negley and the slaves who built it,” Briley said in a statement.
As part of the preparation for tearing the ballpark down, Nashville Metro recently put Greer Stadium’s famed guitar scoreboard (pictured above) up for auction. It was purchased at auction by real estate developer AJ Capital Partners, which plans to relocate the scoreboard and incorporate it into a new mixed-use development at a nearby site.
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