Poll: 90 percent opposed to taxpayer funding for stadium
A new online poll by the Beacon Center of Tennessee shows that nearly 90 percent of Chattanoogans oppose using tax dollars to help fund a new Chattanooga Lookouts stadium.
But backers of a potential new multi-use minor league ballpark and entertainment venue questioned the validity of the survey, with one person calling it “a push poll.”
“That’s a poll question that’s defective,” said Mike Mallen, a partner in the Chattanooga business group that owns property where a possible new complex could go in the South Broad District. “That’s misleading.”
The Beacon Center said the survey was conducted among
“While we expect to hear criticism from the millionaires and politicians who would benefit personally from a stadium being built with taxpayer money, we think the voices of Chattanooga voters should be heard. It is absolutely brazen that an owner who barely fills up half of his current stadium could think the team deserves a new stadium paid for on the backs of hard-working Chattanooga taxpayers.”
— BEACON CENTER SPOKESMAN MARK CUNNINGHAM
281 registered users of icitizen. com, an online site which specializes in online polling and data analytics.
The poll by the Beacon Center, a Nashville-based conservative-leaning think tank, also showed that about 80 percent of people believe a public referendum should be held if tax dollars are proposed for a new stadium.
Beacon Center spokesman Mark Cunningham said the poll makes it clear where taxpayers stand on spending public
money on a new stadium.
“While we expect to hear criticism from the millionaires and politicians who would benefit personally from a stadium being built with taxpayer money, we think the voices of Chattanooga voters should be heard,” he said. “It is absolutely brazen that an owner who barely fills up half of his current stadium could think the team deserves a new stadium paid for on the backs of hard-working Chattanooga taxpayers.”
However, Jason Freier, the Lookouts operating partner, termed the poll “not worth the paper it’s written on.”
“It’s no way scientific,” he said of the Beacon poll, noting that it is not based upon a random sample of all Chattanooga voters. “There’s lots of ways polls can be played with.”
Freier said no one has said that the public would build a new Lookouts stadium to replace AT&T Field on Chattanooga’s riverfront.
“If something moves forward, it will be as part of a multi-faceted plan with more than just the Lookouts and public entities, more than a baseball stadium,” he said.
A multi-use stadium was included in an initial blueprint unveiled earlier this month by planners as part of a South Broad District visioning initiative. The preliminary findings suggested that such an entertainment venue could generate an array of new residential and commercial space around it, planners said.
Mallen, whose group owns the 141 acres of former foundry land in the district, said similar facilities in Fort Wayne, Ind., Columbia, S.C., and other cities attract hundreds of events annually in addition to baseball games.
“The Lookouts play 80 nights a year,” he said. “The Lookouts would be 15 percent of the total utilization.”
Mallen said his group has held the former Wheland/U.S. Pipe foundry tract for 16 years to make it “a legacy site, a visually iconic gateway anchor.”
“People want to show up all of a sudden and have opinions,” he said about the Beacon Center. “It’s calculated to create controversy.”
Also included in the early South Broad blueprint was a better connection from Howard School to the 10-square-block district that includes the former foundry property. Also, a potential new Howard middle school, an expanded Harris Johnson Park, a mix of new housing in Southside Gardens and other improvements were envisioned.
Planners have said they’ll receive more public input with a target of having a final product for the district at the end of October.
Contact Mike Pare at mpare@times freepress.com or 423-757-6318.
“It’s no way scientific. “There’s lots of ways polls can be played with. If something moves forward, it will be as part of a multi-faceted plan with more than just the Lookouts and public entities, more than a baseball stadium.”
— JASON FREIER, THE LOOKOUTS OPERATING PARTNER