Engel Stadium: Deja vu all over again

So my beloved alma mater is back in charge of one of my favorite places in Chattanooga.

On Monday, the Engel Foundation announced it was graciously giving over the bulk of the operations of Historic Engel Stadium back to UTC. Why am I not thrilled? Because we’ve been down this road before and because of the realities of what is involved here. In the words of baseball great Yogi Berra, “It’s like deja vu all over again.”

While there was much discussion during Monday’s news conference regarding possible future uses for the venerable old facility, it all came down to those five magic words, a phrase that too often, especially in the past, has been all too familiar and empty: All it takes is money.

This is not a knock on anyone involved. The intentions of the folks with the Engel Foundation are more than sincere in their desires to see the stadium upgraded, maintained and used to its full glory.

UTC is in a difficult position because of the proximity to its campus. Quite simply, it could use the land. Not so much an 86-year-old money pit that people love and would hate to see go away because it has seen the likes of Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Michael Jordan and me ( I kid, though it’s true) play on its hallowed surface. There was talk Monday of playing intramural soccer inside the pa rk . UTC built new soccer fields on the other end of the parking lot just a few years ago. UTC does not have a baseball team anymore, by the way, though it did have a club team that played there a few years ago.

It could be used for student activities, and hopefully it will. But even though the filming of the movie “42,” and improvements made by the foundation and UTC brought a lot of repairs to the building’s infrastructure, it will need about … wait for it … $ 8 million more just to make it safe and usable.

The problem is underneath. The roof and the substructure need a lot of expensive work.

And then there is the upkeep. Frank Burke built AT&T Field and moved the Lookouts because Engel cost him more to maintain each year than he cared to pour into it — and he had revenue coming in from regular ballgames.

Most of the proposed UTC future-use ideas bring in no new money.

Engel is a treasure. I’ve said for years that I could be happy just sitting there watching it rain. It’s that cool. So what is the solution? All it takes is money.