AT&T Field

• Name: AT&T Field
• GPS-able Address: 201 Power Alley, Chattanooga, TN 37402
• Ballpark Owner: Chattanooga Lookouts
• Architects: DLR Group
• Groundbreaking: 5/4/1999
• Minor League Baseball/Professional Development League Teams: Chattanooga Lookouts (AA) 2000-present
• Pro Baseball Class/League History: AA/Southern League 2022-present; AA/[[[Double-A South]] 2021; AA/Southern League 2000-2020
• First Pro Baseball Game: 4/1/2000; Reds-Orioles exhibition
• Others Playing or Operating Here: None
• Previous Ballpark Names: BellSouth Park 2000-2007
• LF: 330 CF: 400 RF: 325
• Seats: 6,340
• Stated Capacity: 6,382
• House Baseball/Softball Record Attendance (as currently configured): 6,512, 4/1/2000

AT&T Field in Chattanooga, TN, is the home of the Chattanooga Lookouts, the Cincinnati Reds' Double-A Southern League farm team. Despite its relative youth, it is to be about to be replaced.

Opened as BellSouth Park in 2000, its name changed without any change in the naming contract when the sponsor's own name changed in a 2007 corporate merger. It is perched on Hawk Hill, the former home of Kirkman Technical High School Golden Hawks sports.

Hardball Capital began pushing for a new municipally funded ballpark a few years after buying the club in 2015. Its age then represented a short shelf life for a stadium, but Hardball says this privately financed facility was poorly designed. Roofing is scant so the hot sun is not and the sun position is not optimal, but the clincher was that it does not meet - and could not be made to meet in any cost-efficient way - new ballpark standards MLB imposed in its 2021 Minor League Reorganization.

That very year, Tennessee state government agreed to let the Lookouts keep about three-fourths of sales taxes a new playpen would generate. An original building of the abandoned foundry property that was built in 1885 - the same year of the first Chattanooga Lookouts team - will be incorporated into the stadium. The facility was originally expected to open in time for the Lookouts' 2025 season, although that may be in jeopardy now that the April groundbreaking has been pushed to August.[1] The first major building project spurred by the stadium - as stated by the developer - was proposed less than two months after the city approved building the ballpark.

In contrast, BellSouth Park was privately funded. In 1998, Lookouts owner Frank Burke announced the club would build a new downtown stadium if it could pre-sell 1,800 season tickets and 10 luxury boxes. After reaching those goals in January 1999, the Lookouts broke ground the following May 3. Although many online sources say the groundbreaking was in March, a May 4, 1999, Chattanooga Times Free Press article covers it as being the day before.

The Lookouts' first game in it was on April 10, 2000, but it first hosted professional baseball and a so-far unequaled 6,512 fans for a Reds-Baltimore Orioles April 1st spring-training game. Former President George Bush and First Lady Barbara Bush threw out ceremonial first pitches to two Chattanooga City Council members, and future Hall of Famers Ken Griffey Jr., Cal Ripken Jr., and Barry Larkin were among the players. Griffey homered and Larkin tripled.

AT&T was among the first minor league stadiums to begin hosting an annual 9/11 remembrance. The Chattanooga 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb and 343 Mile Memorial Walk honors the 343 FDNY firefighters[2] who died trying to rescue people trapped in the 110 stories of the taller tower.