Mayor Conger discusses Ballpark at Jackson’s future
JACKSON, Tenn. — A decision has been made on if the city will have full control over the Ballpark at Jackson.
WBBJ 7 Eyewitness News Reporter Marcos Santander spoke with local leaders, and they say the possibilities for the stadium are endless.
“I don’t think there is nothing to celebrate about this whole process. I think what we look at now, it’s time to move on and move forward,” said Jackson Mayor Scott Conger.
The city announced Tuesday that they now have full control of the stadium where the Jackson Generals played after the arbitrator ruled in favor of the city.
“It gives us an opportunity now to move forward in the best way for the citizens of the city to utilize the stadium in an economical fashion and to get the best out of the stadium year round,” Conger said.
The Generals lost the right to use and manage the Ballpark when they lost their Major League Baseball franchise, according to the agreement they had with the city.
Conger says all future plans with the stadium were on hold until the contract dispute with the Generals was resolved.
“It has all really been put on hold until we had some final decisions because we didn’t want to be unfair to anyone else if the decision went the other way, and we started on a process with someone else, that wouldn’t be fair to them. So we wanted to be fair to everyone involved,” Conger said.
He also says the stadium could be used for different events in the future.
“From concerts to events, to whatever else we can think of. We see other stadiums that are utilized in different abilities. At some point we had football games there. We can have soccer games there. Baseball, I think, is one component of it. It is a major component because that was what the stadium was built for,” Conger said.
Plus some schools are looking to use the stadium.
“We have interest from several Division 1 schools that want to play some exhibition games here, and so there’ll be opportunities to see baseball in the 2022 year,” Conger said. “Then we’ll look at what that partnership looks like with the league, with the team on what the season may be in 2023.”
The Generals have 30 days to remove any property they have within the stadium.
WBBJ 7 Eyewitness News reached out to the Generals for comments and were told nobody was available to speak.
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