The Nashville Sounds, AAA affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers, have been at Greer Stadium since 1978 but plans to make stadium renovations at the team’s new home of Sulphur Dell have officially begun.
On Wednesday Lipscomb hosted the second installment of the Forehand and Friends luncheon with Brad Tammen (pictured above), the general manager of the Nashville Sounds, and Skip Nipper, a local baseball historian who had insight on the groundbreaking event of the new stadium.
Bisons baseball head coach Jeff Forehand made the introductions, talking about his team and coaches for this season, followed by the two guests speakers on the renovations of the stadium.
“It’s good to be around baseball people, but it’s really good to be around a Christian environment,” Nipper said before he began the memories of the old Sulphur Dell Park.
When describing the tradition and the age of the park, Nipper said that “the right field fence was just 162 feet from home plate,” drawing several laughs from the crowd.
Skip Nipper
Nipper showed picture after picture and clip after clip of some of the most historic and memorable moments before Tammen got up to speak on behalf of the new stadium.
Monday was the groundbreaking for the new Sulpher Dell Stadium. This is a $108 million project spread out to 38 million on the actual ball park, 60 million on redevelopment and 10 million on the parking structure.
As of now, AAA teams get roughly 350,000 fans a year, but there are high hopes that with the new stadium look, fans will fill the seats.
“The Sounds were 11th out of 16 in the league last year in attendance at 331,034 on the season,” Tammen said. “The new stadium is going to be a very attractive view for our fans looking out at the downtown skyline.”
MLB players like R.A. Dickey and Ryan Braun have come through Greer Stadium, and Tammen believes many more people and large events will come out of the new one.
“We are about affordable family fun and will continue that in the new facility,” Tammen said.
They hope to fill every last seat in the stadium in this brand-new ball park on the corner of 5th and Jackson on April of 2015.
Photo credit: Erin Turner