BRADY FLANIGANStaff Writer

The Arnold Heritage and Innovation Center will not be built at Waggoner Park.

After Tullahoma Area Economic Development Corporation (TAEDC) chair Col. Beverly Lee, USAF (retired) pitched a plan to build the center at Waggoner Park during the Feb. 24 study session, pushback came like a fastball. People had concerns—about the ballfields, about the money, about why more support seemed to be coming from Arnold Air Force Base than Tullahoma itself. Now, according to a statement from Aldermen Matthew Bird’s Facebook page, Waggoner Park is off the table. Per Bird, the Board of Mayor and Aldermen will not vote on the proposal, and the project is back looking for a new home. The hesitation wasn’t about the idea of an Innovation Center itself. It was about what the project would replace.

The $12.5 million proposal, described by Lee as a “transformational” space for STEM education, business growth, and Air Force/aerospace heritage, would have required removing two of the city’s fields—baseball and football alike. These weren’t underutilized spaces. Kids are playing on them now. The city had just spent money upgrading them, including the newly inaugurated Joe Moon Field. Lee didn’t see it as taking something away. She saw it as a “quality of life initiative.” 

“I think there was a lot of misinformation,” Lee said. “This is not a museum” She envisioned the center as a high-tech hub where kids could see holograms of F-35s taking off and engineers could tinker with 3D printers behind glass walls.

That all sounds ambitious, but holograms weren’t going to replace real turf. But beyond the futuristic pitch, the reality was that Waggoner Park wasn’t just a plot of land waiting to be repurposed. It was an active, partially federally funded park. The city has used Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) grants for more than 40 years to improve it, and that money comes with strings attached—removing the fields could put the city’s future park funding at risk, according to Parks and Rec Director J.P. Kraft.

“Had we had the location a couple of years ago, before the new transition into a baseball field, it would have probably been a slam dunk,” Lee said. One issue: this isn’t a couple of years ago. It’s now. And now, those fields are being used. Lee remained convinced that Waggoner Park was the best location. Why? Because it was next to the Air Force base.

“The perfect location would have been Waggoner Park,” Lee said. “Because if it’s adjacent to Air Force property or on old Air Force property, the Air Force tends to say, ‘Wow, that belongs to us, you know, that used to be us, we helped that.’” 

A City Park or an Air Force Project?

There was a reason people were skeptical about the plan.

When Lee presented the project, most of the public support came from Arnold Air Force Base. Col. Grant Mizell, commander of AEDC, defense contractors, and retired military officials were the ones backing it, even attending the board meeting to give public support for the initiative—not coaches, not parents, not the people who would be losing their fields.

Some residents saw the Innovation Center as a project being shaped by defense interests rather than the community’s needs. Lee described the center as a resource for Tullahoma, but also spoke about its role in national security.

“If you look at the current administration, every other word out of their mouth is ‘innovation,’” Lee said, confident that the project could still secure federal backing even in the face of huge federal budget cuts. “This particular project actually is a national security project.”

The defense-heavy support for the project didn’t help sell it to a town where Little League and local sports culture were as much a part of Tullahoma’s identity as Arnold Air Force Base itself. 

The Cost of Moving the Fields

Even if people could be convinced to trade their ballfields for an innovation hub, the logistics wouldn’t be simple.

Lee’s plan was built on possible grants, potential funding, and promises to secure backing—in addition to the estimated yearly deficit of nearly $275,000 that would need to be accounted for. Nothing was supposed to come from the city’s pocket. Yet the cost of relocating fields, lights, and fencing to Johnson Lane was estimated by Parks and Rec to be $3.45 million. More than that, relocating to Johnson Lane would have used up the last available space for any future expansion there.

“If we now do that, it impacts the Cal Ripken baseball,” Lee said. “So we would have to create another baseball field. If you did that at Waggoner Park right now, it would impact the football field. So Monday night at the study session was the first time I knew that if we moved football fields it would cost over three million dollars. I had no idea.”

It wasn’t just the fields themselves—it was the entire domino effect of shifting sports facilities that made the plan even more complicated. Even if all of that was sorted, there was still the matter of funding the Innovation Center itself.

“We have a general idea of who would do what. Who we would ask for different funding,” Lee said. But the actual money? Still uncertain. No guarantees. No firm commitments. Just a list of agencies TAEDC hoped would chip in.  

What Happens Now?

For now, the Innovation Center has no home. TAEDC is looking for another location, but no new site has been announced. Without a clear plan forward, the project is holding its breath. Lee has said the Innovation Center will still happen in some form, but what that will look like, or where, is an open question.

And Waggoner Park? It stays exactly as it is. The kids will keep playing, the parents will keep watching, and the city will keep its park—just like it always has.