HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) — This week on Starstruck, we are going back to 1984.
The Huntsville City Council officially voted to bring the Stars to town on Aug. 23, 1984. A move that almost didn’t happen after a dilemma over beer sales nearly cost Huntsville the Stars.
News 19’s Mike Newton attended the City Council meeting where the vote happened.
In the meeting, the council voted 4-1 to enter a stadium agreement with Larry Schmittou, who at that time was the principal owner of the Nashville Sounds. The vote was met with a large ovation from the crowd in attendance.
Council member Jan Manbry was the only person to vote against the team.
Schmittou promised the council he was bringing the best of the best to town.
“I can assure you that we will do our very, very best beginning tomorrow morning to give you the best team and hopefully the Southern League championship by next year,” Schmittou said in 1984. “We are certainly looking forward to next April when we can throw out the first pitch, and thank you very much.”
Even though the beer dilemma was over and the lease had been agreed on, the controversy wasn’t over. The council then had major disagreements over who would choose the architect to build the stadium.
“I think that it behooves us to go out on proposals to secure an architect at the fastest possible date,” one council member said at the time.
“Mr. Chairman, I’d like to make a motion to end it. We leave the architecture firm to the administration. Let the mayor do the negotiation on architect firm and let him make the recommendation to the council,” another council member said.
“Why can’t this be done with both the council and the mayor? I’ve listened to just about all of this I can listen to, controversy back and forth,” another added.
In the end, the city council was given the task of choosing the architect.
The since-defunct minor league team played in Huntsville from 1985 to 2014 before moving to Biloxi, Mississippi. But the impact the organization had on the Tennessee Valley is profound.
The Starstruck series will continue taking a look back at the Stars’ inaugural season, 40 years later. To read our full series, click here.
The post News 19 Rewind: 1984 Huntsville City Council votes to bring Stars to town appeared first on WHNT.
