Finley Stadium will turn 20 years old in October, but the celebrations and reflections can wait.
The 20,668-seat facility soon will experience a February unlike any other.
Two soccer matches in the span of eight days will give Finley Stadium its busiest winter on record. The United States men's national yeam will play a friendly against Jamaica on Feb. 3, and that will be followed on Feb. 11 by a friendly between the Chattanooga Football Club and the Atlanta United FC, which is a Major League Soccer expansion team.
Gordon Davenport, shown here in 2005 after artificial grass was installed at Finley Stadium, will follow in his father's footsteps by becoming the chairman of the Stadium Corp. in January.
Sean McDaniel, general manager of the Chattanooga Football Club, speaks during a news conference at Finley Stadium on Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2016. Chattanooga will host Atlanta United's first matchup against CFC as well as the U.S. men's national team matchup against Jamaica in February. "These are big deals, both of them," new Finley Stadium board chairman Gordon Davenport said Tuesday. "February is our down time, but this is not a down time. This is going to be great for us."
Finley Stadium executive director Paul Smith said that about 13,000 tickets have been sold to the Jamaica match, which will be the final display for the U.S. team before its CONCACAF "Hexagonal" qualifier for the 2018 World Cup against Honduras on March 24. The United States lost its first two qualifying matches in November to Mexico (2-1) and Costa Rica (4-0).
Jurgen Klinsmann was fired as national coach following those two losses and replaced by Bruce Arena.
The U.S. men's team rarely plays on turf fields, but team officials have been impressed with the turf and sub-surface at Finley. The most obvious concern for the match is the weather unknown, with Chattanooga having gone through a stretch of bitter cold and unseasonable warmth in the past two weeks.
"It could be 76 degrees, and it could be 1," said Tim Kelly, who is a Stadium Corp. board member and has an ownership stake in Chattanooga FC.
FOX Sports South and Univision will televise the U.S.-Jamaica match, which has a 7 p.m. start.
The friendly between the Chattanooga FC and Atlanta United, which has a 3 p.m. start, has sold about 2,000 tickets. Kelly said marketing for the first opportunity to watch Atlanta's team would spike after the national team's visit.
Of the first 1,000 tickets sold to that friendly, roughly half were purchased in Chattanooga and the other half in Atlanta.
"We don't want to be outnumbered," Kelly said.
Finley Stadium officials are hopeful of having 8,000 or even 10,000 for the Atlanta United visit, and they are setting their sights on a sellout for U.S.-Jamaica. The U.S. women's team, on the heels of its World Cup championship, routed Costa Rica 7-2 in a friendly before a Finley crowd of 20,535 in August 2015.
That match essentially sold out in a day.
"The men's team has been playing in larger cities and drawing 5,000 to 10,000 fans," Smith said. "We're a crazy soccer town, and they wanted to bring it to a smaller, more intimate market. U.S. Soccer is confident we'll get to a sellout."
Said Davenport: "It's extraordinary."
A new rental agreement between Finley Stadium and Chattanooga FC was approved during Tuesday's meeting, with Smith and Kelly claiming it is more "fair and equitable for both sides" compared to previous deals.
Odds and ends
Davenport on Tuesday recommended Mike Davis as Stadium Corp. vice president, Ryan Crimmins as treasurer and Bryant Patten as secretary, and each was approved.... On Feb. 1, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football program will host a national signing day party at the Stadium Club beginning at 5 p.m.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.