Fans watch the Chattanooga Football Club play the Georgia Revolution at Finley Stadium.The Chattanooga Football Club's meeting Wednesday with members of the Stadium Corp. board was overwhelmingly positive, CFC general manager Sean McDaniel said.
So much so that he and fellow CFC board member Tim Kelly left feeling quite confident the club will be playing at Finley Stadium next summer, as it has during its first three seasons.
"We've got some things to work out, but it looks like we'll be staying at Finley," Kelly said following the 90-minute meeting at the office of Stadium Corp. board chairman Bryan Patten.
Patten was enthusiastic about the chance to sit down with members of the soccer club's board and discuss the issues CFC has with its current arrangement with Finley.
He said Tuesday that it was important that both parties "try to make Finley the home of what they're trying to do and the home of what we're trying to do."
It didn't take long, McDaniel said, for the two sides to find a lot of common ground.
In fact, he said, after going over some of the issues CFC has with the current game-day operations, the meeting quickly became "a brain-storming session" about things they could do to bring more soccer, outside of just CFC games, to the stadium.
"One of the most encouraging things was when we left that meeting, the guys that were there representing the [Stadium Corp.] board really had the same vision we did," McDaniel said. "They also see the great potential that Finley Stadium has with soccer - with bringing in other events associated with soccer.
"At the end of the day we absolutely walked out of that meeting feeling much more enthusiastic because the board's position was right in line with what our hopes would be with Finley."
McDaniel said the two groups plan to talk further but no meeting has been scheduled.