The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s success this past football season under first-year coach Russ Huesman has resulted in Stadium Corp. revenues exceeding the projections of new Finley Stadium executive director Merrill Eckstein.
Maintenance expenses on the 20,668-seat facility built in 1997, however, are more than double what Eckstein had budgeted.
“We’ve had some nasty surprises with the recent weather,” Eckstein said Tuesday. “We’ve had a series of water-line breaks, and they’re being repaired as soon as they occur. The simple story is that there are more challenges there than I thought going in as I prepared the budget.”
Eckstein told Stadium Corp. board members that he now projects a $14,602 loss for the fiscal year ending June 30. He provided a budget this past summer that projected a $700 surplus, but there have been $46,309 in building maintenance expenses, and only $21,000 was budgeted.
Despite the decrease in the bottom line, Stadium Corp. members overwhelmingly expressed satisfaction about the past several months.