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).