As Merrill Eckstein answered questions Friday in his Finley Stadium office following the NCAA’s announcement that the Division I Football Championship game was moving to Frisco, Texas, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football team was doing mat drills down on the field.
The Mocs were going through a hard offseason workout as they pursue their goal of becoming a playoff-caliber team that could play for a national championship in the years to come. If they do make it to the title game in the next three years, the length of Frisco’s contract, they won’t being playing on their home field.
Chattanooga’s 13-year run as the home of the FCS title game came to an end with the NCAA’s decision, and the Mocs never made the playoffs during that span. Ever the optimist, Eckstein, Finley Stadium’s executive director, was looking for the silver lining more than a week before Chattanooga lost the title game.
He joked with Greater Chattanooga Sports & Events Committee president Scott Smith about what he was going to tell the media if the game went to Frisco.
“I told him if by any chance we lose the game, I’m going to say, ‘That’s OK because we’re soon going to have playoff games in this stadium anyhow, and that will more than offset what we lose from losing the championship game,'” Eckstein said.
UTC athletic director Rick Hart said losing the game won’t have a dramatic effect on UTC, but it’s still disappointing.
“We loved having the game here and we certainly benefited from it as it relates to exposure,” he said. “It was nice having the ‘Road to Chattanooga’ lead to your venue.”
Finley Stadium’s revenues will take a hit with the game’s departure, but it won’t “crush the stadium” like it would have a few years ago, Eckstein said.
Because of the renewed interest in the UTC football program, which set a record for season-ticket sales last season, the increased income from Mocs home games will help offset some of the revenue loss.
“That (title) game is not a financial windfall for the stadium,” Eckstein said. “It will be at worst a very small financial setback, and probably the game itself in relation to our finances is nothing but a break-even venture at best.”
The Stadium Corp. didn’t charge the Sports Committee a rental fee for the title game, so all of Finley’s revenues from the game came from parking and concessions. The stadium got a percentage of each, splitting the concessions revenue with concessionaires and the parking with the NCAA.
The UTC athletic department pays the stadium $10,000 for each home game. Finley makes money off parking and concessions at those games as well.
In 2008, the Mocs played six home games and their total attendance was 34,489. Last season, the first under new coach Russ Huesman, UTC drew 52,515 fans to five home games. The Mocs’ smallest crowd in 2009 (8,452) was bigger than their largest in 2008 (8,240).
The increased attendance resulted in the Stadium Corp. netting $60,713 in concessions, more than $20,000 more than was projected in the budget.
Eckstein is expecting even better attendance in the 2010 season — especially with a much-anticipated season opener against five-time Southern Conference champion Appalachian State.
“From a financial standpoint, that’s been the biggest thing that’s given us an opportunity to begin to right the (stadium’s) financial ship,” Eckstein said. “Now we’re still going to finish in the red for this fiscal year, but I think as we go ahead we’ve got an opportunity to get in the black. And the biggest single reason for that is the huge jump in attendance at UTC games.”
Finley also will have the UTC women’s soccer team’s home games this year. In addition, the Chattanooga FC soccer team and the Tennessee Crush, a minor league football team based in Cleveland, will continue to play at the stadium.