File photo by Robin Rudd. Finley StadiumA second consecutive winning season by the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football team resulted in record revenue at Finley Stadium this past fall, but the city of Chattanooga has yet to commit to funding for the facility in the next fiscal year.
The city, which has provided $60,000 to the Stadium Corp. each of the past four years, has asked board chairman Bryan Patten to submit paperwork within the next few days that will be reviewed by its budget committee chaired by Carol Berz. The county also provides $60,000 annually through the Chattanooga Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, and UTC is responsible for $10,000 per home football game.
“I don’t have a sense of optimism or pessimism,” Patten said Tuesday. “I think it’s responsible on their part, and we’ll submit the paperwork timely and accurately.”
Richard Beeland, the director of communications for the city, said the budget committee is examining every entity that seeks funding.
“We’re not just going to continue funding people who have been receiving funding for years without discussing what they’re doing with that money and how they’re planning to use it,” Beeland said. “The money that the county pays to the Stadium Corp. comes out of sales tax dollars and does not come out of their general fund, and our council is looking at that, too. There are a lot of questions the council has that they want answered about this.