Finley Stadium will produce a record surplus of roughly $50,000 when the 2011-12 fiscal year ends June 30.
The surplus is a sizable surprise considering it follows the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s disappointing 5-6 football season as well as the city pulling the $60,000 it had funded each of the previous four fiscal years. Yet it does occur after an incredibly mild winter and a relatively mild springtime conclusion.
Merrill Eckstein, the executive director of the Stadium Corp., said Tuesday that the surplus was $61,239 through the end of May.
“I am very pleased, and I absolutely had no idea this would be possible,” Eckstein said. “We’ve been very fortunate with the mild winter and that we didn’t have any pipes break, and our water bill was down because we didn’t have any pipes break. We also had less demand on power, and we have really done a good job of conserving the power usage at the stadium.”
Finley’s revenues are down about $83,000 from last year mostly because of the city no longer funding the $60,000 and because concessions are off by $8,480. UTC posted a record home attendance average of 12,699 during the 2010 football season, but that figure slipped to 10,436 last season.