For 21 seasons, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football team has made Finley Stadium its home. For 10 seasons, the amateur Chattanooga Football Club has also called Finley its home site.
Now starting in 2019, a new Chattanooga professional soccer team will begin play. Presuming they will play at Finley Stadium, that could set up a situation in which the three entities – along with the UTC women’s soccer team – could all be vying for time in the same facility.
That battle could be one player short in future seasons.
Mounting frustration has led UTC to start looking into the possibility of building a new venue where it could start playing – and making money – soon. The school’s purchase of Engel Stadium in 2008 gives the school an option, and it has outlined a facilities master plan that includes the possibility of a 12,500-seat stadium that could be expanded to more than 15,000. The new facility could have as many as 25 suites with premium seating areas, and UTC would look into the possibility of moving its football building to the new site.
The school, which has been looking into the possibility for a year, recently received the green light from the University of Tennessee system to start working with the Populus Group on a master plan that would include renovations to McKenzie Arena and possible facility additions, as well as working on Maclellan Gymnasium. The UTC volleyball and wrestling programs practice and have home matches at the former home to the basketball teams.