The Chattanooga Football Club hopes to carry a tournament championship into the start of the National Independent Soccer Association's fall season.
On Friday, NISA announced its two-part fall schedule, which will have Chattanooga FC playing in the Eastern Conference along with Detroit City FC, Michigan Stars FC, New Amsterdam FC and the New York Cosmos.
CFC will host Soda City FC of Columbia, South Carolina, at 8 p.m. Saturday at Finley Stadium with a NISA Independent Cup title on the line as the Southeast Region completes its return-to-play tournament. Georgia Revolution FC and Savannah Clovers FC play at 5 p.m. in the other match on the final day of the round-robin event, with no fans permitted at Finley for either contest.
Then next Saturday, Aug. 8, CFC will visit the Michigan Stars for a 7 p.m. kickoff at Ultimate Soccer Arenas Outdoor Stadium in Pontiac. CFC will also be in the Detroit region for its second NISA fall match, against Detroit City at 7:30 p.m. on Aug. 15 at Keyworth Stadium in Hamtramck.
Detroit City began selling shares of its club to fans on Friday, following a successful supporter-ownership model that generated 3,256 investors and $1,520,706 for CFC from Jan. 19 to June 1 in 2019.
CFC will host Eastern matches at Finley Stadium against New Amsterdam on Aug. 29 and New York on Sept. 12, with both kickoffs at 7:30 p.m. The club hopes to have fans in attendance, although that will be based on the state of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Western Conference teams competing in the fall schedule are California United Strikers FC, Oakland Roots Sports Club and the Los Angeles Force. CFC, which competed as an amateur club from 2009 through last year, made its professional and NISA debut on Feb. 29 against Oakland, playing to a 1-1 draw in California. That was CFC's lone match before the pandemic shut down sports in mid-March.
After the regionalized competition, the two conferences will compete in an eight-team NISA tournament from Sept. 21 to Oct. 2. The event will be held at a single location that is still being discussed by the league.
Contact Patrick MacCoon at pmaccoon@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @PMacCoon.