Five years ago, as the Chattanooga Lookouts and the Chattanooga FC soccer team were entrenched as the city's most recognized spring and summer athletic entities, Bob Martino developed a strong belief.
The Utah-based real estate developer was convinced there was room for more, so he established the Chattanooga Red Wolves professional soccer team.
"Before we went into the market with the development, we studied it and anticipated a lot of growth," Martino says. "I think there is still much more growth to come. This is a very attractive area for a lot of different reasons, and with the population growing, there are plenty of activities that people can enjoy - hiking and biking and all that stuff.
"Having another offering as markets grow is what's needed in them."
Chattanooga now boasts three professional sports options seeking the entertainment dollar, with the Lookouts and CFC staging contests at the downtown venues of AT&T Field and Finley Stadium, and with Martino having erected CHI Memorial Stadium off I-75 in East Ridge to house the Red Wolves. All three teams were shelved for multiple months in 2020 following the outbreak of the coronavirus, and all three endured capacity restrictions as the pandemic continued before this year's return to much more normal times.
In fact, it's been better than normal.
The Lookouts drew a whopping 76,602 fans to AT&T Field through their first 18 games of the season, while the Red Wolves announced sellouts in two of their first four matches at their 2,500-seat facility. The only night in 2022 in which the Lookouts, CFC and Red Wolves all were at home was May 28, and announced crowds of 4,004 at AT&T Field, 2,864 at Finley and 2,576 at CHI Memorial resulted in a combined audience of 9,444 at those competitions.
So much for two's company, three's a crowd.
"We have not noticed any difference," Finley Stadium executive director Chris Thomas says. "We track the attendance levels at all of our events really closely, because it's important for us to know what to expect in order that we can have enough water on hand and simple things like that. Consistently, CFC has grown from game to game, and there is no impact from the Red Wolves that we have seen.
"The Lookouts? There are one or two nights with the Lookouts that are kind of special - July 4th and 'Used Car Night.' That 'Used Car Night' was a big deal. Nobody wanted to mess with 'Used Car Night' and the Lookouts."
Used car giveaways at AT&T Field are now spread throughout the season, so there is no longer one monstrous evening in August. Lookouts president Rich Mozingo said the only competition-related decrease he can remember transpired in 2015, when CFC made a run at the National Premier Soccer League title that concluded with 18,227 fans at Finley for the championship match.
That total set an amateur match record in the United States - CFC announced in August 2019 that it would be moving from the NPSL to the professional National Independent Soccer Association - that remains today.
"That became the place to be," Mozingo says. "They had 18,000 in there, but that's really been the only time I've seen it. We haven't seen anything from the team in East Ridge at all, so that's been a nonfactor for us, and for CFC it was that one time."
Martino placing the Red Wolves in East Ridge may be the biggest reason for the lack of competing crowds. While the Lookouts and CFC are downtown entertainment options along with a movie at The Majestic or a walk across the Walnut Street Bridge, the Red Wolves provide an alternative that is closer for those living from Ooltewah to Dalton.
"We've not seen a decrease when other events are going on at the same time," Red Wolves general manager Sean McDaniel says. "For us, it started out as curiosity. People wondered, 'What is that going up around I-75? What is this brand new shiny stadium.' Now we've moved into the stage where people are telling us they are entertained when they come to a Red Wolves game.
"Then you add the fact that every couple of weeks there is an announcement about something new coming to this gateway development. People want to see what's going on out there, and I think the Red Wolves have been beneficiaries of that on Saturday nights."
There will be four Saturday nights this year when both soccer teams are at home, three Saturdays in which the two downtown teams are vying and six Saturdays in which both the Lookouts and Red Wolves are at home.
The consensus of the parties involved? So what?
"I think it's great when people are seeing live sports in Chattanooga," Mozingo says. "I think that's always good for us."