The Chattanooga Red Wolves are expanding their stadium to make room for nearly 1,000 more people and adding amenities in an investment of more than $1 million, the team's owner said Tuesday.
The new seating and standing room space will push capacity to more than 4,000 with the opening of the season March 25, said Bob Martino, owner of the professional soccer club who's also developing the land around the facility at Interstates 75 and 24 in East Ridge.
"We're expecting larger crowds," Martino said in an interview, adding that there were several Red Wolves sellouts last season at CHI Memorial Stadium. "We're very excited about player personnel this year. We knew we had to bring in more capacity."
In addition to more seats, the club is adding a multilevel indoor and outdoor sports bar called Howl, along with a second so-called "party pad" for community groups, he said.
Caroline McWhorter, president of stadium development, said in an interview that the new party pad will put capacity at those sites at 225 people.
"It's a great, fun environment," she said.
Planned enhancements on the stadium concourse include a new team merchandise store, multiple food and beverage stations, and restrooms and press office near the entrance and Executive Club, the officials said. The stadium has added a limited mobility lift that allows spectators with disabilities to access upper grandstands.
"We listened to our fans, and their feedback always plays a role in our decisions to make improvements to the stadium," Martino said.
New player and referee locker rooms and areas for medical staff, athletic trainers and laundry are now available on the east side of the stadium.
Seating space is boosted on both the east and west sides of the stadium, Martino said. Some of the seating will have backs, he said.
"We're real happy about where we are," Martino said.
Outside the stadium footprint, the developer said work continues on the first 16 townhouses going up on the 110-acre tract, which is called The Gateway. Eventually, about 144 townhomes are slated for the site, Martino said. Also, the $140 million first phase includes more residences and commercial space.
The Gateway is seen as a live-work-play location with $250 million in added development when Martino's blueprint is fully built out featuring offices, retail, apartments, condominiums and a hotel.
But Martino said he's continuing to wait for construction of a widened road into the site from Ringgold Road. City officials in January were told that costs are increasing by nearly $1 million on the widening project on North Mack Smith Road.
Plans for the project now call for four lanes heading northbound from Ringgold Road to the curve near the Budgetel and East Ridge Residence senior living community, where it will narrow to three lanes and then transition to two lanes as it gets closer to the Gateway project, interim City Manager Scott Miller said in news archives.
Eight parcels of property adjacent to North Mack Smith Road totaling about 32,000 square feet, or a little more than half an acre, need to be acquired by the city for the work to begin, Miller said in January.
Martino, a national developer from Utah who is building a house in Ooltewah, said some of the $5 million in state funds granted last year for infrastructure at The Gateway project have been spent.
Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318.