Tuesday’s Stadium Corp. meeting at Finley Stadium was the first since March 17, which means it was the first since the opening of neighboring Erlanger Park.
Which also means it was the first quarterly gathering since the Chattanooga FC soccer team announced it would be playing a Fourth of July match at the $115 million venue instead of its home since CFC’s debut season in 2009.
When asked about CFC’s decision to temporarily relocate, Stadium Corp. board chairman Mike Davis said, “I wish I had a vote.”
CFC chief business officer Chad Emerson said late last month that he does not view the Fourth of July match as “the first step in a long process” of changing locales on a permanent basis but rather a unique celebration on our nation’s 250th birthday.
Yet where the MLS Next Pro franchise plays its games in 2027 and beyond is definitely a topic for the months ahead.
“I don’t have any control over that,” Davis said. “My deal is to cut the best deal with them that I can for them and for us. I am a firm believer that deals have to be win-win, and I think it has been. I remember when they were struggling and we were there. I remember when we were struggling and they were there.
“They’re a big partner to us, and I want to keep that partnership.”
Finley Stadium executive director Brian Wright was asked as well about the CFC match at Erlanger Park and said he couldn’t blame them for wanting to try it.
“We’ve been their home for 18 years, and we certainly plan on continuing to be their home,” Wright said. “Certainly anything is possible, and what we’ve reflected in our budget and the capital plan is that the math only works when you have UTC and CFC and the (Chattanooga) Market.
“We want everyone happy in the sandbox, and we’ve maintained that structure for 18 years.”
CFC played before 3,315 fans during its last home match on June 6 but may double that on the Fourth of July. CFC announced Tuesday that the right-field picnic area is almost sold out, and Emerson said that some concourse suites have sold out as well.
Chattanooga Lookouts president Rich Mozingo said Tuesday that more than 3,000 tickets overall already have been sold, but Emerson is not planning a crowd comparison at the two venues.
“I think it’s going to be hard to take too much out of a single match on a holiday,” Emerson said. “That’s a special anniversary with it being the 250th, so it’s not going to be easy to extrapolate out of that. We’re just happy that we’re able to do it. We know that the group sales have been really strong, and that’s not always the case on July 4th.
“I think people may go to the lake or go to their barbecue and then finish with soccer and fireworks that night.”
Finley Stadium, known by CFC supporters as “Fort Finley,” has a rich soccer history, most notably the 18,227 fans who attended CFC’s appearance in the National Premier Soccer League’s title match in 2015, which set a national record for an amateur soccer contest. UTC has played its home football games at Finley Stadium since the 20,412-seat facility’s opening in October 1997.
Should MLS Next Pro follow the MLS and shift to a summer-to-spring format that will align with other soccer leagues around the world, CFC matches would start in mid-to-late July and run through late May, taking a winter break from the middle of December to early February. That would result in fewer conflict dates with Lookouts games.
“Once they make that announcement, then we’re going to have to look at availability and all those other things,” Emerson said. “Right now, we’re kind of in a holding pattern waiting on the league.”
Finley Stadium and Erlanger Park have been working together on the parking front. When Erlanger Park has a crowd of 7,000 or 8,000, as many as 100 cars will use a Finley lot, providing Finley as much as $700 or $800 in revenue.
It’s definitely a dynamic in its early stages with an interesting road ahead for both.
“We can share parking, and we can share venues,” Davis said. “They were just a little further away before. Maybe they didn’t focus on that, but they’ve got their thing and we’ve got our thing, and I’m confident that we can pull our part with what we’re doing.
“We’ve got some bumps in the road to deal with, and the Lookouts have some bumps in the road. I didn’t quit going to their baseball games.”
Musically viable
Late last month, Erlanger Park and the Tivoli Theatre Foundation announced a partnership designed to bring concerts of all sizes to the new 8,032-seat facility, but Finley Stadium remains in the concert business.
Finley housed more than 17,000 fans for a Kane Brown concert in 2022, which is arguably the biggest non-Riverbend show this city has witnessed.
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“This is still the largest music venue in Chattanooga, and to get that arena-touring act, you have to have that kind of capacity,” Wright said. “We’ve continued to have relationships and have had some holds fall through in the last couple of years related to concerts, but this isn’t a deal where we’ll have 10 or 15 concerts a year but rather try to have one or two.
“There is just a lot of competition within 100 to 150 miles. We had a hold this year for a date, but they ended up playing in (Atlanta’s) State Farm Arena.”
Officers elected
The Stadium Corp. board will remain intact for another year with Davis as chair, Russell Gros as vice president, Zac Greene as secretary and Larry Parks as treasurer.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.