The Chattanooga Football Club soccer team soon will be competing in a new league and on a new field.
CFC's 12th year of existence will be its first in the National Independent Soccer Association. The NISA season begins for CFC with a trip to California and a Feb. 29 match with Oakland Roots FC, with the anticipated Finley Stadium opener against the Michigan Stars FC set for March 14.
Finley's new AstroTurf surface was completed Monday, and new CFC managing director Jeremy Alumbaugh is excited for the months ahead.
"We are bringing in some major markets with this league," Alumbaugh said during Tuesday's Stadium Corp. meeting. "When you think of Oakland, you think of the Raiders and the Golden State Warriors. There are two teams in this league from Los Angeles.
"We are going to put a ton of eyeballs in here."
CFC will play seven regular-season home matches in its NISA schedule that ends in June. In early July, the CFC likely will host a team from Bundesliga, the elite league in Germany.
Stadium Corp. board member Tim Kelly referred to that looming international showdown as "the biggest we've had."
The CFC will resume play in August, which is also when the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football team will begin practicing at Finley Stadium. Due to its proximity, Scrappy Moore Field will house Rusty Wright's Mocs for each of their 15 spring practices, provided that field avoids flooding from recent rains.
Finley Stadium's new surface was free of charge due to the previous AstroTurf field displaying significant erosion before four full years of use. The Stadium Corp. launched a two-year fundraising initiative in June 2014 for a $600,000 surface, but it wound up costing $525,000.
The surface had an eight-year warranty.
AstroTurf officials are scheduled to return to Finley on Thursday to confirm the completion of the project. The 20,412-seat facility built in 1997 and its neighboring First Horizon Pavilion already have 213 events scheduled for 2020, which includes next month's Chattanooga Marathon, April's 4 Bridges Arts Festival, August's high school football jamborees and another year of Sale Creek football games.
Nobody, however, will break in the new turf more in these next few weeks than CFC.
"I'm more excited about this season than I have been thus far because of the leadership and energy that Jeremy brings," Finley Stadium executive director Chris Thomas said. "This year is going to be awesome, and I'm as confident as I've ever been in terms of the shape we're in. Knock on wood, but we should have a pretty solid year."
Thomas added that his financial optimism has been fueled by nearly $210,000 in parking income since last July.
"That's a reflection of good events and our partnership with Republic Parking," he said. "This is the reason we're profitable. If we didn't have these parking revenues, we would be having a much different conversation."
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.