Chattanooga Football Club president Sheldon Grizzle firmly believes the 2019 season for the 11th-year club will be one to remember.
The National Premier Soccer League released its Southeastern Conference schedule Thursday, and Chattanooga FC's season opener is May 11 in Antioch, Tennessee, against Inter Nashville FC.
The home opener for CFC will be against Greenville FC on May 18 at Finley Stadium. The regular-season schedule runs through July 6, with conference and regional playoffs starting in mid-July.
"We think this will be the most compelling schedule we have ever put together for soccer fans in Chattanooga," Grizzle told the Times Free Press.
"From the international match against Guatemala's Communicaciones FC to bringing Detroit City back and then hosting a worldwide-known brand like the New York Cosmos for the kickoff of the Founders Cup on Aug. 10, people are in for a treat. It's the best value we have offered our season-pass holders as well."
CFC also has NPSL regular-season home matches against Georgia Revolution (June 1), Inter Nashville (June 8), Atlanta SC (June 12) and Asheville City (June 29). CFC's NPSL regular-season away matches are against Inter Nashville (May 11), Georgia Revolution (June 15), Asheville City (June 18), Atlanta SC (June 22) and Greenville FC (July 6).
Grizzle said there are a couple of surprise announcements still to come.
Breaking ground for American soccer by allowing fans supporter ownership, CFC has more than 2,000 investors who have poured in close to $600,000 to help the club's budget as it makes a leap to professional soccer.
"This is a grand experiment," Grizzle said. "We look forward to that first game where we have a lot of owners in the stands that before were fans. Now they are both. We truly believe that will bring a lot of positive energy to our season ahead."
Finley Stadium will host an international friendly between CFC and Communicaciones FC at 6 p.m. on March 23 in the first kickoff of the 2019 schedule.
Highly anticipated home matches also will be played against Detroit City on April 6, a battle of two teams that helped lower-division soccer find a breakthrough in the United States.
CFC will kick off its inaugural Founders Cup action with a home showdown against the Cosmos at 7:30 p.m. on Aug. 10. In 2015, the two drew a U.S. amateur soccer-record crowd of 18,227 in the NPSL national championship match at Finley.
Roster update
CFC has signed Phil D'Amico (goalkeeper), Juan Hernandez (midfielder) and Felipe Oliveira (forward) to its 2019 roster, which is still being formed. A few players who participated in CFC's open tryouts a couple of weekends ago could land spots on the opening-day roster.
Contact Patrick MacCoon at pmaccoon@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @PMacCoon.