Chattanooga Ready to Host “Friendly at Finley” With U.S. Women’s Soccer Team in August

June 24, 2015

Rick Nyman,

Chattanooga-(WDEF) About a month or so after the women’s U.S. soccer team wraps up play in the World Cup, they’ll be here in Chattanooga. They’ll play a "Friendly at Finley" against Costa Rica. The exhibition match will go down on August 19th. The local Chattanooga-FC played a big role in luring the match to the Scenic City.

Getting a U.S. national soccer team to Chattanooga has always been a goal for the CFC.

Said CFC General Manager Sean McDaniel,"We had the vision as a club organization since our inception to become a soccer center or soccer destination."

And the CFC felt Chattanooga could truly be that soccer destination when the new turf went in this year at Finley Stadium.

Said McDaniel,"Once we saw that the new turf was going in and was able to be clean with the football lines painted over, it was at that moment that we decided, let’s make the call."

Said Finely Stadium President Paul Smith,"When the U.S. women’s national team practiced for months at the Stub-Hub center in California, it was on the exact same surface that we recently installed at Finley."

McDaniel felt confident Chattanooga would land the women’s team when U.S. soccer officials wanted to check out the Scenic City.

"Really to have them come and do a site visit, that was really the most important piece because it showed a great interest in it."

McDaniel says the crowd support for the CFC was also instrumental.

"When you can draw three, four, five, or nine thousand people to our matches, it clearly showed the people of Chattanooga love soccer. This catapults us into a new level to be a destination soccer city in the south."
The exhibition match will be played on Wednesday, August 19th at 6:30pm at Finley Stadium.
The game will be televised on ESPN2. Tickets go on sale July 1st and can be purchased at ussoccer.com.