CFC Have Been a Big Boost For Finley Stadium

Chattanooga-(WDEF) The CFC open post-season play Friday night, and the Chattanooga FC have secured home field advantage throughout the playoffs.
And no one is happier than Finley Stadium director Paul Smith. The CFC have been good business for Finley Stadium since coming on the scene in 2009.
Last August, the CFC set a national amateur soccer record when over 18,000 fans showed up at Finley Stadium to watch the CFC play for the NPSL national title.
Said Smith-“Perfect night weather wise in August. The crowd was happy. It’s about the most fun I’ve seen a crowd have when their team lost.”
Smith says it’s hard to imagine other NPSL teams coming close to matching that attendance mark.
Said Smith-“Knoxville for example plays in a community park with just some aluminum bleachers. Fort Finley has become apart of what CFC does. I would say without a doubt it creates the environment that CFC wants.”
The CFC have certainly been a steady revenue stream for Finley Stadium in what would normally be a dead period.
Said Smith-“Without a doubt having CFC here as a tenant for these late spring and summer games have certainly provided us with some resources to take care of some of those long overdue repair lists that needed to be corrected.”
The CFC are now drawing pretty close to what the Mocs football team gets at Finley Stadium in the fall.
Said Smith-“Per game, the Mocs are still ahead, but if you add up all the butts in seats, it’s probably pretty equal.”
Smith says the CFC hopes by the end of the month to emulate the Mocs football tail-gating experience.
Said Smith-“We’re trying to create a pregame experience much like the Mocs where we can open up the campus and let them use the Pavilion. We’re working through all those details now, and hopefully we’ll have them all worked out in the next couple of weeks.”