CFC Turning Pro For 2020 Season

Chattanooga-(WDEF-TV) The CFC is turning pro.
After a decade as a successful amateur soccer club, Chattanooga joins the NISA for their first full pro season.
The team assembled in the Scenic City Monday, as they get ready for their opener February 29th at Oakland.

Many of the players gathered at the Moxy Hotel in Chattanooga were amateurs last year for the CFC.
Now they’re getting paid to play for the CFC.
Reporter:”Do you feel like a professional now?”
Said striker Joao Costa:”Yeah I’m starting to. It’s a dream come true, so I’m like getting into it.”
Said head coach Peter Fuller:”Dealing with agents now is something a little bit different I think for all of us. We don’t have a salary cap in the league, so you’ll have. I told the guys earlier that we will probably play against teams that will have players at one or two positions that are making more than our entire pay-roll.”
Mo money mo problems in trying to win at the professional level
Said goalie Philip D’Amico:”Speed of play that they play at. How they read the game. The players are individually more technical than the players at the semi-pro level.”
Reporter:”Is there going to be more pressure on your goalie? Will there be more shots on goal?”
Said Costa:”Hopefully not. (chuckles) Hopefully not. Hopefully we have more shots on their goalie than on our goalie.”
The pro season will be 10 months long with plenty of travel.
Said D’Amico:”We’ve got four games in California. Two in Detroit. One in Charlotte, so it’s not ideal. We’re in the South. Chattanooga.”
The CFC certainly has the built in crowd support, which sometimes turned away matches into home matches.
Said D’Amico:”Traveled to California. Napa Valley. I think we had more fans there. Milwaukee I think we had more fans. The support we get is unreal.”
Said Costa:”The size of Chattanooga FC. It was supposed to be professional a long time ago. They have a lot of fans. A good set-up. A good like staff and everything. It’s going to be easier for them in like being professional for the first year.”