I don't know any details to speak of, but CFC drew CSD Municipal last night, 1-1. The Blues scored 22 goals in June, so I owe a lot of money to Prideraiser. Juan Hernandez has to sit out against Inter Nashville on Wednesday due to card accumulation.
I've been lax on the updates here, mainly since I figure I'm the only one who reads them, but to get back up to speed: CFC won both the Southeastern Conference regular season and playoffs. They hosted all the conference playoffs at Finley Stadium. They easily dispatched Inter Nashville in the semi-final, 3-0 (they outscored Nashville 12-1 over all three meetings), and, thankfully, Asheville City SC beat Greenville FC in the other semi-final (GVLFC's maul ball style seems to be CFC's kryptonite). The boys in blue then cruised to a 4-1 victory over Asheville in the final. In the South region semi-final they went to Miami FC, played really well (the game could easily have gone either way until Miami scored and could park the bus), but, obviously, came up short against the eventual national champions, 0-2. A nerve wracking month off led to the Founder's Cup becoming the Member's Cup and the announcement of a surprise home-and-home with a NISA club (Stumptown Athletic), but tonight we kick off the Member's Cup by hosting the New York Cosmos at Finley Stadium. As per the standard this season, Chattanooga is supposed to see thunderstorms all day. Vamos, Azules!
A really fantastic game last night, despite the result. It was a fast moving, back and forth affair: neither team dominated or bunkered. A wide open game. Very encouraging. The Cosmos scored the only goal in the 83rd minute on this beautiful penalty outside the box: Hey man, nice shot.It came down to this, @nycosmos @juniorburgos10 hit a set piece gem for the only goal of the match to beat @ChattanoogaFC 1-0 in the @NPSLSoccer Members Cup opening match. You gotta tip the cap on that strike around the wall.@chattahooligan @PhilipJDAmico pic.twitter.com/TsJqffwtNZ— KaleyCo (@J_Kaley) August 11, 2019 CFC's last two matches (versus both NPSL finalists) have shown that they can definitely hang with the top of the league, which helps ease concerns about the possibility of CFC potentially moving into NISA. Attendance: 3,347 They also showed videos of the candidates for the owners' board representative. Next weekend, they travel to Detroit to take on Detroit City FC at Keyworth Stadium.
That's relatively high this season, really. Or at least bang on average. Are you asking because they played the Cosmos? Or that it kicked off the Members Cup? Or just in general? It's also worth noting that at the Lookouts game last night, they were literally giving away free cars. That was a sellout crowd.
Just seemed to be there have been much higher attendance numbers, that's it. For the opening match of the Members Cup and Cosmos, I just expected more. I guess.
Ponchat, do you really have expectations for the Founders Cup? It is what it is, a cup made to extend the season for a few clubs. Knowing how many clubs signed up but then backed out doesn't exactly inspire, does it?
Realistically, from your average Chattanoogan's perspective, this was just another CFC game. Anyone that has any real perception of the Cosmos would already be going. This simply isn't a soccer town, despite what people tend to project onto it. For that same reason, the club isn't really hyping Members Cup: it's simply not going to mean anything to anybody this isn't already guaranteed to be there. A tournament with Milwaukee, Michigan, and Napa isn't going to move the needle really any more than games against geographical rivals. Still, it's worth pointing out that CFC's announced attendances are actual gate counts, not tickets distributed. So between the Cosmos match and the Lookouts game, about 2% of the metro area were physically distributed between the two stadiums. It's hard to see how you're going to get a whole lot more than that out on a (for once) non-rainy Saturday night, when there's other stuff going in town, as well (e.g. there is a free concert series on riverfront on Saturday nights, etc.). I think averaging 3k is realistically about the ceiling for a non-division club in a small city. If they manage to draw more, that's a bonus, but I cannot see them planning around that.
My own expectations, no. I don't hold NPSL or the Members Cup as anything special. I've had enough experience in NPSL and with some clubs that I never truly thought much of this endeavor. I didn't know where CFC's attendance was, nor did I both to look at it. I was just thinking that the number sounded lower than what I've heard previously.
Attendance has dropped each of the last two seasons. The average in 2017 was nearly 4,800 (although that was padded substantially by hosting Atlanta United's first ever game, which drew 12.5k - although the average would still probably be around 4k+ for the regular season) down to 3,700 last season to whatever it is this season - let's say around 3k (I'll come up with something a little more based in reality when I get a chance). I have a few theories on why this may be. If you're looking at it from a sheer momentum standpoint, 2017 would have been the best time to go pro: this would have followed the 2015 National Championship game (which drew 18k) and, honestly, the even better 2016 team (who squandered their easiest chance at a championship). It's the result of these two seasons, really, that you see CFC stickers on every other car in the area. However, in 2017 there really wasn't a viable league for them to join, not without dramatically changing the way they ran the club (by which I mean without taking on substantial debts/risks), so they stayed in NPSL, since most fans wouldn't care and the alternatives looked too risky for a city of Chattanooga's size (they specifically cite looking at Wilmington and Harrisburg for their concern). Worth noting that Atlanta United started in 2017. It's only 2 hours away. That year, Finley Stadium massively jacked up prices for parking and concessions. CFC had a fairly mediocre season (by their standards). Casual fans (who clearly don't understand the economics of soccer) began asking when they were going to join MLS (bearing in mind that USL isn't on the normal person's radar). 2018 brought more of the same: same high parking prices. We lost a couple of our bigger rivals (Birmingham, Memphis) to USL. Atlanta United surprised everyone in their first season and had a lot of momentum in their second. CFC had been playing footsie with NISA and NASL, but nothing came of it, etc. Then, just after the end of the season, the Red Wolves were announced. Now I want to be clear that the Red Wolves have basically taken zero support for CFC for themselves: despite their official numbers, there hasn't been more 800 people at a game since May. But what they did do was introduce (loudly) that Chattanooga FC was the amateur team. They announced everywhere they could that they were the professional team and there was no point in following wooden bat league soccer anymore, because they were going to have their faces shredded off with the high -did we mention professional?- level of soccer, the like of which Chattanoogans had never seen before. This strategy massively backfired because they play at a high school stadium with no beer. They have no supporter's culture: no drums, no singing, no chants - all things locals were used to associating with soccer. Sober, League One doesn't look so different than NPSL to justify having to be sober. At their last home game, you would accurately and non-hyperbolically describe the crowd using the word "dozens". For the general public, they look far more amateur than CFC. But their campaign did expose that Chattanooga FC was, in fact, an amateur team in an amateur league. Prior to CRW's PR blitz, most Chattanoogans likely would not have considered that. Has this been a difference maker? That would be hard to quantify, I think. I think it had some effect. Parking is no longer an issue (it's no longer special event parking, so if you get there around kickoff, it should be $6 total). Concessions are fairly priced (and have lots of options). But they're still in NPSL. Another factor is that even the front office thinks they probably count butts in seats a little more accurately now than 2017 (even if that works against them).
So NISA sounds like the logical place for CFC if they go pro. NISA, I'm sure, will have many viable clubs and the usual share of failures, how could things be any different for them than other DIII leagues. CFC has the ground game to be a stable DIII club; we shall see.
Does CFC have someone that meets the PLS for NISA? Rumors were that DCFC had a new investor coming on board to get them to NISA.
Yes, but they have to rejuggle the ownership percentages to meet 35%. They're not doing anything until after the public owners have chosen their board member so that the fan owners have a voice in the direction they go. Apparently DCFC is in the same situation as CFC (i.e. existing board member qualifies). It's just a matter of ceding 1/3 of the club to that one person.
Same template USL used in Tulsa their first season in 2015. Local media never treated us the same way since... Ironically, because the new majority owner of the USL team this season also owns the WPSL's Fortuna Tulsa, the local media recognized their own hypocrisy this summer after giving the WPSL team better coverage than they did us when it's the same setup and level (it helped we didn't lose a regular season game and won out in our home playoff games until the trip to MIami where we couldn't hold a 1-0 HT lead).
Front page news: Oh hello @1AlunWebb and @mason_walsh pic.twitter.com/u28hM51ii6— Andrew Bresee (@andrewbresee) August 16, 2019
I haven't given much of an update during the Member's Cup season, a lot of it due to lack of time, some of it due to the fact that there are probably better sources of match details. But I can give a post mortem of the season. CFC wound up third in the Member's Cup, which was a bit of a disappointment, but not entirely unexpected. While, yes, it would have been preferable to win, it was obvious that beating out the Cosmos was going to be a challenge. What was unexpected was how damn good DCFC was. More disappointing was dropping points in games that were thoroughly dominated by the Blues: the first Michigan Stars and MKE Torrent matches, especially. The away match at Detroit City realistically could fall into this category, as well, but DCFC's defense was nearly flawless all year and stacked up particularly well against our offense (which is both small, and requires a lot of possession in the attacking third). At the end of the day, though, the Stars and MKE matches would not have made up the difference to the Cosmos, so third is where we would have been, regardless. Attendance was down. Way down. I don't have numbers, but I was there and I have eyes. There's a simple explanation for this, though: We’re looking at 12 out of 18 home games being rainy days.... in the middle of a drought. https://t.co/riZ8cslaf8— Whiskey & Modelo (@WhiskeyIsFine) October 26, 2019 Nobody is going to spend the only rainy days of the year standing in Finley Stadium. And I cannot stress this enough: these were literally the only days this year it has rained. It would be comical, but it's not great for the club's bottom line. Again, I don't have numbers, but the numbers would also not tell the entire story, since CFC only reports butts in seats. So, for example, the 819 reported for the friendly vs. Stumptown Athletic (a washout, I'll add) don't include the season ticket holders that didn't feel like standing in the cold rain for what was effectively a meaningless game against a team nobody had ever heard of. The last game last weekend vs. MKE Torrent was probably even worse. At least it was fairly warm during the downpour. (I had to miss it, unfortunately. Life doesn't always care about your plans.) Of course, that's still only 819 people buying concessions, but you get the point. There are about 1,300 season ticket holders: We have a core of about 1,300 (season pass holders) + another 700-1,000 that are reliably there for 70% of matches.We have to figure out how to convert at least 1,000 more "casual fans" into reliable ones.— Beautiful Game Apparel (@BGAMerchStore) October 11, 2019 (which, I believe, doesn't include the Academy members, who also get free admission), so any other club would be reporting something a lot higher. I like that they use butts-in-seats, generally, but it has its downsides on years like this one. Still, was a much more successful season than the Red Wolves' (who didn't even have the rain excuse), so that's a bonus. Perhaps most disappointing (to me, at least) was that the Founder's Cup full through. NISA will probably eventually be fine, but FC would have been a more radical (and I think more democratizing) development. I'm not terribly worried about NISA anymore: with a core of Chattanooga, Detroit, Miami, Oakland, and now Cosmos, it should be easier to handle any volatility in the other teams. Even should, say, Oakland bolt to USL-C, D3 is flexible enough that NISA could stick to east of the Mississippi if need be. Anyway, I put my deposit on our 2020 season tickets, so I'm ready for whatever next season brings. I just hope it brings a little less rain with it.
Somehow I missed this yesterday: https://www.chattanoogafc.com/news/2019-stats-facts/ Also forgot to mention that Joao Costa was the Members Cup golden boot winner.
.@MLS (Div. 1), @nwsl (Div. 1), @USLChampionship (Div. 2), @USLLeagueOne (Div. 3) sanctioned for 2020. @NISALeague requested 4 new teams for 2020 spring season, all approved: @ChattanoogaFC, @DetroitCityFC, @MichiganStarsFC & @oaklandrootssc.— U.S. Soccer Comms (@ussoccer_comms) December 9, 2019 Chattanooga FC has been approved by USSF to join NISA
Chattanooga FC forward Darwin Lom scored a brace for the Guatemalan national team in their win over Honduras over the weekend: Major props to @ChattanoogaFC's @DarwinLom who scored not one..but TWO goals for @fedefut_oficial earlier today in their 2-1 win over Honduras.From Fort Finley to the international stage. So awesome to see! pic.twitter.com/32Ug1KPv3g— Ben Bobick (@BenBobickLocal3) November 16, 2020
Spring season schedule released: THE SPRING SCHEDULE IS HERE!Annual Passes and Flex Tickets are available now at https://t.co/PkdDFiCquK.Single game tickets go on sale next Tuesday. #alwaysforward pic.twitter.com/2Jy6TBQfxm— Chattanooga Football Club (@ChattanoogaFC) March 18, 2021 Some notables: The upside of hosting the bubble tournament is getting your matches scheduled at prime time. Home regular season games against Stars (5/8), MD Bobcats (5/29), New Amsterdam (6/5), and Stumptown AC (6/19). Away to Cal United, LA Force, SD1904, and Detroit City. What I think is awesome are the away friendlies with Georgia Revolution and North Alabama. It’s great that they continue to support clubs in NPSL.
Narrator: he wasn’t. Yesterday, CFC hosted Louisville City in their only open preseason game. It was an early, 2PM, game and, unsurprisingly on Easter weekend and the first weekend of spring break here (and general COVID wariness, obviously), had relatively low attendance (a little over 1,700). However it was a truly beautiful day for a soccer game. It also happened to be the first game I had attended in person for 18 months: despite allowing limited fans in the stands for the fall season, I didn’t feel comfortable with going, so it felt good to finally drink a beer at Finley. It was a homecoming for Niall McCabe, who used to play for CFC back in 2014. The home team looked great during most of the first half: strong defense plenty of movement up the field and went into halftime with the only goal (Hoffstader 10’). Louisville started to find their feet later in the half, though, and earned several corners. Louisville’s offense kept improving in the second half and Chattanooga conceded a lot of corners. Unfortunately I missed Louisville’s first 2 goals (66’ and 73’) because my daughter wanted to get something from the team store (and why not, it was a meaningless friendly), but my son told me that one of the goals was, no surprise, off of a corner kick. Juan Hernandez evened things up at 74’, but that only held for a little less than 10 minutes. Louisville’s third goal was really quite lovely sailing in from about 25 yards out. A minute later was a fairly shocking bench clearing fight (gentlemen, it’s called a “friendly”!) and Hernandez was bizarrely given a red card, despite being not being involved in it (I could probably have understood the red going to Spielman, who I think got involved- both teams were wearing practice kits, so it was kind of hard to tell who was who- but not Hernandez). The crowd got pretty salty towards the officials at that point, which wasn’t unexpected. CFC had one last good chance, but Felipe Oliveira sent it over the bar and the game ended. Next up, Chattanooga hosts the Legends Cup bubble tournament, which starts on the 13th. The Blues take on LA Force in the prime time match.
This long term partnership with @VfLWolfsburg_EN will focus on three key components:• The premier sponsor of the secondary kit• The return of the Chattanooga FC Women’s team in 2022• A stronger development of youth programs across the region#CFCxWolfsburg #DubPartner pic.twitter.com/RQO5eU2iV4— Chattanooga Football Club (@ChattanoogaFC) April 15, 2021