Scenic City
A battlefield in the Soccer Warz
Image credit: Chattanooga Tourism Co
Chattanooga, TN was the site of some decisive battles during the Civil War. The same geography - surrounded by mountains, with a large winding river - responsible for the nickname “Scenic City” also made it a tough city to take in battle. What we're here for today is to talk about how this city is an example of the Soccer Warz in the US. Chattanooga is the center of a census area that dips down into Georgia, with a population over 550,000 people. It's about two and a half hours northwest of Birmingham (not much farther than Atlanta), and currently features two professional Division 3 teams. That's not quite adjacent, but Birmingham Legion has regularly faced both of these teams in preseason friendlies, and the Open Cup. The other tidbit is that even though they're in the same city, they don't schedule friendlies against each other.
Image credit: MLS NextPro
Chattanooga FC
Chattanooga Football Club was formed in 2009, playing in the NPSL. They quickly became a national power, reaching the national finals for the league on multiple occasions during their tenure. The 2015 Championship game in Chattanooga against New York Cosmos B drew 18,227 fans, a record for amatuer soccer in the US. Regular season attendance had grown to average around 5000 per game, and the club began to explore options for going pro. A planned NPSL pro division fell through, leaving a choice between two Division 3 pro leagues - USL League One and NISA. NISA was established as a league with an independent model, and had drawn in some established clubs that had also been successful in NPSL and also some that had come out of NASL. The league was formed in 2017, and CFC played their first professional season in 2020. The move to pro was intended as a vehicle for larger revenue growth.
Image credit: WDEF
Chattanooga Red Wolves SC
There's plenty to read out there about the predatory nature of MLS in their business practices. Dropping into markets like Charlotte and San Diego, where there were already USL clubs, and situations like Indianapolis, where it looks like they want a deal that would displace Indy Eleven. Among others. The case of the Red Wolves puts a dent in the USL's claim to moral high ground.
Once Upon a Time, Sean McDaniel was the General Manager at CFC. They were in NPSL, and had success building the club, but finances were shaky. Going pro was intended to bump up the revenue stream, but in the meantime it was suggested that McDaniel “find a day job”. So he did. The sequence is unclear, but he was hired in for a USL League One club owned by a businessman from Utah… that was being located in Chattanooga. So, all parties knew CFC was looking at going pro, and that they weren't too keen on USL as the vehicle for that. Red Wolves beat them to the punch, beginning operations in 2018, with first games to be played for the 2019 season. As part of that initial effort, they also tried to squeeze CFC out of the city stadium that they had been playing in, but they weren't successful in that. So, they made the decision to build their own soccer-specific stadium, which would be ready by their second season (first season was played at a high school facility). They've continued to make improvements to CHI Memorial Stadium, including an expansion, and also are slated to have a team in the USL Super League (D1 professional women's league).
Image credit: CFC Facebook
Chattanooga Today
Why am I talking about the Soccer Warz and Chattanooga here, at Lower Alabama? The situation speaks to the way the sport is unfolding across the country, and I have crossed paths with both of these teams as a Birmingham Legion fan. I've been to two friendlies involving these teams, and two Open Cup games against them in the past two seasons. In addition, for 2024 CFC moved out of NISA and began competing as an independent in MLS NextPro - the same league that Huntsville City is in. It was theoretically a lateral move from one D3 league to another, while Red Wolves are in yet another D3 league. There's probably an alternate universe out there where CFC would have moved up to USL Championship, and would be a regular rival of Legion. Instead, they're close rivals of Huntsville, and have a much lighter travel burden than when they were in NISA. USL territory rules prohibit CFC from moving into either of the USL professional leagues, because of the Red Wolves. NextPro was literally the only option for CFC when they made the move away from NISA.
How is it going for CFC? This past weekend they hosted Orlando City B, and had 4741 fans on hand. The fifth largest regular season crowd in club history. Attendance this season is significantly higher than it was in NISA, and more like the best seasons in NPSL - but with far more games on the schedule than when they were amatuer. They're the middle of the NextPro table, and should be a playoff team.
What about those other guys? The Red Wolves made it to the finals for USL1 in 2022, losing that game to Georgia Tormenta. Their attendance is about half of what CFC gets, but historically that's been all that CHI Stadium could hold. Expansion has recently taken it from 2500-5500, and they installed a grass field to replace the original artifical turf. They've had a tough season, with several injuries being a factor, and stadium improvements lagged into the sesson. That certainly didn't help attendance, which is still very strong for a Division 3 team.
Final Thoughts
The conventional wisdom is that this is a story about an unfortunate, and unsightly, situation. There's obviously some truth to that. But from the outside looking in, this could also be a template for success in many markets across the US. On s given weekend, these two teams draw a combined 6000+ fans to watch soccer played at the Division 3 level. Both clubs have large youth organizations under them. And a pro women's team is about to enter the market (both clubs also run amatuer women's teams in Summer leagues). The teams play just 8 miles apart from each other. The remaining opportunity is to match up and settle things on the field each season to capitalize on the energy surrounding the sport. I would envision a home and home series each year, for bragging rights. They could bill them as un-friendlies.