“The stadium is starting to show life again,” said Executive Director of Finley Stadium Chris Thomas. Before the coronavirus appeared, the stadium campus had been fully booked for the year. In November 2019 the stadium had been winterized and just as it was reopening this spring, the pandemic shut it down again. Then came the cancellations of all scheduled events with no revenue coming in. At the August board meeting, Mr. Thomas said that despite measures to operate with the bare minimum of expenses, all cash on hand had been depleted, calling it “an ugly situation.” At that meeting the board made the decision to re-open the facility to the public and allow events throughout the venue.
At the board meeting on Tuesday, Mr. Thomas said that the results from opening back up shows that the board made the right decision. He said the entire facility has been used since then, demonstrating that the Finley Stadium complex has proved beneficial to the community in more ways than a football field and the Chattanooga Market.
Because the spaces are large enough to accommodate social distancing and is largely outside, it has been used in untraditional ways. The Chattanooga Football Club has held matches with reduced capacity of fans, The McCallie-Baylor football game was the largest event held at the stadium over the last two-three years with each school selling 2,000 tickets. Other high school games have been held and all have been executed very well, said Mr. Thomas. All partners have done a good job of keeping a safe environment. In addition to the local football, the Chattanooga Symphony Orchestra will have a performance this coming Thursday and Chattanooga Boys Choir uses the venue every Monday and Tuesday for rehearsals. In November a Robotics competition with 300 students will be held in the pavilion.
Most events that had been scheduled in 2020 for the pavilion were pushed from their original dates to fall, and then have been pushed again to next spring. What 2021 will look like is still a puzzle, said Katie Nelson. There has been much interest in booking but the only events actually scheduled for spring are two soccer matches. "We’ll have to wait and see how it goes with the CFC start-up league and with UTC and the Southern Conference," said Mr. Thomas. No dates have yet been set.
The last event for this year is scheduled to be held Oct. 30 after which winterizing the stadium will begin. After the next two weeks, the stadium campus will not be able to handle a significant event. Reactivating the facility will take several weeks so the stadium will need four to six weeks notice prior to an event in order to ramp up in the spring.
An update of the relationship with Finley Stadium’s partners was given at the board meeting. Mark Wharton, athletics director at UTC, said that all fall games have been moved to spring and that the football schedule will be released on Wednesday. The agreement that Finley has had with UTC, which paid $12,000 per month to the stadium, expires in June 2021, with no new stadium events planned. Mr. Thomas said he hopes to get a new agreement by the first of the year. If UTC plays in the spring, which is still unknown, they will pay all expenses for using the stadium.
Jeremy Alembaugh, managing director at CFC, said the team is continuing to navigate through the pandemic and working through protocols after which he will have conversations with Executive Director Thomas about how to move forward.
The Chattanooga Market has seen continued growth during the summer until last week when the cold weather started to reduce fresh produce, said Mr. Thomas. People that have been coming to the market have used proper protocols, he said.
The Finley campus needs about $50,000 each month to survive, said Mr. Thomas. Reactivation in August had a financial impact, he said, and payments of $32,000 from UTC were credited in July which contributed to the stadium being “technically profitable.” Also, income that is expected to be received in October has helped to have an effect on the outlook for the stadium which is more upbeat than it was in July/August.
Additionally, Finley Stadium applied for and received a Tennessee Community Cares Grant from the state. Those funds have been used specifically to mitigate the spread of COVID. Supplies such as hand sanitizer stations and plexiglass dividers at the concession areas have been bought as well as other items such as thermometers and signage that were needed for opening the doors to the public, said Health and Safety Coordinator Sarah Hooper. The money that has been spent for mitigating the spread is expected to be reimbursed by the grant money. The purchase of an Ionizer air purifier for $14,095, that will go into the HVAC units,was approved by the board. That, too, will qualify for reimbursement from the grant, to improve the safety of enclosed spaces.
Additional funds will not be needed to survive the winter, Mr. Thomas told the board. He said that over all, he is optimistic, but there is still so much uncertainty. Plans are "just to power through it and keep our heads above water."