Financially, April and May 2020 were just effectively “wiped off the calendar,” said Executive Director of Finley Stadium Chris Thomas to the board of directors at a Tuesday meeting. Finley Stadium, which had started the year being at almost 100 percent capacity, saw cancellations of almost all events. Over 120 events were lost, he said. By June, when people had begun to feel more comfortable getting out, the stadium started seeing some signs of recovery, he said. After the board of directors made the decision at the October meeting to reactivate the campus, he said that 55 events were held and the stadium started to see some improvement.
Profit was down overall for the year by 60 percent due mainly from the loss of events. Events were down by 89 percent. Expenses were down by 40 percent, but upkeep and repairs were not sacrificed, said Mr. Thomas. About $200,000 was spent last year on maintenance. Profit from food and beverage service was also down by 87 percent, parking was down by 50 percent as were utilities and labor costs. The lower labor costs came at a price, he said, because a lot of staff had to be let go, which will take months of recovery. Now it is hard to find people who will return to work because of the fear of getting sick, he said.
With help from the Cares Act that provided the stadium with $172,371 for COVID-related expenses, and $91,000 in Paycheck Protection Program loans, the stadium ended the calendar year barely breaking even, which is pretty remarkable, said Mr. Thomas. He said that the money from the Cares Act was in the form of a reimbursable grant. It had to be used for eligible expenses, then after it was spent, the money was paid back to the stadium, so there is no profit from it. The impact of it, he said, will be felt when the investments start to be used. The stadium will submit an application for a second round of PPP loans which will come as a restricted grant, said the executive director.
Updates to the facility include that the stadium campus remains winterized, with plans to begin reactivation on March 1. “The building doesn’t handle temperatures in the 20’s very well,” he said. The fields are already being used for practices, and is open for smaller uses. The Stadium Club, press boxes and locker rooms have been equipped with an air system that filters out and kills airborne particles.
Most of the requests for safety measures, made by the department of Homeland Security, have been implemented. These include some street closures to minimize threats from bad actors, said Mr. Thomas. There have been facility modifications made to the buildings and parking lots such as adding architectural borders to help control approaches. Technology that was included in the requests, such as adding cameras, are expensive and will take a couple of years to put in place. Active communication with the Chattanooga Police Department has been in use for a long time for major events. “We’re operating a safe facility,” he told the board, but it is always good to have a second set of eyes.
The fire safety infrastructure of the stadium’s facility, that is now 20 years old, is in need of updating, said the director. The fire monitoring equipment is beginning to show a high rate of failures, he said. The system is operational, but action will be needed in the next several months, "before we are made to close down." The new codes require for the system to be voice activated, unlike the existing one. This will necessitate new wiring and it is a big project, he said. The cost is expected to be around $200,000. Three bids will be considered. The board approved spending up to $207,000 for the upgrades to the fire alarms and sprinklers.
As for events this year, Mr. Thomas said that the annual large events usually held at the stadium are holding off scheduling for the time being. He anticipates more bookings for the fall after vaccines have become more widespread. UTC is on the calendar as well as about 300 other events, including high school spring graduations, a robotics tournament, The Boys’ Choir, The Chattanooga Symphony for small performances, The Kidney Foundation’s fundraiser, Taste, a kickball league, a car show, Riverside Street Market, Bug-a-Paluza which is moving from East Ridge’s Camp Jordan and the Chattanooga Market.
Use of the facility also will include a two-week tournament hosted by Chattanooga Football Club, one of Finley Stadium’s partners. CFC Managing Director Jeremy Alumbaugh said that based on the reputation of the CFC and track record of past events at Finley, Chattanooga was chosen for this 14-game tournament that will be held from April 13 through April 25. It should have about a $1 million impact on the city, plus every game will be broadcast and the city, community and professional league will be in the spotlight for a couple of weeks.
“Spring is looking fabulous,” said Mr. Thomas, "We’re off to a great start.”
The Southern Conference will be playing spring football this year, and UTC, another of the stadium’s partners, was scheduled to host four games at Finley Stadium. The first was cancelled because of COVID, but three others will be played at their home field on Feb. 27, March 27 and April 10.
The stadium board voted to approve renewal of the CFC contract that has been in place for another three years with the same financial agreement that has been in place. And approval was given to Board Chairman Mike Davis to work out an agreement that is acceptable to both the stadium and UTC for the three spring games on a per game basis. During those games, the full campus will not be used. The first game, only 100-500 spectators will be allowed. By March the stadium will allow a capacity of 25 percent, or 4,000 to 5,000 fans. A long term multi-game agreement is expected to go into effect July1.
The meeting closed with Mr. Davis paying tribute to Frank Kinser, a Finley Stadium Board member since it was formed. Mr. Kinser died on Dec. 4. “ He was a friend t this board, and I’ll miss his counsel and his friendship,” he said. Board Member Gordon Davenport said as a board member, he always thought through the tough questions he asked and knew what he was talking about. “He was UTC through and through and he wanted to see the stadium soar.”