City of Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly declares Tuesday, Nov. 14 MLS NEXT Pro Day as Chattanooga Football Club announces it will join the minor-league tier for the 2024 season
Chattanooga Football Club announced Tuesday that it is joining MLS NEXT Pro for the 2024 season.
City of Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly, a co-founder from the team’s beginnings in 2009, declared the day MLS Next Pro Day.
“I’m going to choke up,” Mayor Kelly said. “It’s a lot like seeing your child go to college.”
Mayor Kelly told the crowd that it would have been cheaper and easier for CFC to affiliate with other clubs, but that MLS Next Pro is the best choice: it offers a stable league and regional opponents, he said.
He praised the local vision for CFC that started small and honest.
“God-willing it always will be,” he said.
MLS Next Pro was founded in the 2022 season as a third-tier, minor league development pathway to top-flight soccer leagues for players, coaches, referees, sales and marketing staff, and more.
The
professional men’s soccer league has 29 teams in the U.S. and Canada. Chattanooga is the third
independent team to join, unaffiliated with MLS.
“It’s a transformation day for this club,” said CFC CEO Alton Byrd, who came to Chattanooga in July.
Hamilton County Chief Operating Officer David Roddy said CFC had weathered ups and downs in soccer league politics with dedicated leaders, referring to the congested and unpredictable third-tier landscape and MLS’s now-defunct partnership with United Soccer League, which manages the Chattanooga Red Wolves.
“Things that are great don’t happen without love. Period,” Mr. Roddy said.
Soccer is a universal language through race, creed and income for the greater good of a city, said MLS Next Pro President Charles Altchek.
“Know that your club is in good hands,” he told the crowd, and to the Chattahooligans: “We know that you will bring the energy through thick and thin,” he said.
“We are stepping out and doing this by ourselves, by us and for us,” said Chattahooligan Matt Coniglio, who hasn’t missed a home game since the team’s second-ever.
The MLS NEXT Pro announcement comes alongside a $2.1-million renovation at home field Finley
Stadium, to include a luxury club and tech and concessions upgrades. MLS NEXT Pro has a new deal to broadcast matches on Apple TV, while USL has a new deal with CBS to broadcast League One matches.
Mayor Kelly said that all the talent on the field and all the hometown support shown Tuesday are just the “tip of the iceberg” for CFC as the soccer world fizzes over the next three seasons in anticipation of the 2026 FIFA World Cup held in North America.