Chattanooga Pulse

Like most stateside soccer enthusiasts, I am gleefully watching our USA team dominate the “masters” (Spain, and—almost—Brazil) and carve a viable place in the upcoming World Cup festivities. But what helps fuel my excitement is that we now have the same action live, right here in the Noog.

No offense to the Mocs, Vols or Titans, but Chattanooga now has the likes of a real football team, because “football” is what it’s called in every other part of the world.  The Chattanooga Football Club is making waves, not only here, but also across an ever-growing popular army of teams coast to coast.

In fact, our little fledgling squad has a very impressive record going into their final home match of the season, July 4 at Finley Stadium. Up to now, the CFC has accumulated seven points with two wins, three losses and one draw and are contenders for second place (since three teams currently have seven points, with Chattanooga FC falling to fourth on goal differential alone).

Now, if I knew exactly what that meant, it might be even more impressive than it sounds. But like the rest of the city, I’m just now learning the language of the game. And it’s a crash course that more and more fans are electing to take.

In the first three games of the season alone, attendance of up to 2,000 fans became a regular occurrence in Chattanooga on game night. And according to the National Premier Soccer League (NPSL) in which they compete, the CFC’s attendance record is the highest in the league without a doubt.

Just for this past home game, for example, 2,100 fans turned out to watch Chattanooga FC draw 1-1 against conference leaders Rocket City United (Huntsville). And that’s at home. The road games are warranting at least one busload of fans, if not two. There are even reports that our last match against Atlanta inspired more people to drive 100 miles down I-75 than a few minutes around 285.

“Why, then,” (you ask) “haven’t I ever heard of The Chattanooga FC until now?” One reason might be that this is our team’s inaugural season. In just a few short months, with a lot of hard work and determination, a handful of devoted local “football” junkies spent their nights and weekends creating a Chattanooga FC out of a few beneficial things Chattanooga already had going for it.

For example, they had a venue—the soccer-grade field of a local stadium in desperate need of seat warmers, aka Finley Stadium and Davenport Field. They had sponsors. Volkswagen and a laundry list of local businesses all jumped at the chance to take lead sponsorship roles and have been integral in helping organize efforts. They even had players. Believe it or not, there’s a whole slew of great footballers around town—many of whom spend their Sundays at Camp Jordan playing in a local league made up of “day-job” players, who are car dealers and college professors, fast-food cooks and carpet-plant workers. After that, all they needed was a league to join.

Along with teams from Atlanta, Huntsville, Dalton and Birmingham, The Chattanooga FC plays in the NPSL, which is the equivalent of, say, a Double-A baseball team. The “majors” play in the United Soccer League (USL) or the even bigger mack-daddy “show” Major League Soccer (think David Beckham in L.A.).

“The main reason we’re not in USL is that it is expensive and even the most ‘successful’ teams like the Charleston Battery don’t fare very well financially,” explains CFC advocate and sponsor Tim Kelly. “Ours, happily, is a much purer endeavor, since we’re not even a for-profit enterprise. But ironically, we’ve been fortunate enough to have been so successful out of the gate that we’ll have a little more momentum going into next year.”

The CFC might be better off where they are in the soccer hierarchy, even though we may never produce a modern-day Pele right here at home. In fact, there are so many levels of pro and semi-pro soccer in the U.S. that you’re more likely to see 90 percent of the Lookouts play in Dodger uniforms than one CFC player in the national spotlight “bending it like Beckham.” But that doesn’t seem to bother anyone who’s been rabidly bitten by the CFC bug.

“I went to their first match on May 16 and have only missed one match since, and that one was in Huntsville,” says CFC fan Chris Cooper. “From the moment I heard about the new Chattanooga Football Club on Facebook and experienced the action at Finley, I was a fan.”

Speaking of grassroots marketing, if you’re not at least familiar with the CFC, then you may very well be living on the cyber-social equivalent of a desert island—i.e., without Facebook and/or Twitter. You see, the success of the Chattanooga FC is not only a testament to hard work and athletic talent, but to the power of viral marketing as well.

According to Ryan Knapp, director of public relations for the National Premier Soccer League, writing on his blog NPSLinsider, “Looking over their Facebook page, the value of social media and utilizing social networking sites for the club is clear, with their page already boasting nearly 1,600 fans. More importantly, the fans are active on the CFC Facebook page, posting in pictures, videos, and comments about the matches, even featuring ‘El Conductor’, who seems to be the man in charge when it comes to all things CFC fan-related.”

Knapp adds, “CFC’s Twitter account @chattanoogafc is also one of the most active in the league, especially on game day with head Twitterer Chris Cooper manning the tweets as the game goes on.  His frantic messaging is how fans at home keep up with the CFC action, and it is a great feed to follow if you can’t be there in person.

“But there’s also the excitement of the game itself. During the recent home match, for example, fans were treated to quite a match, as CFC goalie Richard Masters saved a penalty kick in the 95th minute to hold onto the draw, a play now affectionately referred to as ‘the save.’”

At every game, home or away, you’ll hear the rampant roar of the “Chattahooligans.” This ever-growing mob of die-hard fans wearing team colors, chanting cheers, waving flags and beating drums throughout the games really raises the participation bar high on the seat side of the stadium.

“My favorite moments are at the end of the matches when the team comes over to the stands and raises their hands above their heads, applauding to the crowd to say thanks for their support,” says Cooper. “I predict the crowd for the match on July 4 will be a record setter. And win or lose, there will be more than a few people a little sad that the season is over and they have just discovered this team, this game, and this unique atmosphere. I am already looking forward to next year.”

Info Box:

The Chattanooga Football Club

Final season match

$5

7 p.m.

July 4 ($1 post-game shuttle to riverfront for fireworks)

Finley Stadium, 1826 Carter Street

www.chattanoogafc.com
For more information about Chattanooga FC, visit www.chattanoogafc.com.