Chattanooga FC fans rally around the team

The Chattahooligans are loud, proud, believe in the grassroots beginnings of the Chattanooga Football Club, and are battling to keep CFC where they are.

Chattahooligan Dana Chadwell bleeds blue for her team and her city. “We support them,” Chadwell said,  “we love our team and we want to keep our team here in Chattanooga. We don’t want an out of town team here.”

But despite continued success and unwavering support, a Utah team is trying to share the soccer market, a market that CFC started and is fighting to stay in.

“This isn’t so much a soccer town as it is a CFC Town,” said Chadwell.

The United Soccer League announced its decision to place a Division 3 team here and that team threatens CFC’s rights to the city and to Finley Stadium where they play.

Interim General Manager Sheldon Grizzle cites many reasons for CFC’s continued success in the city, one of those being the place they call home.

“Finley Stadium has been our home for ten seasons. It’s been Fort Finley to our fans. Its been a place where we’ve hosted national championships in this stadium, had over 18,000 people show up for a single game,” said Grizzle.

“Finley Stadium is incredibly important to us and we believe it’s important to Chattanooga.”

Executives of Finley Stadium said no decision has been made regarding the future of either team in the stadium.

Chadwell said the one thing the team needs during their fight to stay is the support of other Chattanoogans.

“Let CFC ownership and management know you support them. You know, we’ve got a social media page chattahooligan.com that answers a lot of frequently asked questions about this whole issue and I encourage people to go to that page, read it and join us. Joining the Chattahooligans is one of the most fun things you can do in Chattanooga, so join us now and stay with us.”

CFC’s lease with Finley Stadium is up at the end of September, even though the new team isn’t slated to move in to the city until 2019.