Chattanooga: Officials Petition for Last Chunk of Operational Cash

[Lehigh Football Nation]

http://www.championshipsubdivisionnews.com/?title=chattanooga-officials-petition-for-last-&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1


Finley Stadium officials said they will seek more than $20,000 from Friends of Finley donors in an attempt to come up with the money Chattanooga Lookouts owner Frank Burke said he needs to continue operating the stadium.

Mr. Burke said he needs $180,000 to offset operation costs to continue managing the stadium that is home to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Mocs football team and the NCAA Division I-AA national championship game.

“The $180,000 is his sense of what he has got to have to stop losing money,” board Chairman Bryan Patten said.

In March, Mr. Burke said he’ll run Finley Stadium one more year provided the funds are available to help him defray hundreds of thousands of dollars of costs since 2005.

xeekx xeekx xeekx

[danefan]

So am I reading this correctly to say that the FCS national championship is causing Chatty to lose money? Or at least the stadium is losing money?

[jstate83]

So am I reading this correctly to say that the FCS national championship is causing Chatty to lose money? Or at least the stadium is losing money?

What he is basically saying is Chatty home game and the FCS National Championship are not enough to pay for running the stadium for a full year.
Look's like when it's all said and done, he is almost $200 grand in the hole paying everyday cost at the end of the year.

Average 6 games at that place, (5 home Chatty games and the FCS Championship), don't draw enough people to pay for the stadium operation cost he has to pay all year.
Chatty must not be bringing in any fans to thier home games.

Question.

What else is held in that place year round?

[SideLine Shooter]

What he is basically saying is Chatty home game and the FCS National Championship are not enough to pay for running the stadium for a full year.
Look's like when it's all said and done, he is almost $200 grand in the hole paying everyday cost at the end of the year.

Average 6 games at that place, (5 home Chatty games and the FCS Championship), don't draw enough people to pay for the stadium operation cost he has to pay all year.
Chatty must not be bringing in any fans to thier home games.

Question.

What else is held in that place year round?

I was there for UTC Homecoming a couple of years ago and App St. had more fans than UTC.xnodx xnodx xnodx

[jstate83]

I was there for UTC Homecoming a couple of years ago and App St. had more fans than UTC.xnodx xnodx xnodx

There's the problem right there.
It's not the FCS Championship game.

Chatty is not drawing the home crowd and you know everyone they play is not goning to make Chatty a destination when making out their fall football travel schedule.

He just don't have the "people base" or enough event's throughout the year to turn a profit or break even.
It's easy for the State or School to have stadium expenses worked into the budget, but a private sector person running a large venue like this with a limited people base will run into financing problems.

[APPALACHIANstate]

I suppose we are just going to have to have Montana and App in the finals.

[SideLine Shooter]

I suppose we are just going to have to have Montana and App in the finals.

Works for me!!!xthumbsupx xthumbsupx xthumbsupx

[89Hen]

What he is basically saying is Chatty home game and the FCS National Championship are not enough to pay for running the stadium for a full year.
xnodx Chatty is 99th in % capacity in I-AA.

6,264 = 30.31%

BTW, who payed for the new field?

[danefan]

xnodx Chatty is 99th in % capacity in I-AA.

6,264 = 30.31%

BTW, who payed for the new field?

So basically without the FCS NC game that stadium is going to fall apart.

[elcid96]

What he is basically saying is Chatty home game and the FCS National Championship are not enough to pay for running the stadium for a full year.
Look's like when it's all said and done, he is almost $200 grand in the hole paying everyday cost at the end of the year.

Average 6 games at that place, (5 home Chatty games and the FCS Championship), don't draw enough people to pay for the stadium operation cost he has to pay all year.
Chatty must not be bringing in any fans to thier home games.

Question.

What else is held in that place year round?

No Fans is the right answer.

They had 7500 for their opener.
6700 when we hung 41 points on them.
7700 for their homecoming game
5000 for the Furman game
5600 for the Western Kentucky Game
4900 for their final game of the season against wofford

Not once did they even sell half of the seats. They didn't even sell 25% of the seats for their final game of the season.

No wonder they need money. I hope they can turn this around. It is a great stadium.

[grizband]

No Fans is the right answer.

They had 7500 for their opener.
6700 when we hung 41 points on them.
7700 for their homecoming game
5000 for the Furman game
5600 for the Western Kentucky Game
4900 for their final game of the season against wofford

Not once did they even sell half of the seats. They didn't even sell 25% of the seats for their final game of the season.

No wonder they need money. I hope they can turn this around. It is a great stadium.
Those attendance numbers would be respectable, if they occurred in a stadium with a capacity around 8-10,000; unfortunately, it seems Chattanooga has too much stadium for the interest surrounding their program.

[jstate83]

xnodx Chatty is 99th in % capacity in I-AA.

6,264 = 30.31%

BTW, who payed for the new field?

The guy asking for the money.
If he has the sole contract to conduct busnisses for the stadium and it's upkeep, then the field turf is part of the maintanance.

The State of Mississippi replaces the grass turf at Memorial on an average of about 6 or 7 years.
The last turf replacement cost a little over $300,000 for the grass they selected from Mississippi State University "turf farm".
Except for last year, Mississippi Sate has grown the turf for the last 10 superbowl's.

[rudy1648]

The answer may be that the stadium IS privately owned. It is not an on-campus facility. When a school's team plays in an off campus stadium, the students often do not bother to attend. The school also needs support from the community, which at this point they are not getting. The average resident in Chatty has no idea that the school even has a team, much less who they are playing. I understand that in TN most people think the state has only one team,,the Vols, but without some student ownership of the team, and some community support, UTC will never fill the seats at the stadium.

[rudy1648]

The guy asking for the money.
If he has the sole contract to conduct busnisses for the stadium and it's upkeep, then the field turf is part of the maintanance.

The State of Mississippi replaces the grass turf at Memorial on an average of about 6 or 7 years.
The last turf replacement cost a little over $300,000 for the grass they selected from Mississippi State University "turf farm".
Except for last year, Mississippi Sate has grown the turf for the last 10 superbowl's.

Chatty installed artificial field 3 years ago after the quagmire from the previous championship game. It is not the ordinary plastic over concrete field, but the new synthetic field with rubber in the grass. Just about the same field at App State.

[jstate83]

Chatty installed artificial field 3 years ago after the quagmire from the previous championship game. It is not the ordinary plastic over concrete field, but the new synthetic field with rubber in the grass. Just about the same field at App State.

OK.
Ole Miss had that installed at their stadium about 4 year's ago.
It look's great.

The one drawback down here is the heat that comes off it in July and August.
D3 Millsaps had the same installed in their stadium as part of the upgrades when the Saint's selected it for their pre season training camp site.
It's small, bout 5,000 to 6000 seat's, but that place would put a lot of FCS stadium's to shame.
Their campus is right across the street from Memorial Stadium.
http://www.jordansportsledger.com/images_11/reggie_bush_saints_camp_2007.JPG

[walliver]

I don't know how he is compensated by UTC, but, from what I've read on the Mocfans board, UTC seems to have very low tickets prices, and just about gives away season tickets. There doesn't seem to be a lot of revenue there. A privately run stadium is hard to maintain unless you're in a large city and can host lots of concerts and similar events.

[AppGrad06]

I was there for UTC Homecoming a couple of years ago and App St. had more fans than UTC.xnodx xnodx xnodx

UTC scheduled App for Homecoming? Ouch!!

[jaxstatealum]

They truly have almost no fan base. We have had a home and home now for four years and are going again. The Cocks travel better than their home crowd... its sad. It is a great stadium - wish we had it...

[Go...gate]

They truly have almost no fan base. We have had a home and home now for four years and are going again. The Cocks travel better than their home crowd... its sad. It is a great stadium - wish we had it...

That is bad news - it is a nice ballpark.

[UDChE89]

If I remember correctly from when I lived in Chatty, the stadium's actually owned by the city or a city run board. Mr. Burke, who does a great job with the Lookouts, apparently has tried to turn the ship regarding UTC but it's not working out well. Not only does UTC play games on the field, but also some of the high school teams.

The problem is one of crowds. There aren't any for UTC. Unfortunately, UTC will always play third fiddle in Chattanooga to UT and UGA.