{"id":56496,"date":"2026-07-17T13:30:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T13:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/56496\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T13:30:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T13:30:07","slug":"chattanooga-fc-could-unexpectedly-benefit-from-spains-world-cup-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/56496\/","title":{"rendered":"Chattanooga FC Could Unexpectedly Benefit From Spain\u2019s World Cup Run"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tChattanooga, Tenn. bills itself as a \u201cSoccer Town,\u201d but that didn\u2019t shield it from criticism about using public money for the 2026 World Cup<\/a>. While the Tennessee city didn\u2019t host any matches, it served as the base camp for Spain<\/a>\u2018s national team during the group stage, which required an outlay of $600,000 in security costs.<\/p>\n

\n\tYet the community felt the benefits almost immediately. The Royal Spanish Football Federation alone booked 184 rooms hotel rooms, fully occupying the Embassy Suites in Downtown Chattanooga, and that doesn\u2019t account for the fans who came into town to support La Roja or stayed in the area because of its proximity to Atlanta.<\/p>\n

\n\tMayor Tim Kelly said Chattanooga\u2019s hotel owners and restaurateurs described the impact as \u201csignificant,\u201d while also soapboxing about the positive mentions of his city on the internet, which he noted \u201cwent through the roof globally.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThat\u2019s hard to put a number on,\u201d Kelly said. \u201cBut I think I would certainly put a number higher than $600,000 on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThough the World Cup is set to end on Sunday, as Spain faces Argentina in the tournament final<\/a>, Chattanooga stands to gain from its hospitality in at least one other way. The city is home to an MLS<\/a> Next Pro club, one of a few minor league sports teams in town. Hosting one of the most prolific international soccer programs could boost Chattanooga FC<\/a> for years to come, minting the \u201cScenic City\u201d as a destination for players, raising its profile among sponsors and fostering a fanbase that just broke an attendance record with more than 6,000 spectators<\/a> at a July match.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe club has grown steadily the last few years, saying its revenue has more than tripled since 2022, when it disclosed $1.1 million in a public report<\/a>, with 87% of that money coming from corporate partnerships, ticket sales and youth programs. Chattanooga FC expects the topline to grow another 10% this year, with \u201csimilar momentum for the foreseeable future,\u201d according to a representative for the club.<\/p>\n

\n\tChattanooga FC wasn\u2019t necessarily founded to be a money-maker, but rather as a tool for community development and a \u201cwelcome mat\u201d for the newly constructed Volkswagen plant. Kelly and a group of local businessmen and community leaders started the team in 2009 as an amateur club, playing with college players across a three-month season. When a competing USL League One club arrived nearly a decade later, Chattanooga FC moved into a fledging professional division of the National Premier Soccer League.<\/p>\n

\n\tTo further entrench the club\u2019s role in the community and capitalize the business for its transition, the club\u2019s founders offered shares directly to the public in 2019. By doing so, Chattanooga FC became the first sports team to take advantage of the passage of the 2016 JOBS Act, which allowed private companies to crowdfund from non-accredited investors in exchange for equity. It ended up raising $872,750 from 3,254 backers, according to the platform WeFunder, where the offering took place<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter a stint in the National Independent Soccer Association and an ownership change\u2014Davis Grizzard, a member of the family that owned the flour miller Grain Craft, invested in 2019 during the WeFunder campaign and became the club\u2019s chairman and primary owner in 2020\u2014Chattanooga joined MLS Next Pro in 2024, giving the club access to the league\u2019s benefits, including a revenue-sharing arrangement.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe lower division was launched by MLS in 2022 to bridge the gap between a club\u2019s youth academy and top team, and to spread soccer to additional markets the league doesn\u2019t cover. MLS franchises with Next Pro teams have differed in how they operate them; some use the platform primarily for talent development, while others try to build out fully operational businesses that generate real revenue. In April, private equity giant KKR bought into<\/a> MLS Next Pro to push the strategy more toward the latter.<\/p>\n

\n\tSix clubs affiliated with MLS franchises currently playing in Next Pro have their own branding; three of those currently play outside of their parent club\u2019s market, and Toronto FC II is moving to Barrie, Ontario, for 2028, when it will receive a complete makeover.<\/p>\n

\n\tThere are also three fully independent clubs, including Chattanooga FC, with four more on the way for 2027. When entering the league, Chattanooga FC discussed becoming Atlanta United\u2019s affiliate but ultimately pushed to maintain its independence.<\/p>\n

\n\tLanding Spain during the World Cup was a \u201creal testament to the city of Chattanooga,\u201d Ali Curtis, president of MLS Next Pro, said, \u201cand one of the reasons why we know that we wanted to have that team in our league is because [it\u2019s] an amazing city and can support not just professional soccer, but as you can see, it can support international soccer as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tUltimately, Curtis sees potential for league\u2019s ancillary territories to capitalize on the World Cup. In 1994, the last time the tournament was played on North American soil, the U.S. simply didn\u2019t have the infrastructure to incubate the sport. Now markets like Chattanooga; Mansfield, Texas; or Huntsville, Ala. offer MLS an opportunity to support fandom in many places that have evolved into \u201csoccer-loving\u201d communities.<\/p>\n

\n\tCurtis also expects the sport\u2019s momentum to continue in other ways, including corporate engagement, stadium and training facility construction and player development.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI think five years from now you\u2019re going to wake up, and our league is going to be significantly different than it is today, and I think the club there in Chattanooga will be as well,\u201d he said. \u201cSo it\u2019s no surprise to us that Spain chose Chattanooga.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThat validation has been a source of pride for Kelly. The mayor is no longer involved in the day-to-day of Chattanooga FC, and his stake is in a blind trust due to his governmental responsibilities; he\u2019s instead focused on how to leverage the popularity boost into wider economic development for the city.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the meantime, he said, \u201cThere are a lot of CFC jerseys floating around Spain now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chattanooga, Tenn. bills itself as a \u201cSoccer Town,\u201d but that didn\u2019t shield it from criticism about using public…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56497,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[23493,4206,17,369],"class_list":["post-56496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-spain","tag-chattanooga-fc","tag-mls","tag-spain","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56496\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}