What do New York City FC, Harrisburg City Islanders, Jacksonville Armada FC, Louisville City FC, Colorado Springs, Reno 1868 FC, and the Tulsa Roughnecks all have in common?

They play soccer in a baseball stadium.

Now, I know what you’re thinking. “Hey Unsigned Author #3, aren’t you a part of the consortium of idiots that started the whole conversation about Chattanooga FC moving out of Finley and into a soccer specific stadium? What’s this whole baseball thing about?”

Hear me out for a little bit, because I got a wild idea the other day. The Unsigned Author II made some interesting points about Engel Stadium being renovated into a soccer stadium and those points are certainly worth debating. However, renovating Engel comes with a few drawbacks on the parking and overall pre and post match atmosphere fronts.

We had originally planned for one of the pieces in this series to be about the Wheland/U.S. Pipe Foundry site. Then an article came out in the Chattanooga Times Free Press with the title of “New Lookouts stadium could bring housing, retail space to Southside.”

(http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/breakingnews/story/2017/aug/17/new-lookouts-stadium/443998/).

AT&T Field is for the birds. Source: chattanoogafun.com

The land we refer to as “The Foundry” is incredibly valuable. It stands to reason that if the Chattanooga Lookouts build a new stadium on the property — plus housing, retail space, and the parking that go with modern stadium complexes — there’s not going to be room to slide a stadium for CFC into the mix.

Now, here’s the rub. Most baseball facilities are built — wait for it — with baseball in mind. Soccer is pigeonholed into the stadium as a way to have another tenant and so the club doesn’t have to play at a high school or some cavernous college football stadium. NYCFC has certainly made it work these past seasons, but has looked rather ridiculous doing it. With USL Birmingham being officially announced with Birmingham Barons ownership (and a tiny sliver of the Hammers), USL Las Vegas playing in Cashman Field next summer, and USL Memphis rumored to involve the Redbirds ownership and an announcement soon, there stands a really good chance of some more baseball/soccer sharing happening around the US.

So where are we going with this?

The Chattanooga Lookouts and Chattanooga Football Club should partner to build a dual-use stadium together.

Seriously. We’ll take a moment to let that sink in for a second.

It’s not hard to imagine the circumstances that have led to this moment. AT&T Field was shoehorned into a small site on top of Hawk Hill in downtown Chattanooga with bad sunlight in the evenings, a ridiculous hike up to the stadium, limited parking, and an overall cheap construction job that had potential owners staying away when it came time to put the MiLB team on the market.

Naysayers can be in denial all they want, but AT&T is for the birds (Hawk Hill, get it?) and that view is shared by everyone with a monetary stake in the future of Hawk Hill. No one should be surprised when the Lookouts eventually leave, AT&T Park is torn down, and Hawk Hill is graced with a new set of glittering condos, restaurants, and bars. It’s going to be a little village for the uber young and rich demographic of the city and advocates for more affordable housing and skeptical readers of this piece should just start the acceptance phase now because it’ll make everything easier in five years.

As far as these stadium think pieces concern Chattanooga FC, we unsigned authors are here to nerd out and explore potential alternatives to Finley Stadium. In doing so, sometimes the short straw comes to one of us to write about building a baseball stadium, but with soccer in mind. I apologize in advance.

It’s also worth noting that this isn’t the first time that a multi-purpose baseball and soccer stadium has been considered. A “Multi-Purpose Event Venue” is being designed in Amarillo, Texas for both a USL franchise and the relocating San Antonio Missions of the Double-A Texas League (baseball). Being able to design a stadium to fit multiple sports ahead of time is better than trying to fit one sport into another sports’ space post hoc.

https://soccerstadiumdigest.com/2017/08/amarillo-as-a-future-usl-market/

With input from other members of the Stadium 4 CFC cabal, I have created a concept drawing, by hand and on notebook paper, of a shared Lookouts/Chattanooga FC stadium, built with both sports in mind. It’s important to keep in mind that the drawing is only roughly to scale and your artist is most certainly not an actual artist. Some of the handwriting also may be hard to read and may not make a whole lot of sense, so I’ll follow the illustration with a walkthrough. This is merely some concept art for discussion use, not anything official — though if you’re out there and want some very unofficial two dimensional stadium design art done, leave a comment below.

The two biggest complaints from soccer fans when playing in a baseball stadium is 1) the sight lines aren’t meant for soccer and 2) the stands are far away from the pitch.

By being involved in the process of designing a stadium from the ground up, these concerns can be met in the design.

As you can see, the maximum capacity of the stadium is 11,150 for baseball and 13,070 for soccer. This is because of eight different temporary or modular sections of 240 seats each that can be rolled in and out for soccer, placed in left and center fields. The stadium also includes a poorly drawn 770 seat (or standing) supporters section above the right field wall, behind the goal.

The stadium also comes equipped with 14 suites around the main grandstand and another 8 above the stand along the right field line. A Party Pavilion and Beer Garden, surely to be a hit, is set up at the right field corner between the Supporters Section and the bullpen along the right field line. It’s also worth mentioning that this design envisions both bullpens being covered, to protect players and coaches from any accidental spills of food and drinks from the stand down the right field line and the walkway above to the Beer Garden.

Other interesting items include a press box behind home plate, used for baseball and a separate press box for soccer in left field. The left field press box should also include space for filming and broadcasting of soccer from an angle that shows CFC’s support in the stands, as opposed to our current situation in Finley.

For the baseball inclined readers: the outfield wall at the right field line is a long 340 feet, with a straight line fence until the edge of the soccer pitch. The wall is 405 feet from home plate in right center continuing at the same distance to dead center field, then comes in a bit closer in left center field at 366 feet, before finishing up at the left field line at 323 feet.

This configuration is measured for a 120 yard by 70 yard set up, meeting FIFA’s field requirements. This is roughly three or four yards longer than the space at Finley Stadium, so the club could elect to keep the same dimensions and have slightly more space between the end lines and walls. If the outfield wall in dead center was pushed back another 10 or 15 feet, then a 120 yard by 80 yard field could be easily accommodated, too.

Chattahooligans during 2015. (Source: Chattahooligans.com. Note: there’s no photo credit or watermark so if this is yours, let us know so we can give you credit!)

Other notes about this dual-use stadium include:

- Separate locker rooms for baseball and soccer (also good for HS doubleheaders or TSSAA Spring Fling needs). Ideally, the baseball locker rooms would be underneath the main grandstand with direct access to both dugouts, while the soccer locker rooms would be below the stand down the right field line, party pavilion, or supporters section.

- I envision the Supporters Section to have room for around 770 Chattahooligans with bleachers, seats, or space for safe standing rails.

- Hydraulic pitcher’s mound that can be lowered into the field and replaced by grass.

- Natural grass field, with the infield dirt covered by grass or turf.

- A bullpen down the left field line, covered like the previously mentioned one, with a kids area on top and to the side of the stands down by third base.

- Neither baseball nor soccer scoreboards are included, but I would envision one being on the bullpen by the left field line, one being atop of the Party Pavilion, and a main baseball scoreboard placed above the center field fence.

With both the Lookouts and CFC occupying a portion of the Foundry site, accompanying bars, restaurants, retail, and housing units will follow. The result will be a massive, multi-faceted development project sure to change the Southside for the coming century, pushing aside Chattanooga’s old industrial past and ushering in another neighborhood renaissance.

Editor’s Note: Yesterday at 4:45pm ET, The Tennessean published an exclusive article breaking the news that new USL side and MLS expansion hopeful Nashville SC, risen from the ashes of Nashville FC, would be playing their debut season at the First Tennessee Park in 2018. We’re proud to see our adorable little brother grow up, can’t fault it for stealing our ideas, and while we wish it well in future endeavors, we cannot wait to meet again because we liked having cannon fodder as an opponent.