The newest member of Chattanooga Football Club's Hall of Legends, Sheldon Grizzle, reflects on the ten-year anniversary of an historic day in the club's history.
August 8, 2015 will always be an important moment in the club's history. Not only did 18,227 break the record for the largest crowd in U.S. amateur soccer ever, it proved that the football club and city were one.
ChattanoogaFC.com recently sat down with the newest member to be inducted into the club's Hall of Legends, Co-founder and inaugural squad member Sheldon Grizzle, to relive that day and what it signified for the future of Chattanooga Football Club.
Sheldon Grizzle: The first thing I remember is that we were not supposed to host that game originally. The [New York] Cosmos were actually the hosts of the game, and then we all had the insight that this was a special moment for the NPSL at the time and just soccer in general. We all felt like if Chattanooga could host the game that it could be the most special amateur soccer game possibly in the history of the U.S. A lot of credit goes to them [Cosmos] and us for seeing that and figuring out a way with the league to make that happen.
Secondarily, I think we had 12,000 at the prior game, and so I think pretty early on, as soon as we decided we were going to host the game, we said ‘Okay, we’re going to open up both sides of the stadium,’ and then it was just a mad sprint, and people were just buying tickets left and right. Our minds were blown. And this happened in a two-day period. I think it was like a Tuesday or a Wednesday that we decided to host, and the game was that Saturday. It was a heroic effort on the Finley Stadium part, on the CFC part to actually host that game at all and then sell that many tickets in that short of a time period. It just showed how dialed in people were that summer.
I was the main one getting the ticket confirmations and all of that stuff at the time, and it was so cool to see the buzz. I was managing the Twitter and Facebook accounts and stuff like that, and just seeing the comments and the buzz and the conversations, it was really cool. It wasn’t just Chattanoogans, it was all over the country that people were talking about it.
And then you’re watching the game and it was all the emotions of a regular playoff game where it’s certainly lose or you’re a champion. It was high intensity, a lot of tension, everyone’s on their feet, and the Chattanooga chant going back and forth across the stadium was just chilling to hear. And the quality of soccer was very high, both teams were very, very good teams, and both of those teams could probably have competed at a professional level. We were right there, right until the end and had a chance to win it, so it was equal parts joy and admiration for what was going on, and then devastation that we couldn’t pull it out and have that true dream fairytale ending.
That was the moment that inspired us to go ‘Okay, what can we do with this?’ and ‘How do we move forward?’ That was when we, in earnest, began pursuing the route to professional soccer and trying to do it in our own way, and one that was authentically Chattanooga and not just do what everyone else had done. We wanted to do it our own way.
It was such an incredible and unique experience to go from, six years earlier, Chattanooga didn’t even have a club to cheer for, to now we’ve got almost sold-out a 20,000-capacity stadium. That was really hard to even grasp and wrap our minds around. On a personal note, just realizing that my friends and I created this and that this moment wouldn’t exist without the hundreds of thousands of hours of effort throughout the seasons leading up to that moment. There was also that moment of ‘What does this mean for the future?’ and trying to envision that ‘Now there’s an expectation that something more needs to happen.’ So there were so many different thoughts and emotions wrapped up in that one night. A lot of joy, a lot of sadness that we couldn’t win the championship, and then excitement and anxiety about ‘Now what do we do?’ How do we move forward in a way that is honoring to our past and is wise for the future?
What gives you hope for CFC's future?
On the men’s side, being in the MLS ecosystem immediately raises the profile of Chattanooga, Chattanooga FC, and everything Chattanooga FC touches, which includes our women’s platform and everything we’re doing with the women’s first team, and I think there’s a lot of opportunity to, again, be a trendsetter and find creative ways to do things here that may be more interesting than what you can do in LA or one of the big, expected places.
Flowing all the way back down, with kids; I have two boys that play within the academy. Since they were in BabyBjörns, they have been going to CFC games and seeing high-level soccer and knowing the names of those guys and some of those guys being their coaches. It helps them realize that it’s an attainable thing to play soccer at a high level. So, it gives them something to dream and aspire to, and the likelihood is that they won’t be professional soccer players, but it's about having a dream and having a goal and driving toward excellence and developing a strong work ethic, and being disciplined and a great teammate and a leader and sometimes a follower. Having that connection with the youth and the first teams, having a direct line and connecting them is really inspiring. The addition of the MLS NEXT platform on the boys’ side is really incredible and I was at a training last night with the three MLS NEXT teams talking to some parents that have decided to join CFC traveling from places like Nashville just to play for us because of the connection that we have between the academy, MLS NEXT and the first team, and soon the second team.
A top-end 13-year-old is actually not that far off from the low-end of the pro game. They’re only a couple years away from being able to begin training in an environment, you know, 14, 15, 16, where they can begin training in those kinds of environments. You see that across the world but you don’t see that very much in the U.S. We have a unique opportunity because of Chattanooga’s size, its geographic centrality, where we’re at in relation to larger markets, and then just the diversity we have within our own ecosystem here in Chattanooga. Talent can find a way here that I think is harder in bigger cities. So I think that’s where the really great opportunity is. We have a market that is digestible.
Now with Sebastian, Miguel, Juan and the whole sporting and technical direction side of things, they’re trying to put in place processes and systems that allow talent to develop, to be identified, to be recruited, and then grown and given opportunities to play at higher and higher levels, as it’s appropriate. All that stuff working together is just really, really, awesome.
- Sheldon Grizzle
