Due to its location at the junction of the Cumberland Plateau and the southern Appalachians, Chattanooga has become a haven for outdoor sports. The city boasts a number of outdoor clubs: Scenic City Velo, SORBA-Chattanooga, The Wilderness Trail Running Association, and The Chattanooga Track Club. The city also funds Outdoor Chattanooga, an organization focused on promoting outdoor recreation. In September 2004, the city appointed its first-ever executive director of Outdoor Chattanooga to implement the organization's mission, which includes promoting bicycling for transportation, recreation and active living.
If you like to golf, Chattanooga offers a number of private and public golf courses. The Chattanooga Classic, hosted by Black Creek Golf Course, has been part of the PGA's Nationwide Tour since 2002.
Chattanooga hosts the national softball championships every year and is the home of NCAA Division I-AA national football championship game, held at Max Finley Stadium, south of downtown.
Finley Stadium is the home stadium for the UTC football and soccer teams and is made available for numerous local and regional sporting contest, entertainment, civic and community events. Made possible through the efforts of both private and public sectors, the stadium helped to revitalize a dilapidated section of abandoned industrial buildings, forming a clean new entryway for the city. The stadium, which opened in 1997, has a current capacity of 20,668.
Annually, the first weekend in November, the Head of the Hooch rowing regatta, takes place in downtown Chattanooga. The head race originally took place on the Chattahoochee River in Atlanta, giving it the name the Head of the Hooch. With 1,800+ boats in 2009, this ranked as the 2nd largest regatta in the United States. In addition to thousands of rowers descending on Chattanooga, there are festivities like hot-air balloon rides and a street market.
Hometown Teams
The Chattanooga Lookouts, a Class AA Southern League baseball team affiliated with the Los Angeles Dodgers, boast a loyal following and respectable participation in season-end playoffs. Games take center stage at the downtown AT&T Field with tickets starting at only $4.00.
Are you ready for some football !! . . . Chattanooga is the home of the Locomotion, a full-tackle women's football team. The Locomotion is a franchise (since 2001) of the National Women's Football Association (NWFA), which is comprised of over 30 teams from all across the country.