How MLB turned a giant NASCAR stadium into a baseball field

The Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee is dubbed the “Last Great Colosseum”—and for good reason. It’s a massive homage to spectacle, with a seating capacity of around 150,000 encircling a half-mile track that’s home to various NASCAR races throughout the year.

Now, it’s being transformed for another purpose: It will serve as the field for the biggest regular-season baseball game of all time. 

On August 2, Bristol is hosting the new Speedway Classic, which will see the Cincinnati Reds face off against the Atlanta Braves in the biggest Major League Baseball (MLB) game ever played in Tennessee. So far, more than 85,000 tickets have been sold—a figure that’s higher than the capacity of both teams’ stadiums put together, and a figure that breaks the record for the biggest regular-season game, set in 1954 when Cleveland hosted the Yankees.

In Bristol there will be headlining music acts, cameras mounted on custom RC car rigs and, nestled within that gray concrete racetrack, the striking verdant green of a baseball field.

“To see a ballpark sitting in the middle of a racetrack is not something that you see every day,” says Jeremiah Yolkut, SVP of global events for MLB.

Here’s how it got there.

THE COLOSSUS PROBLEM

MLB has been doing special-event games for the past nine years, with highlights including the Negro leagues tribute last year in Birmingham, Alabama and the Field of Dreams games in Iowa. Yolkut says MLB had pondered doing a game at a speedway, but most are simply too long and wide to be a fitting frame for a regulation-sized field. But then in September 2021, they went to check out Bristol, and were blown away by the track—and how its dimensions might uniquely cradle a baseball field.

That kicked off six to nine months of viability studies. The most logical place to put a field would be at the center of the venue—but there was one critical problem: Bristol is home to the 127-ton “Colossus,” the world’s largest center-hung outdoor scoreboard. It would cut right through center field, posing a massive logistical issue in the field of play.

Then there was the challenge of finding the optimal field positioning to avoid the sun being in players’ eyes; the issue of permanent structures on-site that could not be removed; the high banks of the track’s turns, and, well, that sacrosanct track itself. (“We could not repave Bristol Motor Speedway to level the entire space,” Yolkut notes.)

They eventually jigsawed everything together and discovered an orientation within the infield of the track that satisfied all the requirements. They put the Colossus into foul territory—and then they got to work.

DIRT RECIPES AND TIM MCGRAW

Work started in May with a crew of around 150, who removed 1,000 feet of pit walls, demolished half of a building, removed a gas pump station, and other foundational tasks. Next, hundreds more workers took on the construction phase.

Over the years, MLB has developed relationships with various specialty partners on bringing baseball to unconventional spaces, such as the global design firm Populous and the commercial landscaper BrightView.

The team had to first raise and level the ground with 17,500 tons of rock from Tennessee; they then brought in 340 tons of clay from Pennsylvania, which utilizes the same “dirt recipe” as 25 other professional baseball stadiums (since the clay must be kept moist, Yolkut says they also installed an irrigation system).

Next came the turf—124,000 square feet of Diamond Series Astroturf, the same kind that is used on the Toronto Blue Jays’ home field. And then all the rest: 450 wall pads for the perimeter; two 60-foot foul poles; 80,000 square feet of backstop netting; 275 extra light fixtures; 2,400 extra infield seats; and two full bullpens and dugouts.

Yolkut adds that the team clubhouses had to be on par with what players are used to at home. To that end, each facility includes showers, bathrooms, a meal room, a training room, a video room, stretching area, weight room, and so on.

And that’s just half of Bristol. MLB is making use of the entire venue, and the rest of it will be home to a fan experience and pregame concert with Tim McGraw, Pitbull, and Jake Owen.

The event is also set to feature a pregame player parade inspired by NASCAR’s driver intros, and when Fox Sports televises the game, they’ll have extra tech on hand consistent with the race theme—such as an RC car camera that will show viewers the perspective of what it’s like to be on the track at Bristol, and the baseball diamond’s unique location within the infield.

The teardown

When the big game ends, the field will disappear as quickly as it went up—and for good reason, as NASCAR races come to the track September 11 to 13. Yolkut says the teardown is a three-week marathon that involves around 200 crew members, with the turf itself being donated to East Tennessee State University.

“It’s an exhaustive process,” he says. “In fact, a lot of the partners have separate teams that literally come in at the end of the event to do it.”

You may wonder how the Reds and Braves wound up in the biggest baseball game of all time—and Yolkut says it first came down to location. Atlanta and Cincinnati are both within a reasonable driving distance of Bristol, and beyond that, “These teams have players that are fast, that are energized, that are young, and are bringing a lot of that power to the game.”

The ticket sales are perhaps a testament to that strategy—and ultimately, Yolkut notes that it’ll be as much a spectacle for those fans on-site and at home as it will be for the players themselves.

“To see 90,000 people watching you is not something any of these players have had in their baseball time,” he says. “They’ve played in all kinds of venues, but I think they’re going to be mystified by just that feeling and that ‘Last Great Colosseum’ feel. . . . I think that’ll be a pretty magical moment.”