The Tennessee Smokies baseball team has been at its current residence in Kodak, Tennessee, for 20 years, but Smokies Owner Randy Boyd wants to bring the team back to downtown Knoxville. The Smokies, previously known as the Knox Sox when they were downtown, attract fans from all across East Tennessee and have occupied their current residence for the past 20 years.
The team's return would require the City of Knoxville and Knox County to provide approximately $65 million to fund construction of a 7,000-seat publicly-owned stadium. The rest of the proposal — a 630,000-square-foot restaurant, retail and residential complex costing $142 million — would rely on private dollars. Boyd indicated that he is willing to invest the $142 million for mixed-use, private development surrounding the proposed stadium complex, which would feature both residential and retail space. Boyd would include in any deal the seven acres he bought in the Old City for $6 million in 2016.
Local leadership will likely form a sports authority, a public nonprofit that can (1) issue bonds to fund construction of a sports complex and (2) allows local government to keep all sales tax revenue from the project. Doug Kirchhofer, CEO of Boyd Sports, said the stadium will be owned by the city and county and “will be leased to the Smokies baseball team at market rates.”
As Boyd has it drawn up, the park could host concerts and accommodate a soccer field in the outfield. It would include spaces for conferences and a public plaza for markets and watch parties.
The proposal shows the new stadium in the Old City of Knoxville where they will have a smaller version of Wrigleyville and incorporate shopping centers and restaurants into the design so people can use the area around the stadium when there are no games.
Randy Boyd, president of Boyd Sports LLC, said in an emailed statement, “I am very excited to be exploring the idea of returning the Tennessee Smokies to my hometown to a brand-new multi-purpose stadium that will be a lively link between downtown and East Knoxville.”
With this newly designed stadium, Boyd, who is also president of the University of Tennessee, said there are plans for the stadium to be used around 200 days a year with 70 of them being baseball games for the Smokies and the others to be used as meetings and concerts.
“One of the things that will make the new stadium different from the current stadium is the fact that it will be intentionally designed to accommodate large trucks and equipment needed for concert production. The configuration of the current stadium is challenging for staging concerts,” Boyd said. Many fans feel that the move to Knoxville will help with attendance and downtown life around Knoxville.
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