Major League Baseball will team up with the motorsports world next season.
The Cincinnati Reds and Atlanta Braves are set to play a game at Bristol Motor Speedway, one of NASCAR’s most famous tracks. An official announcement is expected soon.
Bristol Motor Speedway, near the Tennessee/Virginia border and about 90 miles from Asheville, North Carolina, can hold around 150,000 fans for NASCAR events. In 2016, it hosted a college football game between Tennessee and Virginia Tech that drew a record crowd of 156,990 fans .
Unique Venues for MLB Games:
MLB has been exploring unique venues in recent years. Here are some examples:
- June 20, 2024: St. Louis Cardinals vs. San Francisco Giants at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama.
- Aug. 12, 2021 and Aug. 11, 2022: Field of Dreams Game in Dyersville, Iowa.
- July 3, 2019: Braves vs. Miami Marlins at Fort Bragg.
- June 13, 2019: Detroit Tigers vs. Kansas City Royals in Omaha, Nebraska.
The Little League Classic has been held annually since 2017 in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. This year’s game will feature the Tigers and New York Yankees on Aug. 18.
As non-division rivals, the Braves and Reds have two series scheduled for the year: May in Atlanta and August in Cincinnati. With an off-day on July 31st for both teams before their August series opener on August first—fans might guess this date for the Bristol Motor Speedway game.
Fans might think it’s exciting to see baseball played at such an unusual venue!
The largest crowd ever recorded for an MLB game was when the Boston Red Sox played against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on March 29th of ’08 with over a whopping thousand attendees!
What do you think about baseball games being played in such unique places?
