Bristol to host 2025 'MLB Speedway Classic' featuring Braves, Reds
Gentlemen, start your windup.
In one of the rarest settings for baseball, the Atlanta Braves and Cincinnati Reds will play a regular-season game on Aug. 2, 2025, at Bristol Motor Speedway.
The iconic racetrack, which played host to the Tennessee-Virginia Tech college football game in 2016, and Major League Baseball will see if they can pack more than 100,000 fans into the facility for the MLB Speedway Classic. FOX will televise the historic game with a 7 p.m. ET start for next year's Saturday night event.
"Major League Baseball is excited to deliver a special game at Bristol Motor Speedway, a unique setting that sports fans will remember forever," MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said. "The Reds and the Braves form an ideal matchup because of their dynamic talent and the proximity of their markets.
"We look forward to celebrating our game with a wide array of fans, both on and off the field throughout the weekend, and highlighting the rich traditions of sports, music and community in Tennessee and across the region."
The record attendance for an MLB game is 115,300, set in March 2008 for an exhibition game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Boston Red Sox at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
Whether this event breaks that record (Bristol is not releasing a seating capacity for the game), is difficult to predict for a facility nestled in the Appalachian mountains that typically hosts drivers in race cars circling a high-banked 0.533-mile concrete oval.
Next August, the only things reaching 100 miles an hour at Bristol will be baseballs. The game will serve as the finale of a three-game Reds homestand, with Friday and Saturday in Cincinnati. Sunday, Aug. 3, will be held as a rain date, if needed.
This will be the first MLB game played in Tennessee, making it the fifth state since 2016 to play host to its first MLB contest.
The track is located in northeastern Tennessee, about 15 minutes from the unique Bristol main street that serves as the border of Tennessee and Virginia. The Bristol weekend will include live music in an area known for its deep roots in country music.
Although the NASCAR schedule is not announced, typically Bristol has its big NASCAR weekends in the spring by mid-April and then again in September, leaving a few months for MLB to construct the field.
MLB will use architectural design company Populous and landscape company BrightView to construct the field, partners it has used in the past for games such as the recent one at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Ala.
Bristol will have to make some adjustments to its facility, removing part of its pit road wall and one of the buildings where tires are mounted on the wheels during the race weekend. The field dimensions will be 330 feet down the lines, 400 feet to center and 384 (left-center) and 375 (right-center) in the power alleys.
"There is deep baseball history in Bristol and around this area, long acknowledged as the heart of the Appalachian League," Bristol Motor Speedway general manager Jerry Caldwell said. "In addition, Bristol's location makes it the perfect meet-in-the-middle destination for a showdown between these two beloved clubs."
Ticket prices were not announced as of Friday. Braves, Reds and Bristol season-ticket holders will get first access to purchase tickets in September with public ticket sales beginning in December.
Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.
