Bored of the same old MLB games? Circle Aug. 2 of next year on your calendar for a matchup between the Atlanta Braves and Cincinnati Reds that won't take place at Truist Park or the Great American Ball Park—or, actually, at any baseball stadium. Instead, NASCAR announced Friday that the 2025 game will go down at Tennessee's Bristol Motor Speedway, with NBC News noting it's the first time that a NASCAR track will host a regular-season MLB game.
It will also be the first regular-season MLB game to take place in the Volunteer State. "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," MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement. The track has hosted college football games before—two back-to-back events in 2016, the first between the University of Tennessee and Virginia Tech, and the next a week later between East Tennessee State and Western Carolina.
Even the NFL has waded into Bristol waters, with an exhibition game played there in 1961 between Philly and Washington. The track can seat nearly 150,000; for context, the average MLB arena can squeeze in 40,000 to 45,000. Fox Sports notes the league hasn't released a seating capacity for this particular game, but there's already buzz going that the crowd could set a Guinness record for largest attendance at a baseball game. Currently, that honor sits with Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, which in 2008 saw 115,300 people show up to watch an exhibition game between the LA Dodgers and Boston Red Sox. (More MLB stories.)
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