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Smokies Baseball and One Knox Soccer: Careful Collaboration Makes for 'A Great Fit'

In the midst of a bone-chilling winter blast, springtime baseball, soccer and the opening of Covenant Health Park seem a long ways off.

But peek at the calendar and take cheer: First pitch with the new Knoxville Smokies on April 15 comes in just three months.

View of stadium construction, December 2024

The new East Knoxville publicly-owned stadium will serve many uses. Besides baseball, the stadium will be the new home to One Knox Sporting Club, plus concerts, festivals and other public events.

Managing the stadium requires a lot of collaboration and cooperation.

For starters, the baseball field will need to be converted to a soccer pitch, then back to a baseball field, multiple times a year - and how it's done involves careful scheduling and teamwork between the partners.

A second consideration is being able to play games as scheduled, so as to not wreak havoc on those carefully overlapping Smokies and One Knox schedules. Rain-outs are to be avoided as much as possible - and a modern field design helps minimize weather disruptions.

Rain, rain, go away

"Stadium fields are built to accommodate rain," says Drew McKenna, One Knox founder and managing partner. "There's a drainage system that moves water in significantly higher amounts than what happens in a backyard."

To help drain water, the sod is 5/8" thick - and it rests atop 10 inches of sand, according to Chris Allen, Smokies President and Chief Operating Officer. Water drains, then is conducted away from the playing field.

The new Knoxville field hasn't been tested yet by Mother Nature, but Truist Park in Atlanta certainly has. According to media reports, the field where the Braves play can handle 800,000 gallons of water - or almost enough rainfall to fill an Olympic pool.

Nov. 1, 2024: Crews build the stadium infield

'There's a blueprint for this'

Covenant Health Park will be the 7th in the country that's used jointly to host baseball and soccer.

In Knoxville, crews will be able to convert the field to a pitch and back in less than 24 hours. But that doesn't mean the conversions will happen often. That's where the careful scheduling comes into play.

"There's a blueprint for this," McKenna says. "One conversion does not equal one game. The Smokies have half a dozen home stands, and then road trips. We look at open dates and fit them into our schedule."

Allen welcomes the partnership with One Knox.

"Soccer is a great fit," he says. "We're not reinventing the wheel in sharing the stadium. It's happening all over the country. We just want to do it better than anyone else."

The Smokies open a six-game homestand on April 15. Six days after the Smokies wrap up their opening homestand, One Knox hosts its first home match at Covenant Health Park.

Anticipate other events in that stretch as well. Says Allen: "We're starting off with a bang."

'So Much to See and Do'

Allen sees soccer as a great complementing partner, while McKenna says the move to a bigger stadium is "highly meaningful for our business."

"We're grateful for this opportunity, thankful to the partners and for all the logistical cooperation that makes this possible," he says.

Kim Bumpas, President of Visit Knoxville, says Knoxville families will enjoy baseball and soccer at the new stadium - but the same amenities will also help draw visitors.

"Visit Knoxville is excited about the stadium opening and all the events that it will be hosting," Bumpas says. "This expands how we tell the story of why people should visit Knoxville - there's so much to see and do here."

Posted by evreeland On 13 January, 2025 at 12:02 PM