Bristol Motor Speedway, one of NASCAR’s most iconic tracks, will host a regular season MLB game between the Atlanta Braves and Cincinnati Reds in 2025, multiple sources briefed on the plans told The Athletic on Tuesday.
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred and Speedway Motorsports CEO Marcus Smith, whose family has long owned and operated Bristol, are set to make an announcement at the track in Tennessee on Friday. MLB declined comment.
Bristol hosts two wildly popular NASCAR race weekends annually at its half-mile oval, which has a seating capacity approaching 150,000. The track hosting an MLB game is not the first time Bristol will have hosted a high-profile event outside of motorsports. In 2016, Tennessee and Virginia Tech played a college football game on a purpose-built field in the infield. That game drew 156,990, the largest crowd ever to watch an NCAA football game.
Meanwhile, MLB adds another venue to its growing lineup of special events. In recent years, the league has played regular season games in London, Mexico City, Tokyo and Seoul, in addition to Iowa for the Field of Dreams game, historic Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Ala. and Williamsport, Pa., site of the Little League World Series.
MLB’s 2022-26 collective bargaining agreement outlined a schedule of international games. For 2025, the league and players intended to play in Tokyo to open the season, Mexico City in May, Paris in June, and San Juan in September.
So far, the Dodgers and Cubs are indeed set to play the opener in Japan, but no other international games have been announced for 2025. The Paris plan was scrapped over the winter. Possible dates are subject to negotiations between MLB and the Players Association.
In 2026, MLB intends to have games in Mexico City in May, London in June and San Juan in September, in addition to the locales used for the World Baseball Classic at the start of the season.
MLB seems to have found an equally ambitious partner in Smith, whose company portfolio includes 10 tracks hosting a combined 14 NASCAR Cup Series races. He is known within motorsports for grandiose ideas that defy conventional norms.
In addition to building a football field inside Bristol to host the Volunteers and Hokies, Smith also brought dirt in to completely cover Bristol’s concrete racing surface in 2021 so that his track could host NASCAR’s first premier series race on dirt since 1970. That experiment ended after three years. He also, to great expense, built a road course inside Charlotte Motor Speedway in 2018, his flagship facility. The venue currently hosts NASCAR’s longest race, the Coca-Cola 600, on its 1.5-mile oval each Memorial Day weekend, then a playoff race on its 17-turn road course each fall.
This story will be updated.
(Photo of Bristol Motor Speedway: Meg Oliphant / Getty Images)
