Smokies Stadium

For nearly fifty years Knoxville's baseball life revolved around Bill Meyer Stadium, which opened east of downtown in 1953 and closed in 1999. When the Smokies needed a new home, attention turned to Sevier County, closer to the tourist heartland of the Great Smoky Mountains. Plans were drawn under the working name Sevierville/Sevier County Multi-Use Stadium, ground was broken on 23 April 1999, and the ballpark opened on 20 April 2000 with the Smokies beating the Chattanooga Lookouts 10-7 in front of 7,318 fans. The building cost around US$19.4 million, was designed by HNTB with BarberMcMurry and was operated for the county and city by the club's ownership. Known at first as Smokies Park, the ground quickly established itself as one of the friendliest stops in the Southern League, with grass berms beyond the outfield, eighteen suites and covered party porches along the lines. From 2007 the club began its long affiliation with the Chicago Cubs, and in the years that followed its roster carried players who would go on to define a generation in Chicago, among them Kris Bryant, Javier Baez and Kyle Schwarber before their part in the 2016 World Series triumph. Crowds grew with the team, and memorable nights became part of local folklore: a 2008 rehabilitation appearance by John Smoltz, a then-record 7,655 spectators in July 2009, and 7,958 for a Star Wars night in 2017. The ground's single-game attendance record came on 12 April 2022, when more than 8,100 fans watched the Tennessee Volunteers meet Tennessee Tech in a college game. By then, however, plans were well advanced to take the Smokies back to Knoxville. The club played its final season in Kodak in 2024 and opened Covenant Health Park in April 2025, ending a twenty-five year chapter in Sevier County. Since the team's departure the City of Sevierville and Sevier County have been exploring ways to redevelop the site, with early concepts including an amphitheatre, hotel accommodation and retail space alongside the existing grandstand.

Smokies Stadium stood inside the Sevierville city limits despite its Kodak address, sitting on a stretch of Line Drive between Knoxville and the mountain resort towns. The grandstand was symmetrical and extended well down both foul lines, where padded chair-back seats give way to bleachers, each of them fitted with a cup holder. Eighteen suites sat above the seating bowl, and covered party porches bookended them, including the Copper Cellar Clubhouse on the first base side and the Davey Crockett Porch on third. Homer's Playland in the right field corner kept younger fans busy with a slide, an obstacle course, moon bounces and a speed pitch machine. After the club's 2007 link-up with the Chicago Cubs, a white W flag was flown at the park following home victories, borrowed from the tradition at Wrigley Field. A 36-foot by 17-foot high-definition video board was added behind the left field berm in 2008, with a line scoreboard beneath it.