The Braves and Reds will play a regular-season game at Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee next season, MLB announced Friday.
The game will be played Aug. 2. It will be played as a part of a three-game series between the Braves and Reds as a Cincinnati home game. The teams will play July 31 and Aug. 1 in Cincinnati before the game in Bristol on Saturday. The game, billed as MLB Speedway Classic ‘25, will be played at 7 p.m. and air on Fox.
Aug. 3 will be held as a potential makeup date in case of an Aug. 2 rainout.
Pre-sales for tickets will begin in September and will include early-access purchase opportunities for Braves and Reds season-ticket members as well as Bristol Motor Speedway racing ticket holders. The public ticket offering is expected in December.
“It is an honor for our organization to be a part of Major League Baseball’s Speedway Classic,” Braves President and CEO Derek Schiller said in a statement. “Bristol Motor Speedway is sure to offer one of the most exciting and memorable experiences in our game’s history. We look forward to seeing tens of thousands of fans from across Braves Country gather in Bristol next August to cheer on our team in this iconic venue.”
Bristol Motor Speedway has a capacity of 146,000 as of 2021 for NASCAR events. The track has held other non-racing events in the past, most recently a college football game between Virginia Tech and Tennessee in 2016. It also hosted an NFL exhibition game between Washington and Philadelphia in 1961, among other events. The baseball diamond will be constructed in the infield.
The MLB attendance record is 115,300 set in an exhibition between the Red Sox and the Dodgers at the Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles in 2008.
Braves legend Chipper Jones attended the official announcement at Bristol.
“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 Robert Manfred said in a statement. “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.”
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