Boyd Sports and Covenant Health announce name of Knoxville’s new stadium
Boyd Sports and Covenant Health announce Knoxville’s new multi-use stadium will be named Covenant Health Park during a press conference on Tuesday, August 27, 2024.
- Tom Jackson of J&J Machine & Tool is working with a Nashville parking company to prepare his business for the first Smokies game.
- Covenant Health Park can hold nearly 7,000 fans. People will search for places like Jackson’s business to park their cars.
- Covenant Health Park hosts the Knoxville Smokies’ first home game of the season on April 15.
As the Knoxville Smokies prepare for the first home game at their new downtown stadium, the owners of a nearby family business are taking public parking into their own hands to avoid potential headaches on game days − a move that other businesses might consider mimicking in the coming months.
Tom Jackson and his three brothers have been helping run J&J Machinery & Tool on McCalla Avenue for nearly 40 years. Reflecting on that period, Jackson can recall just four times when parking turned into a problem.
Anticipating the possibility of more frequent issues once the newly named Covenant Health Park opens for baseball April 15, J&J has teamed up with Nashville-based Parking Management Company to manage the business’s private parking lot as it becomes a public option about 0.5 miles from the stadium.
The first game is part of a six-game series, and these types of home stretches will happen each time the Smokies welcome a new opponent to Covenant Health Park. With nearly 70 home games on the 2025 schedule, parking and the flow of traffic are on the minds of downtown residents, employers, employees and regular visitors, despite a repeated message from the Smokies that plenty of public options exist nearby.
That’s partially because parking availability and guidelines are only as good as people’s knowledge and willingness to follow the rules.
“People are going to park in my lot, whether I am here or not,” Jackson told Knox News.
The partnership with Parking Management Company is to help control what Jackson says is the inevitable: baseball fans and other stadium visitors parking in front of his business at 1424 McCalla Ave.
Perhaps you have already seen the signs with QR codes for payment placed around his property. On game days, Jackson said, the parking company will have an attendant on hand directing drivers.
Parking rates have not been set, he said.
Going to Covenant Health Park? ‘Don’t be a parking hog’
The stadium, which can accommodate nearly 7,000 people, is first and foremost home to the Smokies, the Double-A affiliate of the Chicago Cubs. In addition to baseball games, One Knoxville SC will convert the field to a soccer setup for home matches, and concert promoters could book the facility for performances.
The multiuse venue also will include a large meeting space behind home plate, a concourse that will be open on non-game days for recreation and outward-facing shops and restaurants open to the public beyond baseball season − not to mention the residents of apartments and condos overlooking the field who will live in the neighborhood all year long.
Simply put: the new Old City is about to get busy.
J&J’s parking lot on the Magnolia Warehouse District side of the stadium to the east can fit about 30 cars, and it’s only about a 10-minute walk to the stadium.
“I don’t mind people using my lot,” Jackson said. “But don’t be a parking hog. Don’t be hard on everyone else.”
When Parking Management Company approached Jackson in December, he said, the partnership seemed like a “no brainer.” He encouraged neighboring businesses to follow suit and believes some are in talks with the company.
Parking Management Company did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication.
Having an organized system should keep J&J running smoothly, Jackson said, noting that most games will be taking place on nights and weekends when many employees of nearby businesses are out of the office.
On one hand, that means employees won’t be around to keep a close eye on businesses. On the other hand, people working a typical 9-to-5 shift near the stadium shouldn’t have to fight for parking, though baseball fans could be rolling in as downtown employees are heading home.
J&J offers ‘a way to get out’ of downtown as baseball returns to Knoxville
Jackson, his brothers and their employees typically work six days a week at J&J, which often has trucks (including 18-wheelers) coming in and out of the business throughout the week. Workdays start early, Jackson said, and “I just can’t get here at 5 a.m. and have cars parked overnight from a game.”
“We just want to make sure people have a way to get out,” he said. “When the game is over, I know I want to get out.”
In 2022, Knox News visited downtown Durham, North Carolina, where officials of Triple-A Tampa Bay Rays affiliate the Durham Bulls shared how parking can cause unanticipated problems if the quantity of nearby spaces is all decisionmakers are considering.
A parking study commissioned by the Smokies and shared with Knox News in 2022 shows 1,333 parking spaces are available within a 0.25-mile radius of the Knoxville stadium site, and 7,675 are within a half-mile radius. Some are public, some are private and some are free.
“Get an aerial map and look at the Old City,” Smokies owner Randy Boyd told Knox News in September 2022. “It’s a handful of little buildings in a sea of parking lot. But because it’s not Walmart – because you can’t pull up right next to the front door – people don’t feel like that there’s a place to park.”
But that kind of feeling matters, said Mike Birling, vice president of baseball operations for the Durham Bulls. And it’s the team’s job to educate its fanbase.
“It just doesn’t happen the way you think,” Birling said, noting that people’s parking habits are hard to break. “Traffic studies, all that – you just have to take those with a grain of salt because people aren’t going to do what you think they’re going to do.”
J&J seems to be a willing participant in part of the solution − adding more spaces to park − if a solution is even needed at all. It’s hard to tell how comfortable baseball fans will be navigating downtown, finding parking and walking to the stadium until the first game April 15.
Even then, the Smokies and other stakeholders should want to get a few homestands under their belts before giving a full evaluation of how parking is going on game days.
Following the Smokies’ opening series, One Knox will take the field April 26 for its first home game at Covenant Health Park, designed to incorporate party decks, a Tennessee-shaped scoreboard and an iconic water tower feature.
The Smokies last played in Knoxville between 1993 and 1999 before moving to Kodak. The team’s former Knoxville home, Bill Meyer Stadium, was demolished in 2003.
Joanna Hayes is the restaurant and retail reporter. Email: joanna.hayes@knoxnews.com.
Ryan Wilusz is the business growth and development editor. Phone: 865-317-5138. Email: ryan.wilusz@knoxnews.com. Instagram: @knoxscruff.
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