Opening day for the Knoxville Smokies is less than two months away with construction still going on at the ballpark, but there may be a snag with getting a cold beer during a game.
Visit Knoxville President Kim Bumpas said it’s a four-year vision becoming a reality for the Old City.
“You have all of this bottled-up excitement seeing Covenant Health Park turn into a baseball game; turn into a soccer game,” Bumpas said.
While work continues on the ballpark, lawmakers in Nashville are working to ensure they can sell liquor inside the stadium.
The Smokies’ team president, Chris Allen, said they did it in Kodak on a catering license, but a law change would allow them to expand this.
Current law states a stadium owned by a sports authority must be in a county with 500,000 people. The state looks at the 1990 Census to track this.
State Senator Becky Massey wants to change the law to allow for expanded sales inside the stadium, she wants the state to use the 2020 Census to track the population for counties and lower the threshold from 500,000 to 350,000.
Before it can become a law, the bill has to go through Senate and House committees, be read on both floors, get signatures from both speakers and then Governor Bill Lee for signing.
