MLB will be playing its first ever baseball game at Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee.<\/p>\n
MLB<\/p>\n
Major League Baseball is taking America’s pastime to an iconic NASCAR track, and the game is set to top league attendance records.<\/p>\n
On Saturday, MLB will play its first-ever game in Tennessee as part of the MLB Speedway Classic, where the Atlanta Braves will face off against the Cincinnati Reds at Bristol Motor Speedway.<\/p>\n
It will mark the first time a professional baseball game has ever been played at a professional race car track, and MLB will incorporate NASCAR-themed elements throughout the event.<\/p>\n
The event is MLB’s latest effort to help grow the game and attract a younger, more diverse fan base.<\/p>\n
“It represents an opportunity for us to really focus in on having as many fans as possible at an event and to create a natural tie-in with another sport that is very much geared towards the same things that we’ve been driving towards the last few years \u2014 around speed, and being fast and bold,” Jeremiah Yolkut, MLB’s senior vice president of global events, told CNBC.<\/p>\n
Bristol Motor Speedway said the game is set to break the MLB’s all-time regular season single-game attendance record with more than 85,000 tickets sold<\/a>. The previous record of 84,587 was set in 1954. The MLB said the venue can hold about 90,000 fans in total.<\/p>\n Construction began in May to turn Bristol Motor Speedway into a baseball stadium.<\/p>\n Earl Neikirk\/Neikirk Image<\/p>\n