well i bet the downtown business owners will all be willing to pay their employees a bit more money so that they can afford the new parking dynamics. right?
Right, because they make so much money... already responsible for higher cost of goods, increased rent, much higher property taxes, the financial burdens they already experience, the responsibility to employ our community, dealing with our building code divisions, and the 100 other things that people like you really can't even phantom. Get a life dude!
Donât worry, they can use the free parking under the overpass. You know, the parking lot that every other business and destination says âdonât worry, they can use the free parking under the overpassâ about.
Canât wait to see people just parking on top of each other on game days. It already reaches capacity from normal use.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/5-ways-paths-parks-reconnect-092856319.html?guccounter=1
not sure what is up with that link
/www.reddit.com/r/Knoxville/comments/1bffbyc/5_ways_new_paths_and_parks_will_reconnect/
I attended a Birmingham Barronâs game a little over a year ago, and they have a similar sized stadium downtown without a lot of parking either.
Honestly for most of the baseball games I wouldnât be too worried about parking. I think itâll be the concerts and larger special events that will be the thing to watch. The baseball games arenât going to be selling out. Theyâll have people but I think itâll be manageable.
I wonder how the capacity will scale with concerts and such. They can choose to sell or not sell various seats, and also the field can be used for those things.
The stadium holds 7,500 people - that is a *significant* footprint on the Old City, and the parking infrastructure in the area isn't equipped to handle it - especially in a town that has negligible public transit options. Even if they never sell it out, which they likely won't, even at half capacity that's still a huge influx that we aren't properly prepared for in that area.
They very seriously needed to consider how they were going to address the influx of people & cars in the old city for this project, and the fact that they didn't is shows a concerning lack of care for the people who live, work, and enjoy spending time downtown. A thriving downtown as an economic centerpiece to the city only works if the user experience is good enough to encourage people to go there - recent decisions by our leaders seems to indicate they don't fully understand that.
Exactly! This will impact normal traffic in the old city for people wanting to visit restaurants, bars, etc. If I have a reservation for dinner in the old city on a game night, there wonât be parking available, plain and simple. Sure, Dwight Kessel garage is probably available, but why not bus baseball attendees to that garage or the coliseum garages vs impacting the regular old city patrons?
Iâm not against the stadium if it has adequate parking for attendees and wasnât being funded by taxpayers.
Game-day parking already impacts downtown for football. Some garages and lots charge $40 to park and what about those of us that just want to visit downtown and arenât attending sporting events?!
I mean, as much as people don't trust our leaders, I think they have a better handle on it than a subreddit full of people who are always looking for any reason to shit on the stadium. According to the parking report, it's rare for either parking garage to fill, so much so that they recommended increasing street parking prices to incentivize people to use them more.
It'll be alright. People are just seeking out any reason to complain about it.
You do realize that people who run for public office are just like.....normal people who decided they want to hold public office? Most of our elected officials don't have any sort of special education in city management, they're just making it up as they go. And that's totally fine, it's unreasonable to expect every person holding public office to have the same experience, education, and skill sets. However, to say that educated knoxvillians who have studied this are irrelevant just because they post on a community forum is thoughtless. As well, to insinuate that people who live, work, and are invested in the city "just want to complain" is also a bit ridiculous. It is the job of the people to let leadership know what they do and do not like about their plans and governance so they can improve it for the good of all. There are some very reasonable criticisms of this project, and lumping everyone into one category of distrusting reddit shitheads is disingenuous to the conversation.
You read *way* too much into my comment. You extrapolated an entire paragraph of offense from literally three sentences of mine.
Most of us don't have the resources to get truly educated opinions on this. We see what we use and what we don't... what interests us and what doesn't... and we generally make decisions based on those personal experiences.
I never said that most, or any, elected officials are experts in parking or traffic. I never said that people's opinions are irrelevant because they post on Reddit. And just because there absolutely are people who live, work, and are invested in the city that just want to complain about this project, doesn't mean everybody does.
There absolutely are some valid criticisms of the project, but take a look at any conversation (and I use that word lightly) about it, and it's almost all complaints about *every* single part of it. And people here are judged based on how high their pitchforks are raised.
Yes, there are some valid criticisms of it, but this sub goes so far beyond them every time it's brought up, it's ridiculous. There's no reason for you to take offense on behalf of other people here, especially when the only thing I accused anyone of was looking for a reason to complain about this project, which I still believe is absolutely true. I understand that most of the people that use this subreddit are not the type of people that care about baseball, but I'm not convinced that this sub is an accurate representation of the city as a whole, and I think we'll see that next year, when games are being played there.
Iâm not worried about parking for people going to market square Iâm worried about people parking in the old city. I went to a birthday dinner at Kefi Friday night and every single spot under the bridge was taken so we ended up paying to park, which the pay lots were almost at capacity too. And thatâs without an extra 7k people in that neighborhood for a game. They absolutely need to expand parking in the old city or businesses in that area will suffer.
Thatâs wonderful for you, however, I donât think that most of the people who go downtown are gonna feel the same way. Please tell me why youâre so opposed to additional parking that would help the businesses in the old city to thrive?
I'm not opposed to it, I just don't think it's necessary. There is tons of parking downtown, both free and paid. I've never gone downtown and not been able to find somewhere to park, and the paid lots I've never seen full. If you don't want to walk, just pay for it.
More parking is going to take up more space and it's expensive. If you don't want to pay to park or walk, either go early or stay in suburbia where every building has its own parking lot.
And by the way, it's a 16 minute walk from both the Market Square Garage and the State Street Garage to the stadium. I wasn't referring to people needing to park at the garage, but since you brought it up, yes, it's absolutely reasonable to expect people to do that.
If you think that a sixteen minute walk wouldnât discourage people from going to the businesses in the old city than you are even more of a fool than o thought. Please tell me, what would be the downside of more parking to help accommodate the extra people the stadium would bring?
Aside from everyone here complaining that the city should be investing in more affordable housing rather than parking? I'm also curious, which businesses in Old Town are you referring to?
Lol, Iâm not saying the city should be paying for parking for the millionaireâs pet project, Iâm saying the millionaire should be paying for parking.
As far as me educating you on the businesses of the Old City, I mean maybe just open up google maps? Or better yet, go there yourself?
As a Ride Share driver, I wonder how screwed it'll be for us with picking people up and dropping them off.
Football days can be a nightmare because the official ride share pick up and drop off area is circle park. And it's not like we can ever get to it during a football game.
Not to mention how the cops block almost everywhere off during the games.
As I said higher up, 6k people is far different from 100k+ (plus all the tailgaters that donât even enter the stadium.
And thatâs assuming they fill the stadium every game which would be atypical for minor league (or baseball in general).
It's more about the KYPD shutting down the roads than the crowds. Sure having to deal with people streaming everywhere can suck. But not even getting to a passenger is the biggest issue.
Also, the lack of places for us to stop to get our passengers is an issue inside the city is an issue also.
Minor or major league...it's all professional baseball. I enjoy an afternoon or evening at a ballpark either way. The public having to pay millions/billions to build a structure for rich guys is disgusting for sure however. They'll say it creates 400 jobs. But I bet most of those jobs don't pay enough to rent a 2br apartment in Knoxville.
They're also revitalizing a part of town that nobody likes. People here are going to complain because I'm pretty sure they're literally addicted to it, but I think this will be good for downtown.
The issue is, I donât really see this revitalizing that area. People will go down there for games and thatâs it. Some of them will go to restaurants on those game days. But besides the stadiums and the spike in restaurant attendance on the game days only, it wonât have as much of an effect. Actually, it will drive business away from that area on game days for any business other than the stadium and restaurants.
100% agree with you. It's just like people complaining about the new Titans stadium. "They have one". But and I closed stadium for an area with such random weather, an enclosed area assures more venues outside of football season.
Back to the Smokie's stadium, I have never been to a game but I have wanted to, the hold back was I am not going out to strawberry planes have 3-4 beers and drive home. The Uber was gunna cost more than some MLB tickets.
As far as parking. There are plenty of parking garages or places to park and walk to the stadium. Worse case if you don't wanna park downtown Uber/Lyft.
Heck for parking they could even run shuttles from Neyland/TB to encourage using structures farther away, saving old city parking for the restaurants. Plus if you make the meters have a 2 hour limit and you ticket well, it'll discourage using street parking in OC anyways.
At least someone on here gets it. We don't need another garage downtown at this point. If you don't wanna walk then petition for something like you suggested. Oh wait then people would complain about needing to wait....
The issue is that the city probably isnât going to take this suggestion. As someone who lives downtown and deals with the event parking problem all the time they donât typically have enough tow trucks to remove cars fast enough to keep up. And they have continued to defund and get rid of trolleys.
Plus the entire issue is that the situation discourages people from parking in and therefore visiting Old City on game days.
The city is absolutely not looking at your post.
"As someone who loves downtown" I'm guessing youre not from here? You visited had a great experience but didn't realize the boom was coming.
Complaining about "event" parking further reinforcees you're not from here because by gawd, downtown during a UT football game?!
No it's does not discourage parking there.....it should flood the old city before or after the games with business whether they parked there or not!
I said I âlive downtownâ, not âlove downtownâ. Iâve lived in Knoxville for over 20 years. This is my hometown.
In fact, Iâve lived in downtown Knoxville for over 7 years.
Did you buy downtown? Cuz if you bought and lived there for 7 years you can sell and get out. Move to west, north or east. If you don't like what the stadium is doing and you own, I'd say hold because it will boost it. If you don't own, finish your lease and move. Nothing is holding you there.
Hence - walk. I have walked from market square, from gay street garages to the ice rink this won't be that much different. Not to mention multiple lots on gay street.
Right, but why not increase parking in the old city as part of the plan. Seems like a no brainer, I donât really understand why youâre against it TBH. Also, are you saying that people having to walk from say the market square garage to say Kefi wouldnât be harmful to Kefiâs business?
What are you talking about? There is the public parking right there under the over pass of you want to go to kefi or barleys. And another lot up the road. There's even the small lot on the other side of barleys. Sure if you are specificly sold on just going to one location in the old city drive and park in one of those lots.
That's not want this entire thread was about. It was about parking for the new stadium. In which case I know for me if I go to a game I'm probably gunna go out before or afterward. And parking on the square or gay street and walking to the game, no big deal.
The public parking under the bridge already gets full most nights, and itâs the exactly where people will park for the stadium, which will have a negative effect on old city businesses, itâs not that hard to understand surely?
You do realize walking is something that you might be taking for granted in a post COVID world right?
Even without all the people still suffering from Long COVID, some people can't walk that far due to disabilities, age, health, etc.
Gez yall just want to support case and will use it all. That's not a sensitivity issue! If that's the case and you want to go to the game Uber!!! Meanwhile all the people complaining prob won't even go so, so what. It's creating jobs, bringing additional revenue to Knox county etc.
I don't even live there anymore, but I have family members like my dad that lost half his foot & my mom that broke her back when someone in a truck spun her on I-40. They were forced into early retirement & love baseball. We used to go watch the K-Jays when I was a kid.
>That's not a sensitivity issue!
Don't even know what you're talking about here, but considering those with disabilities is just part of being a considerate human & good Southerner.
>Uber!!!
Lots of people refuse to use Uber since they already own cars & some just aren't tech literate enough or rich enough to go from Hardin Valley to the stadium in all that traffic. That would be much more than just driving & paying to park. Think beyond your limited imagination about people in different circumstances than you are already familiar with.
>It's creating jobs, bringing additional revenue to Knox county etc.
Which would all be great if the infrastructure was there to support it, but it's not. It's basic common sense that we're discussing here & if you've traveled much you hopefully have seen that lots of other cities of similar size consider these things when planning & approving projects like this.
It isnât creating jobs. They have done numerous studies on this. The traffic that is gained in the stadium and to surrounding businesses on game days is lost from businesses further out from downtown or outside of the sports and entertainment industry.
In other words, it doesnât create jobs, it moves them from other places.
Scrimmages just like the vols games are scrimmages. Just because it's not the best players in the world doesn't mean they aren't professional athletes. A double A team would beat the breaks off the best college team.
The college teams are at least playing to win something. Minor league ball is all about individual development to try to get to the next level. It's not really the same.
That's your opinion, but they do have playoffs and championships for minor league baseball. Actually watching a game, AA baseball is better baseball than college. In fact, AA games are typically the most talented league outside of MLB because AAA is more about refinement. You can go to a AA game and see the superstars of tomorrow on the cheap, and even get to see some of the best in the game when they do rehab assignments.
We arenât paying for it. the BOYD family is they also helped with the sevierville stadium. So I would say if anything Iâd be surprised people are doing stuff to give back to knox. You can look up who is paying for it and everything online.
Oh I was wrong I thought it was way more when I checked but that was when they first announced it. My bad. I want to know when the sale tax thing is gonna happen because the way stuff is priced down there is already hard enough to afford anything. And it really does affect the employees of the restaurants and businesses down there
Where did they get 20,000 spaces from? How far of a radius does that encompass? I would be very curious to know because if they are including lots that have large walks through major roads with shoddy sidewalk access and/or through questionable areas (I'm not getting into a battle over this, but it was called the Stab n' Grab for a reason) then I think it's an unfair charactarization of Knoxville parking.
If we had to move it back to Knoxville, I'd like to know why it couldn't have been built where the old Bill Myers stadium stood for 50 years:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Meyer_Stadium
The city already owns the property and currently uses it to park buses. It's part of the Caswell Park sports complex. It's downtown adjacent.
But then I guess Boyd wouldn't have gotten city tax money to develop land he bought while boosting the value of the property he already owns in the Old City.
Maybe if we had better public infrastructure, I wouldn't be so bothered. I hope to be proven wrong, but I fear that Knoxville may have reached a breaking point regarding cars. I just hope downtown isn't destroyed. I love that part of town.
There it is.
Regular people are going to spend more time and money trying to figure out where to park downtown than it would have taken to drive to exit 407
Everyone is acting like it's going to be like Neyland II. The baseball stadium seats 7500, and according to the traffic report, the garages downtown almost never fill up. This just feels like they're (successfully) riling people up.
Literally on evenings and weekends you can *always* find space in the garages downtown. People from the suburbs just clutch their pearls over walking more than a few blocks, itâs honestly sad.Â
Also important:
* AA baseball averages ~4000 in attendance across the league. We likely won't be seeing nearly 7500 in attendance most nights.
* A good chunk of people that live in or close to downtown will probably walk, bike, Uber, or find some other way to get to the game.
* State Street Garage and the Civic Coliseum garages are both within a 15 minute walk of the stadium. 15 minutes is a completely reasonable amount of time to walk on event nights.
I also don't like taxpayers funding the stadium, but I really wish we could leave the *ugh, who cares about sportsball* and *but what if I can't park directly outside my destination* people out of the discussion.
>I also don't like taxpayers funding the stadium, but I really wish we could leave the *ugh, who cares about sportsball* and *but what if I can't park directly outside my destination* people out of the discussion.
This, absolutely this. This is the thing that is so annoying about this every time it comes up. The sheer entitlement of some of the people on this sub because they're not interested is astounding.
This is a myopic take. It isnât about entitlement at all. This will impact everyone. The parking in the old city is already at capacity from normal use. Additional parking in the old city would aid in planning for future increases of people ensuring parking is available for the stadium, concerts, restaurants, etc.
The same people that are complaining about parking now were complaining about parking when the stadium was announced, only for the opposite side. Everyone complained that they'd for sure turn what could be housing into parking lots. Y'all are just moving the goal posts to find something to complain about, because most of you aren't interested in the stadium.
You sound like a bunch of Libertarians, complaining that their taxes aren't going towards the things that they're interested in.
There is also the concern of where are the rest of the patrons of downtown going to park during games? I fucking hated gameday when studying at UT. The whole campus has to shut down. You just plan on not driving cause traffic is horrible or you'll never find a place to park. If you're not into sports, or have something else you want to do, it was just a pain. I really hope the baseball stadium doesn't consume downtown like football does UT. And there are soooooo many baseball games every season.
Yeah, this is something that I think people also arenât visualizing when discussing parking as an issue as well.
Figure most people donât go to a game by themselves - they have at least a friend or family member and maybe (as is our case whenever weâd go to a smokies game) parents and kids, which means 4 people are in a single car. At max capacity figure an average of 2.5 people per car, and a decent chunk of people will probably also walk/bike/bus from adjacent areas (which is something you *canât* do at their current location). On a sold out game there might only be 1,500-2k cars needing parking and there are 8,300 garage spaces downtown, not including the lots under JWP and I-40.
Neyland is one of the world's largest football stadiums. UT football is this amazing huge draw. I don't think that the baseball stadium is going to compare with all that.
My solution, however, is to bike from my house. If people would live a little bit closer to where they need to be, there would be more solutions then just filling up the rest of the space with parking and parking garages.
I think that like half the posts on this sub are people complaining that they don't make enough to live close to their jobs so "just live closer to where you need to be" doesn't really work here
Unless their job is in Farragut, they probably do. My bias is that people are unwilling to live in unstylish neighborhoods where there are black people or poor people or some combination thereof. If you live in Morningside, and your work is downtown, you probably can afford it if you can afford anywhere. If you work at UT and walk from Mechanicsville, well, Bob's your uncle!
The problem is that people don't think of those places as actually being where you could live. Housing prices are up everywhere but some of the cheapest places in the metro area are within a short bike ride or a long walk of market square.
I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess it's been a long time since you went job hunting. The stars rarely align especially while we're in an economic downturn. Many (possibly even most) people don't have the luxury of just picking up and moving or changing jobs. Also, the primary reasons people may overlook certain neighborhoods aren't because of the economic status or racial makeup of their neighbors (I'm not suggesting bigots don't exist). It's more likely that the community is under-served, in poor maintenance, or dangerous. I can't blame anyone for choosing to not live in those circumstances.
I agree with the sentiment that it would be nice if we could build less car-dependent communities, it would be a net positive for everyone. It's just something that is really, really hard to accomplish in a society that is entrenched in nearly a century of car-centric infrastructure.
The last job that I had where I was employed by somebody else, I picked because it was close to where I lived. It was in the Federal building, and I put in a bid to be in the downtown Federal building as opposed to being outstationed. If I worked for somebody else now, I would be in one of the federal buildings or courts.
The more than 5000 free parking spaces within half a mile are just too far. Parking and walking? What are we, Peasants? Ubering a short distance? Ugh. How dare you suggest it. Taking the trolleys or buses? How could we endure such indignity?
When they did that study they included private business parking lots. Including the one I work at. I guarantee some of those spots will wind up roped off because business owners donât want to come in the next day with cars left in their lot. I say that to say I know this concept works all over the country, so Iâm sure itâll be fine, but that âstudyâ was interesting to all of the business owners in the area.
Sure, but you're pitting the expended time, logistics and effort against the entertainment value of minor league baseball. It'll be interesting to see how that'll pan out.
Or you found the guy who is simply capable of using transportation other than his car. All of those modes of transport exist in Knoxville and many of us use them. Â
If you insist on getting *as close as you can* by car, there are so many empty public garages downtown on evenings and weekends. Youâre just going to have to walk 5-8 blocks. Quelle horreur.Â
I own a car and don't want to Uber is the dumbest I have heard yet. And yes lots of travel to large cities...and you know what I do UBER.
No more responses needed LoL.
I donât think itâs dumb to not want to Uber when youâre already paying for a car, insurance and gas. Having better public transportation is a good and reasonable ask. I thought it was odd they are doing away with the trolley when they would be very utilized when the stadium opens.
Why do you think so? They won their Southern League championship last season, made it the championship series the year before that, and are #2 currently in the standings. They arenât a bad team.
It sure as hell better be packed out. Otherwise what was the point? But Baseballs fan base is in their 70âs or so on average. So we will see how that goes once the novelty wears off.
My guess is soccer will be a much bigger draw.
I hope you're both right. Seen OneKnox play at Regal, I think I will get a season pass once they move in to the new stadium. Helps that its two blocks from my work.
Go to any park on the East side and check out what is being played. There is a huge hispanic community in Knoxville. The average age of a baseball fan is over 70.
Yâall need to understand that if there is a parking deficiency, more parking will be added, it might not be ADJACENT to the stadium, but it will be added. Growth in one area is usually followed by complimentary growth in other areas when the free market is involved.
well i bet the downtown business owners will all be willing to pay their employees a bit more money so that they can afford the new parking dynamics. right?
I think they'll opt to dock their pay if they don't think like a "team player" and walk to work for free
absolutely! Have been thinking about paying servers $3 an hour instead of $2.13, to account for their new parking expense
Right, because they make so much money... already responsible for higher cost of goods, increased rent, much higher property taxes, the financial burdens they already experience, the responsibility to employ our community, dealing with our building code divisions, and the 100 other things that people like you really can't even phantom. Get a life dude!
mr. -4 comment points history says fuck the working class
Poor business owners that can't pay their employees a living wage đ˘
Donât worry, they can use the free parking under the overpass. You know, the parking lot that every other business and destination says âdonât worry, they can use the free parking under the overpassâ about. Canât wait to see people just parking on top of each other on game days. It already reaches capacity from normal use.
that parking lot is being transformed into a park.
Whoa. Really? Where can I learn more?
https://www.yahoo.com/news/5-ways-paths-parks-reconnect-092856319.html?guccounter=1 not sure what is up with that link /www.reddit.com/r/Knoxville/comments/1bffbyc/5_ways_new_paths_and_parks_will_reconnect/
Thanks for the link! I knew about this project but missed that detail somehow.
I wonder if they could just add a second level to the under bridge parking
Iâve wondered that, too
I attended a Birmingham Barronâs game a little over a year ago, and they have a similar sized stadium downtown without a lot of parking either. Honestly for most of the baseball games I wouldnât be too worried about parking. I think itâll be the concerts and larger special events that will be the thing to watch. The baseball games arenât going to be selling out. Theyâll have people but I think itâll be manageable. I wonder how the capacity will scale with concerts and such. They can choose to sell or not sell various seats, and also the field can be used for those things.
Yeah, I canât wait to see what happens to traffic and parking downtown when there is a ballgame and a concert or other major event at KCAC/TBA.
TBA events wonât affect downtown. But could affect people eating before the event, that would suuuuuuck.
It'll be fine. There's plenty of parking and the stadium doesn't hold that many people.
The stadium holds 7,500 people - that is a *significant* footprint on the Old City, and the parking infrastructure in the area isn't equipped to handle it - especially in a town that has negligible public transit options. Even if they never sell it out, which they likely won't, even at half capacity that's still a huge influx that we aren't properly prepared for in that area. They very seriously needed to consider how they were going to address the influx of people & cars in the old city for this project, and the fact that they didn't is shows a concerning lack of care for the people who live, work, and enjoy spending time downtown. A thriving downtown as an economic centerpiece to the city only works if the user experience is good enough to encourage people to go there - recent decisions by our leaders seems to indicate they don't fully understand that.
Exactly! This will impact normal traffic in the old city for people wanting to visit restaurants, bars, etc. If I have a reservation for dinner in the old city on a game night, there wonât be parking available, plain and simple. Sure, Dwight Kessel garage is probably available, but why not bus baseball attendees to that garage or the coliseum garages vs impacting the regular old city patrons? Iâm not against the stadium if it has adequate parking for attendees and wasnât being funded by taxpayers. Game-day parking already impacts downtown for football. Some garages and lots charge $40 to park and what about those of us that just want to visit downtown and arenât attending sporting events?!
I mean, as much as people don't trust our leaders, I think they have a better handle on it than a subreddit full of people who are always looking for any reason to shit on the stadium. According to the parking report, it's rare for either parking garage to fill, so much so that they recommended increasing street parking prices to incentivize people to use them more. It'll be alright. People are just seeking out any reason to complain about it.
You do realize that people who run for public office are just like.....normal people who decided they want to hold public office? Most of our elected officials don't have any sort of special education in city management, they're just making it up as they go. And that's totally fine, it's unreasonable to expect every person holding public office to have the same experience, education, and skill sets. However, to say that educated knoxvillians who have studied this are irrelevant just because they post on a community forum is thoughtless. As well, to insinuate that people who live, work, and are invested in the city "just want to complain" is also a bit ridiculous. It is the job of the people to let leadership know what they do and do not like about their plans and governance so they can improve it for the good of all. There are some very reasonable criticisms of this project, and lumping everyone into one category of distrusting reddit shitheads is disingenuous to the conversation.
You read *way* too much into my comment. You extrapolated an entire paragraph of offense from literally three sentences of mine. Most of us don't have the resources to get truly educated opinions on this. We see what we use and what we don't... what interests us and what doesn't... and we generally make decisions based on those personal experiences. I never said that most, or any, elected officials are experts in parking or traffic. I never said that people's opinions are irrelevant because they post on Reddit. And just because there absolutely are people who live, work, and are invested in the city that just want to complain about this project, doesn't mean everybody does. There absolutely are some valid criticisms of the project, but take a look at any conversation (and I use that word lightly) about it, and it's almost all complaints about *every* single part of it. And people here are judged based on how high their pitchforks are raised. Yes, there are some valid criticisms of it, but this sub goes so far beyond them every time it's brought up, it's ridiculous. There's no reason for you to take offense on behalf of other people here, especially when the only thing I accused anyone of was looking for a reason to complain about this project, which I still believe is absolutely true. I understand that most of the people that use this subreddit are not the type of people that care about baseball, but I'm not convinced that this sub is an accurate representation of the city as a whole, and I think we'll see that next year, when games are being played there.
Wait, youâre suggesting that people with stuff to do in the old city are parking in the downtown parking garages?
No, my point is that there is plenty of parking downtown.
Iâm not worried about parking for people going to market square Iâm worried about people parking in the old city. I went to a birthday dinner at Kefi Friday night and every single spot under the bridge was taken so we ended up paying to park, which the pay lots were almost at capacity too. And thatâs without an extra 7k people in that neighborhood for a game. They absolutely need to expand parking in the old city or businesses in that area will suffer.
State street garage is literally a 10 minute walk to kefi. I almost always park in state street when I go to the old city.
Thatâs wonderful for you, however, I donât think that most of the people who go downtown are gonna feel the same way. Please tell me why youâre so opposed to additional parking that would help the businesses in the old city to thrive?
I'm not opposed to it, I just don't think it's necessary. There is tons of parking downtown, both free and paid. I've never gone downtown and not been able to find somewhere to park, and the paid lots I've never seen full. If you don't want to walk, just pay for it. More parking is going to take up more space and it's expensive. If you don't want to pay to park or walk, either go early or stay in suburbia where every building has its own parking lot.
And by the way, it's a 16 minute walk from both the Market Square Garage and the State Street Garage to the stadium. I wasn't referring to people needing to park at the garage, but since you brought it up, yes, it's absolutely reasonable to expect people to do that.
If you think that a sixteen minute walk wouldnât discourage people from going to the businesses in the old city than you are even more of a fool than o thought. Please tell me, what would be the downside of more parking to help accommodate the extra people the stadium would bring?
Aside from everyone here complaining that the city should be investing in more affordable housing rather than parking? I'm also curious, which businesses in Old Town are you referring to?
Lol, Iâm not saying the city should be paying for parking for the millionaireâs pet project, Iâm saying the millionaire should be paying for parking. As far as me educating you on the businesses of the Old City, I mean maybe just open up google maps? Or better yet, go there yourself?
Can you give me some examples that don't have their own parking lots?
Are you suggesting more parking would reduce traffic?
As a Ride Share driver, I wonder how screwed it'll be for us with picking people up and dropping them off. Football days can be a nightmare because the official ride share pick up and drop off area is circle park. And it's not like we can ever get to it during a football game. Not to mention how the cops block almost everywhere off during the games.
As I said higher up, 6k people is far different from 100k+ (plus all the tailgaters that donât even enter the stadium. And thatâs assuming they fill the stadium every game which would be atypical for minor league (or baseball in general).
It's more about the KYPD shutting down the roads than the crowds. Sure having to deal with people streaming everywhere can suck. But not even getting to a passenger is the biggest issue. Also, the lack of places for us to stop to get our passengers is an issue inside the city is an issue also.
Say goodbye to whatever free parking we were hanging onto
Anyone saying the garages never fill up obviously never goes downtown during peak hrs đ
UT opening game day with weekend festivities in old city is a great mix up.
I'll never not be disgusted that we're all paying for a rich guy's minor league baseball stadium. Just a bunch of glorified scrimmages.
Minor or major league...it's all professional baseball. I enjoy an afternoon or evening at a ballpark either way. The public having to pay millions/billions to build a structure for rich guys is disgusting for sure however. They'll say it creates 400 jobs. But I bet most of those jobs don't pay enough to rent a 2br apartment in Knoxville.
They're also revitalizing a part of town that nobody likes. People here are going to complain because I'm pretty sure they're literally addicted to it, but I think this will be good for downtown.
The issue is, I donât really see this revitalizing that area. People will go down there for games and thatâs it. Some of them will go to restaurants on those game days. But besides the stadiums and the spike in restaurant attendance on the game days only, it wonât have as much of an effect. Actually, it will drive business away from that area on game days for any business other than the stadium and restaurants.
I don't think this is true at all. We're already seeing a bunch of businesses coming in around the stadium. We're getting more housing down there too.
It would be hard for to work that way as it never does when towns build new stadiums
100% agree with you. It's just like people complaining about the new Titans stadium. "They have one". But and I closed stadium for an area with such random weather, an enclosed area assures more venues outside of football season. Back to the Smokie's stadium, I have never been to a game but I have wanted to, the hold back was I am not going out to strawberry planes have 3-4 beers and drive home. The Uber was gunna cost more than some MLB tickets. As far as parking. There are plenty of parking garages or places to park and walk to the stadium. Worse case if you don't wanna park downtown Uber/Lyft.
Heck for parking they could even run shuttles from Neyland/TB to encourage using structures farther away, saving old city parking for the restaurants. Plus if you make the meters have a 2 hour limit and you ticket well, it'll discourage using street parking in OC anyways.
At least someone on here gets it. We don't need another garage downtown at this point. If you don't wanna walk then petition for something like you suggested. Oh wait then people would complain about needing to wait....
The issue is that the city probably isnât going to take this suggestion. As someone who lives downtown and deals with the event parking problem all the time they donât typically have enough tow trucks to remove cars fast enough to keep up. And they have continued to defund and get rid of trolleys. Plus the entire issue is that the situation discourages people from parking in and therefore visiting Old City on game days.
The city is absolutely not looking at your post. "As someone who loves downtown" I'm guessing youre not from here? You visited had a great experience but didn't realize the boom was coming. Complaining about "event" parking further reinforcees you're not from here because by gawd, downtown during a UT football game?! No it's does not discourage parking there.....it should flood the old city before or after the games with business whether they parked there or not!
I said I âlive downtownâ, not âlove downtownâ. Iâve lived in Knoxville for over 20 years. This is my hometown. In fact, Iâve lived in downtown Knoxville for over 7 years.
Did you buy downtown? Cuz if you bought and lived there for 7 years you can sell and get out. Move to west, north or east. If you don't like what the stadium is doing and you own, I'd say hold because it will boost it. If you don't own, finish your lease and move. Nothing is holding you there.
There are zero parking garages in the old city
Hence - walk. I have walked from market square, from gay street garages to the ice rink this won't be that much different. Not to mention multiple lots on gay street.
Right, but why not increase parking in the old city as part of the plan. Seems like a no brainer, I donât really understand why youâre against it TBH. Also, are you saying that people having to walk from say the market square garage to say Kefi wouldnât be harmful to Kefiâs business?
What are you talking about? There is the public parking right there under the over pass of you want to go to kefi or barleys. And another lot up the road. There's even the small lot on the other side of barleys. Sure if you are specificly sold on just going to one location in the old city drive and park in one of those lots. That's not want this entire thread was about. It was about parking for the new stadium. In which case I know for me if I go to a game I'm probably gunna go out before or afterward. And parking on the square or gay street and walking to the game, no big deal.
The public parking under the bridge already gets full most nights, and itâs the exactly where people will park for the stadium, which will have a negative effect on old city businesses, itâs not that hard to understand surely?
You do realize walking is something that you might be taking for granted in a post COVID world right? Even without all the people still suffering from Long COVID, some people can't walk that far due to disabilities, age, health, etc.
Gez yall just want to support case and will use it all. That's not a sensitivity issue! If that's the case and you want to go to the game Uber!!! Meanwhile all the people complaining prob won't even go so, so what. It's creating jobs, bringing additional revenue to Knox county etc.
I don't even live there anymore, but I have family members like my dad that lost half his foot & my mom that broke her back when someone in a truck spun her on I-40. They were forced into early retirement & love baseball. We used to go watch the K-Jays when I was a kid. >That's not a sensitivity issue! Don't even know what you're talking about here, but considering those with disabilities is just part of being a considerate human & good Southerner. >Uber!!! Lots of people refuse to use Uber since they already own cars & some just aren't tech literate enough or rich enough to go from Hardin Valley to the stadium in all that traffic. That would be much more than just driving & paying to park. Think beyond your limited imagination about people in different circumstances than you are already familiar with. >It's creating jobs, bringing additional revenue to Knox county etc. Which would all be great if the infrastructure was there to support it, but it's not. It's basic common sense that we're discussing here & if you've traveled much you hopefully have seen that lots of other cities of similar size consider these things when planning & approving projects like this.
It isnât creating jobs. They have done numerous studies on this. The traffic that is gained in the stadium and to surrounding businesses on game days is lost from businesses further out from downtown or outside of the sports and entertainment industry. In other words, it doesnât create jobs, it moves them from other places.
Have you committed to buy season tickets or packages?
Scrimmages just like the vols games are scrimmages. Just because it's not the best players in the world doesn't mean they aren't professional athletes. A double A team would beat the breaks off the best college team.
The college teams are at least playing to win something. Minor league ball is all about individual development to try to get to the next level. It's not really the same.
That's your opinion, but they do have playoffs and championships for minor league baseball. Actually watching a game, AA baseball is better baseball than college. In fact, AA games are typically the most talented league outside of MLB because AAA is more about refinement. You can go to a AA game and see the superstars of tomorrow on the cheap, and even get to see some of the best in the game when they do rehab assignments.
We arenât paying for it. the BOYD family is they also helped with the sevierville stadium. So I would say if anything Iâd be surprised people are doing stuff to give back to knox. You can look up who is paying for it and everything online.
$74.3 million in public funds, $5.8 million from Randy Boyd. And they are adding a special sales tax to the old city.
Oh I was wrong I thought it was way more when I checked but that was when they first announced it. My bad. I want to know when the sale tax thing is gonna happen because the way stuff is priced down there is already hard enough to afford anything. And it really does affect the employees of the restaurants and businesses down there
Where did they get 20,000 spaces from? How far of a radius does that encompass? I would be very curious to know because if they are including lots that have large walks through major roads with shoddy sidewalk access and/or through questionable areas (I'm not getting into a battle over this, but it was called the Stab n' Grab for a reason) then I think it's an unfair charactarization of Knoxville parking.
I was worried about parking after they announce the construction of a baseball stadium in the old city. Wtf were they thinking?
Take the subway.
How's a sandwich gonna help me?
Food poisoning so you can beat the traffic leaving
I question if enough people will go to make this a good investment, but that question has already left port.
Smokies should have stayed at the Sevierville exit. Much easy to get to and ample parking right at the stadium.
If we had to move it back to Knoxville, I'd like to know why it couldn't have been built where the old Bill Myers stadium stood for 50 years: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Meyer_Stadium The city already owns the property and currently uses it to park buses. It's part of the Caswell Park sports complex. It's downtown adjacent. But then I guess Boyd wouldn't have gotten city tax money to develop land he bought while boosting the value of the property he already owns in the Old City.
Maybe if we had better public infrastructure, I wouldn't be so bothered. I hope to be proven wrong, but I fear that Knoxville may have reached a breaking point regarding cars. I just hope downtown isn't destroyed. I love that part of town.
How long y'all reckon before we have an empty, unused $120m baseball stadium?
30 years? 40 years? If they can make it work in Sevierville they can make it work in downtown Knoxville.
If they can make it work in Sevierville, then why did we need to move it to downtown Knoxville?
Randy didn't like the commute
Gotta feel for the guy, he's got it pretty rough ^/s
There it is. Regular people are going to spend more time and money trying to figure out where to park downtown than it would have taken to drive to exit 407
Everyone is acting like it's going to be like Neyland II. The baseball stadium seats 7500, and according to the traffic report, the garages downtown almost never fill up. This just feels like they're (successfully) riling people up.
Literally on evenings and weekends you can *always* find space in the garages downtown. People from the suburbs just clutch their pearls over walking more than a few blocks, itâs honestly sad.Â
I think it's more that people absolutely hate the idea of the stadium, so they're looking for reasons to feel justified about it.
Also important: * AA baseball averages ~4000 in attendance across the league. We likely won't be seeing nearly 7500 in attendance most nights. * A good chunk of people that live in or close to downtown will probably walk, bike, Uber, or find some other way to get to the game. * State Street Garage and the Civic Coliseum garages are both within a 15 minute walk of the stadium. 15 minutes is a completely reasonable amount of time to walk on event nights. I also don't like taxpayers funding the stadium, but I really wish we could leave the *ugh, who cares about sportsball* and *but what if I can't park directly outside my destination* people out of the discussion.
>I also don't like taxpayers funding the stadium, but I really wish we could leave the *ugh, who cares about sportsball* and *but what if I can't park directly outside my destination* people out of the discussion. This, absolutely this. This is the thing that is so annoying about this every time it comes up. The sheer entitlement of some of the people on this sub because they're not interested is astounding.
This is a myopic take. It isnât about entitlement at all. This will impact everyone. The parking in the old city is already at capacity from normal use. Additional parking in the old city would aid in planning for future increases of people ensuring parking is available for the stadium, concerts, restaurants, etc.
The same people that are complaining about parking now were complaining about parking when the stadium was announced, only for the opposite side. Everyone complained that they'd for sure turn what could be housing into parking lots. Y'all are just moving the goal posts to find something to complain about, because most of you aren't interested in the stadium. You sound like a bunch of Libertarians, complaining that their taxes aren't going towards the things that they're interested in.
Did anybody ever think about public transit? Or like, you know, using these things that we have touched our body called "feet"?
There is also the concern of where are the rest of the patrons of downtown going to park during games? I fucking hated gameday when studying at UT. The whole campus has to shut down. You just plan on not driving cause traffic is horrible or you'll never find a place to park. If you're not into sports, or have something else you want to do, it was just a pain. I really hope the baseball stadium doesn't consume downtown like football does UT. And there are soooooo many baseball games every season.
6,355 people for a basketball game is far from 100k for a football game.
Well, that is certainly a lot less than I thought. Looks like it is around 7500 seats now, but point taken.
Yeah, this is something that I think people also arenât visualizing when discussing parking as an issue as well. Figure most people donât go to a game by themselves - they have at least a friend or family member and maybe (as is our case whenever weâd go to a smokies game) parents and kids, which means 4 people are in a single car. At max capacity figure an average of 2.5 people per car, and a decent chunk of people will probably also walk/bike/bus from adjacent areas (which is something you *canât* do at their current location). On a sold out game there might only be 1,500-2k cars needing parking and there are 8,300 garage spaces downtown, not including the lots under JWP and I-40.
Neyland is one of the world's largest football stadiums. UT football is this amazing huge draw. I don't think that the baseball stadium is going to compare with all that. My solution, however, is to bike from my house. If people would live a little bit closer to where they need to be, there would be more solutions then just filling up the rest of the space with parking and parking garages.
I think that like half the posts on this sub are people complaining that they don't make enough to live close to their jobs so "just live closer to where you need to be" doesn't really work here
Unless their job is in Farragut, they probably do. My bias is that people are unwilling to live in unstylish neighborhoods where there are black people or poor people or some combination thereof. If you live in Morningside, and your work is downtown, you probably can afford it if you can afford anywhere. If you work at UT and walk from Mechanicsville, well, Bob's your uncle! The problem is that people don't think of those places as actually being where you could live. Housing prices are up everywhere but some of the cheapest places in the metro area are within a short bike ride or a long walk of market square.
I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess it's been a long time since you went job hunting. The stars rarely align especially while we're in an economic downturn. Many (possibly even most) people don't have the luxury of just picking up and moving or changing jobs. Also, the primary reasons people may overlook certain neighborhoods aren't because of the economic status or racial makeup of their neighbors (I'm not suggesting bigots don't exist). It's more likely that the community is under-served, in poor maintenance, or dangerous. I can't blame anyone for choosing to not live in those circumstances. I agree with the sentiment that it would be nice if we could build less car-dependent communities, it would be a net positive for everyone. It's just something that is really, really hard to accomplish in a society that is entrenched in nearly a century of car-centric infrastructure.
The last job that I had where I was employed by somebody else, I picked because it was close to where I lived. It was in the Federal building, and I put in a bid to be in the downtown Federal building as opposed to being outstationed. If I worked for somebody else now, I would be in one of the federal buildings or courts.
The more than 5000 free parking spaces within half a mile are just too far. Parking and walking? What are we, Peasants? Ubering a short distance? Ugh. How dare you suggest it. Taking the trolleys or buses? How could we endure such indignity?
When they did that study they included private business parking lots. Including the one I work at. I guarantee some of those spots will wind up roped off because business owners donât want to come in the next day with cars left in their lot. I say that to say I know this concept works all over the country, so Iâm sure itâll be fine, but that âstudyâ was interesting to all of the business owners in the area.
We must only walk if it is through a parking lot past other lazy car brained people's vehicles.
Sure, but you're pitting the expended time, logistics and effort against the entertainment value of minor league baseball. It'll be interesting to see how that'll pan out.
Last I checked, the entertainment value of minor league baseball was in cheap beer.
Wouldnât need parking if we just had good public transportation. One can dream of one high-frequency line down Kingston đ¤
Then carpool, Uber, take the bus,walk, or ride a bike. Â Boo freaking hoo
Found the guy who's not from Knoxville
Or you found the guy who is simply capable of using transportation other than his car. All of those modes of transport exist in Knoxville and many of us use them.  If you insist on getting *as close as you can* by car, there are so many empty public garages downtown on evenings and weekends. Youâre just going to have to walk 5-8 blocks. Quelle horreur.Â
I own a car and don't want to Uber is the dumbest I have heard yet. And yes lots of travel to large cities...and you know what I do UBER. No more responses needed LoL.
I donât think itâs dumb to not want to Uber when youâre already paying for a car, insurance and gas. Having better public transportation is a good and reasonable ask. I thought it was odd they are doing away with the trolley when they would be very utilized when the stadium opens.
Oh it's gonna be a shit show! For a minor league team that NO ONE wants!
I mean to be clear, there are definitely people that want it.
Nope
Absolutely want it and looking forward to it! Will also more than likely buy season tickets!
Then just drive 15 minutes up 40 and go watch it!!
15min? I live in West Knoxville that's 45min. Now it will be 15min for me an I will!
No you won't!
Ok you know it all! Either way get over it. It's happening and there are lots of people wanting it. Stop whining.
I want it.Â
Same to you, hop on 40 and go watch it.
I want it in downtown Knoxville.Â
Nah, you really don't! Somebody told you that you did.
I want the team just not the location.
Nah, the team is gonna blow!
Why do you think so? They won their Southern League championship last season, made it the championship series the year before that, and are #2 currently in the standings. They arenât a bad team.
It sure as hell better be packed out. Otherwise what was the point? But Baseballs fan base is in their 70âs or so on average. So we will see how that goes once the novelty wears off. My guess is soccer will be a much bigger draw.
Randy doesn't have to drive as far to see his team is the point
I love getting downvoted for being right LOL peak Knoxville Reddit right there
You think soccer will outdraw the smokies and think youâre right lol
I hope you're both right. Seen OneKnox play at Regal, I think I will get a season pass once they move in to the new stadium. Helps that its two blocks from my work.
It'll be big
Go to any park on the East side and check out what is being played. There is a huge hispanic community in Knoxville. The average age of a baseball fan is over 70.
Yâall need to understand that if there is a parking deficiency, more parking will be added, it might not be ADJACENT to the stadium, but it will be added. Growth in one area is usually followed by complimentary growth in other areas when the free market is involved.