Bill Meyer Stadium

Coordinates: 35°58′50″N 83°54′50″W / 35.980446°N 83.913837°W / 35.980446; -83.913837

Bill Meyer Stadium was a baseball field located in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Originally known as Knoxville Municipal Stadium when it opened in 1953, it was later renamed after Billy Meyer (1892–1957), a Knoxville native who was a catcher and manager in Major League Baseball and a longtime minor league skipper.

Baseball Usage

It was used by minor league baseball teams, most recently the Knoxville Smokies, an AA Minor League Baseball team. It had a capacity of 6,400 people. The stadium was closed in 1999 after the team moved to a new stadium near Sevierville.[1] The stands were demolished, and bleachers with capacity for about 100 people were installed. The stadium is now called Neal Ridley/Todd Helton Field and is used as a venue for amateur baseball games.[2]

Football Usage

In the early part of the 1970s, Bill Meyer Stadium was converted into a Pop Warner recreational football league facility. The 100 yard field was striped from the third base side of the diamond, extending out to the right field warning track area. A great majority of the football plays were snapped from the dirt area of the infield. It became the home field for the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) midget (11- to 12-year-old) football team which held daily practices throughout the fall in the dirt parking area outside the stadium.

References

  1. ↑ "10 years at Smokies Park". Minor League Baseball. February 18, 2010. Retrieved February 9, 2013.
  2. ↑ Gates, Nick (January 29, 2008). "Stadium was full of memories for Helton". Knoxville News Sentinel. Retrieved February 9, 2013.


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