Bill Meyer Stadium

35°58′50″N 83°54′50″W / 35.980446°N 83.913837°W / 35.980446; -83.913837Capacity6,400ConstructionOpened1953Closed1999Demolished2003TenantsKnoxville Smokies (SAL/SL) (1957–1967, 1972–1999)

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

External links

• Bill Meyer Stadium at the Wayback Machine (archived 29 October 2013) at MinorLeagueBallparks.com
• Knoxville Smokies at Great American Baseball Trips
• Bill Meyer Stadium, Knoxville, Tennessee at BallParkReviews.com
• Bill Meyer Stadium at the Wayback Machine (archived 11 January 2016) at DigitalBallparks.com

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