The University of Tennessee and Virginia Tech have apparently been trying to arrange a football game at Bristol Motor Speedway, located between the schools, for some 20 years. Now it’s finally going to happen, after 19 days of intense preparation. Which you can watch here in about six minutes.
The timelapse of construction is divided into three parts for some reason:
And:
And:
Since Bristol just hosted a NASCAR Sprint Cup race on August 21st, they didn’t have a lot of time to prepare for the game dubbed “The Battle At Bristol” according to NPR.
The Washington Post says about 180,000 pounds of silica and rubber were dumped in the infield to lay turf that’s consistently “exactly 1.5 inches tall.” Buildings were gutted, locker rooms were built and “thousands” of seats were added to the race track for its temporary conversion to a football field for the epic game going down September 10th.
150,000 fans are expected to show up for this, which would smash the record for attendance at a college game standing at 115,109 (Michigan versus Notre Dame, 2013) according to NCAA.com.
The NCAA’s neat infographic also tells us Bristol is preparing to serve up 48,000 soft pretzels, 2,000 pounds of nacho chips and 16,250 burgers. All at an exorbitant markup, I’m sure. NPR says tickets are selling for “hundreds of dollars,” which should answer your question as to “why” anyone’s going through so much trouble to turn a race track into a football stadium.
Bristol will be back to car racing, but have already announced at least one other football game slated to go down at their venue this month– ETSU and Western Carolina University will play there September 17th.
Never really got overexcited about football or NASCAR, myself. Maybe I’m too desensitized by the barrage of blinking in modern video games and movies. But what about a ball game and a NASCAR race going down simultaneously? Anybody?