Danny White knows what the Neyland Entertainment District will look like on Tennessee Football game days at Neyland Stadium. Or when Food City Center is hosting a Tennessee Basketball game or concert.
“It’ll be a lift for game day,” White said this week on The Mike Keith Show, “but it’s an even bigger lift for the other 358 days out of the year.”
The mixed-use Neyland Entertainment District will include restaurants and sports bars in the area currently inhabited by the G10 parking garage. It will also anchor a condo/hotel in the behind the southeast corner of Neyland Stadium.
“I can’t wait,” White said. “It’s going to be a lot of different concepts, but the biggest one being a big sports bar that can host 150 people on a Tuesday night, just locally and the campus community, but it can host thousands of people on game day.”
865 Neyland Project Team awarded Neyland Entertainment District
In July 2024 Tennessee announced the projected had been awarded to the 865 Neyland Project Team, with the group made up by Dixon Greenwood, Jake Miller, Taylor Gray, the Hartland Hotel Group and Johnson Architecture.
“We’re working with a group that has a ton of experience with entertainment districts and professional sports around the country,” White said this week. “And then there’s a higher-end restaurant overlooking the river that I think is very unique to Knoxville, that’ll provide kind of an elevated experience that’s very East Tennessee, Rocky Top themed. And then obviously connecting with the hotel and the condo.
“There’ll be an outdoor concert stage and it’ll be electric on game day. But our campus environment is already electric on game day. That’s not really why we’re doing it.”
Instead, he’s doing it for the use the site will get through the year.
“That could mean that there’s concerts going on (or) we have a critical mass of people coming — baseball, softball games, basketball games,” White said. “Or it could just mean that it’s a Wednesday night and maybe there’s a game on the road and this is a great place to go watch the game.
“Or maybe it’s just a place that our students, our faculty, our staff, the Knoxville community want to come and enjoy some live music on the stage or a night out overlooking the Tennessee River in the shadow of Neyland Stadium. So I think it’s going to be an iconic setup.”
‘(It’s for) the entire university community and Knoxville community’
White said the funding for the Neyland Entertainment District is “a public-private partnership” with Tennessee leasing the land while the 865 Neyland Project Team does the construction.
“They’re building the entertainment district, they’re building the hotel, the condo,” White said. “They take all the business risk there.”
He added that there’s “a minor revenue lift” for Tennessee’s athletic department but added that it was “nothing significant.”
“That’s never been a driver of why we’re doing it,” White said. “(It’s) more about the experience … beyond just the athletic department.
“From an athletics perspective, will it be a lift for our student-athletes and our fans? Yeah, it certainly will. But it’s much bigger than that. (It’s for) the entire university community and Knoxville community. I think it’s going to be really cool.”
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.on3.com ’
