Bristol, Tenn. council looks for potential home for State Liners (2024)

BRISTOL, Tenn. — The Bristol, Tennessee City Council continued its search for a home field for the Bristorl State Liners at its work session on Tuesday.

Among the top choices is the city school system’s Tod Houston Memorial Field.

“As you know, we’ve looked at several different sites from Whitetop to King, and we are looking very closely now at Tod Houston Field as the location of a possible stadium,” Mike Mains, director of Parks and Recreation for City of Bristol, Tennessee said.

The Bristol State Liners were originally scheduled to begin the current Appalachian League season at a new $7 million facility at White Top Creek Park. However, that project fell through when the partnership between the city and Boyd Sports, which owns and operates several other baseball teams in the Tri-Cities region, ended, and the finances behind the development became unfeasible.

Mains explained to the city council at its Tuesday work session that if the city were to reach an agreement with the Bristol, Tennessee School system over the use of Tod Houston Memorial Field, it would be more than just as the home of the State Liners.

“I know the State Liners have been looking for a home here and that the Appalachian league has been encouraging us to find a place for play to continue,” Mains said. “But really, at the end of the day, a facility such as this, that we spend so much money on, it’s going to have to come down to where it benefits our community in a variety of different ways, especially our youth.”

Mains presented the Council with an initial concept design for Tod Houston Memorial Field, which would have to go through a series of renovations to meet Major League Baseball standards, as well as work on additional parking and other amenities around the stadium.

“This site concept here shows some additional parking at the property where the swimming pool was, and it shows the wraparound seating behind the home plate,” Mains said. “If you’ll notice where the pitching mound is, it’s shifted to the left to give us a little bit more room to get those dimensions that we need for this particular play.”

Currently, the Bristol State Liners are playing on the road this season and practicing out of Tusculum University in Greenville, Tennessee.

Bristol, Tennessee Vice Mayor Mark Hutton, emphasized that he is all in favor of working with the school system to renovate the Tod Houston Memorial Field, but he questioned why the city should go out of its way to accommodate the MLB, if they aren’t going to provide capital to do so.

“I love the idea of us partnering with the school system for Tod Houston Field because it needs it. It’s in pretty bad shape,” Hutton said. “It would be great if Major League Baseball could be there, but at the end of the day, I’m more concerned that Tennessee High has a field.”

“If Major League Baseball can accommodate that super, if not, I don’t care,” Hutton added. “I would rather see us do what we can for our kids than college kids coming in to play summer ball.”

Council member Lea Powers highlighted that the location of the Tod Houston Memorial Field would also provide the city with an event space, which it currently doesn’t have right now.

“We’ve got to look at this not just as a baseball stadium, which it is first and foremost, but that it can truly become an outdoor event venue that we don’t really have right now,” Powers said.

Any plans regarding the future of Tod Houston Memorial Park, the city, MLB, and the State Liners would first require an agreement with Bristol, Tennessee School System.

“Moving forward, as we look at this plan. We need everybody at the table, partnering to make it truly successful,” Mains said.