For almost two years, driving past the old Smokies Stadium off Exit 407 meant driving past a mystery. The gates stayed locked. The parking lot sat empty except for the occasional overflow from Bass Pro Shop next door. And the guessing filled the silence: maybe it becomes a Topgolf, maybe an independent baseball club moves in, maybe the whole thing gets bulldozed for another round of retail. Kent Merritt, who runs Tennessee Distilling Company across the street, watched the rumors cycle for more than a year without much to show for it.
That guessing game is over. As of this past spring, the site has an actual contract attached to it, with a price per acre, an earnest money deposit sitting in escrow, and a named buyer who has 120 days of negotiating history behind them. If you live near Exit 407 and have been half-following this story through local news segments, here is what actually happened, in the order it happened, and what the paperwork says now that it's more than a rendering.
What the Rumor Mill Actually Sounded Like
The speculation wasn't random. It followed the shape of the stadium itself, a 6,412-seat facility with a symmetrical grandstand that opened in 2000 as the replacement for Knoxville's old Bill Meyer Stadium. Once the Tennessee Smokies announced they were moving back to a new downtown ballpark in Knoxville, residents started filling in the blank space with whatever made sense to them. Some wondered if Smokies owner Randy Boyd might slot in a lower-tier affiliate team. Others heard talk of the Savannah Bananas expanding into the building, a rumor a team spokesperson eventually shut down. A few figured Topgolf, since the U-shaped concourse seemed built for it.
None of that was official. It was neighbors filling dead air the same way people always do when a familiar landmark goes quiet.
The Actual Timeline, Stripped of Guesswork
The real process started in September 2024, when the Sevierville Industrial Development Board issued a formal request for qualifications, inviting developers to bid on the 30 acre site along Line Drive. Three groups responded: TORG Real Estate Group out of Knoxville, Schaad Brown/SIG Real Estate also of Knoxville, and Kituwah LLC, the development arm of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, based across the state line in Cherokee, North Carolina.
By April 2025, the county and city had picked a direction. Sevier County and the City of Sevierville entered into a memorandum of understanding with The Outlet Resource Group, known locally as TORG, giving the company 120 days to turn its pitch into a real plan. County Mayor Larry Waters said at the time that TORG's proposal stood out because it was the only one of the three that kept the stadium structure in place rather than tearing it down.
That deadline slipped. TORG came back in the fall of 2025 asking for another 120 days, and the extension ran through early February 2026. It wasn't until March 12, 2026 that Sevier County and Sevierville released concept renderings, the first real look anyone outside the negotiating room had gotten. That's the point where this stopped being a rumor and became a document.
The Number Nobody Was Guessing: $1 Million an Acre
Here's what the renderings didn't tell you, and what most of the coverage glossed past. The very next day, Sevier County commissioners were told the stadium property had been appraised at roughly $15.2 million, and that TORG had agreed to buy it at that figure. County commissioners still asked for more detail before signing off on transferring the property to the Industrial Development Board, which is the entity actually handling the sale.
By the time the IDB met on April 22, 2026, the terms had a specific shape to them. The purchase agreement on file with the board sets the price at $1,000,000 per acre, with the final number depending on a survey of the exact acreage. TORG put down $10,000 in earnest money with Fidelity National Title Insurance Company acting as escrow agent. And the proceeds, once the sale closes, split the same way ownership of the property has always split: 70 percent to the City of Sevierville, 30 percent to Sevier County.
That's a level of specificity the rumor mill never touched. Nobody speculating about Topgolf or a Class A baseball team was talking about escrow deposits or per-acre appraisals. That's the difference between a landmark people wonder about and a transaction that's actually moving.
What's Actually Proposed to Get Built
The renderings TORG shared describe a mixed-use development built around keeping the stadium's existing footprint rather than replacing it. The pieces on the table:
- An amphitheater built into the current stadium bowl, using the same grandstand layout for concerts and events instead of baseball
- A hotel on the surrounding acreage
- Retail and dining space
- Apartments described as workforce housing
City Administrator Dustin Smith has described the site as having, in his words, tremendous potential and a range of possible uses that could keep benefiting the community even after baseball leaves it behind. None of this is under construction yet. It's the concept that survived the bidding process and is now attached to a signed purchase agreement, which is a meaningfully different status than a rendering floating around without a buyer behind it.
What This Actually Means If You Live Near Exit 407
Merritt's business sits close enough to the old stadium that he felt every game day directly. Reflecting on what the ballpark used to bring in foot traffic, he put it simply:
"When the Smokies were here, we definitely had an uptick in traffic during game days."
His hope, and the reasoning behind the county's interest in TORG's plan, is that a year-round entertainment district pulls in more consistent activity than a stadium that only filled up on scheduled game nights. That's the upside case for businesses like his that depend on people driving off I-40 and stopping nearby.
The flip side is traffic volume. County officials have said they'll be watching Exit 407 closely as any redevelopment moves forward, since the interchange already carries a growing mix of tourist traffic headed to Bass Pro Shop, Buc-ee's, Cracker Barrel, and the 200 acre 407 Gateway to Adventure project taking shape across the interstate. A stadium hosting baseball games on scheduled nights is a very different traffic pattern than a hotel and amphitheater running events on a rolling basis. Nobody involved has pretended otherwise.
Where This Leaves the Rumor Mill
The honest answer, as of this August, is that the sale itself looks largely settled on paper, with a price, an escrow agent, and a proceeds split already documented in county and city records. What isn't settled is a construction timeline or a firm date for when any of the amphitheater, hotel, or retail space actually breaks ground. That's the gap between a purchase agreement and a shovel in the dirt, and it's the next thing worth watching if you've been following this story since the last home game.
For now, the empty stadium off Exit 407 has stopped being a question mark and started being a line item in county records. That alone is more than this story has had in two years.
If you're keeping an eye on how Kodak keeps changing around Exit 407, or you're weighing what a shift like this could mean for property near the corridor, Kelly White at BuyWithKelly tracks these developments as part of everyday work in Sevier County. Reach out anytime to receive listings and investment insights as this area continues to take shape.
