$40 Million dollar game

[OB33]

Smith trying to arrange Tennessee-Va. Tech matchup

Associated Press

BRISTOL, Tenn. -- Racing mogul Bruton Smith reiterated his offer to pay Tennessee and Virginia Tech $20 million each to play a football game at Bristol Motor Speedway, and said Friday he would make a personal pitch to the Volunteers' athletic director.

Smith, the billionaire owner of Speedway Motorsports Inc., will host Tennessee athletic director Mike Hamilton during Saturday night's race at Bristol. He claims that Virginia Tech officials are receptive to the game, and he'll gauge Hamilton's interest during the race.

Smith has pitched the game before, and former Tennessee athletic director Doug Dickey was against it.

"He's gone," Smith said.

The proposal would call for the game to be played on artificial turf in Bristol's infield, which Smith said he would raze to stage the game. Any game would have to be held in November, he said, because of Bristol's racing schedule.

The allure of a game at Bristol is that the track is located about 120 miles from both campuses and with stadium-style seating, has a capacity of more than 160,000.

It is unclear when the game could be played. Tennessee has its schedule set through 2008, and the track hosts the Nextel Cup's Sharpie 500 every year in late August.

Smith said he won't beg the schools to accept his offer.

"They either like the money or they don't," he said.

Asked why he was interested in staging a football game, the flamboyant Smith was firm in his response.

"The world of racing has already been conquered," he said. "We want to move on to something else."

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Here's a pic of the raceway for those of you not who choose not to associate yourselves with NASCAR:

[BCBoy]

That would be cool !

[PeytonManningRocks]

Nah, what would be cool would be to have the football game going DURING the race!

[DEAD!]

Nah, what would be cool would be to have the football game going DURING the race!

I can just see it now. Jeff Gordon doing the 40 yard dash in 0.41 seconds....

[CC97]

Nah, what would be cool would be to have the football game going DURING the race!

Perhaps Baseketball predicted Inter-sport play correctly

[TFoA]

Wow, I've thought about them holding any event at the Speedway. That would be freakin awesome if they did it.

[TBGKon]

I think If I remember correctly, Texas Motor Speedway owners wanted to have the Oklahoma-Texas Red River Shootout at the Speedway's infield, does anyone else remember hearing this?

[Camden Crazy]

I'm thinking this is going to happen just because both schools would be getting paid more than what they would if this was a BCS game. I've been to Bristol before, and the it wouldn't be the greatest view from the grandstands, but maybe they can add some bleacher seats on the straightaways?

[epper]

this would be AMAZING! ive been to Bristol a few times for the Cup race, and always thought of how it looked like a giant football stadium. the stands are absolutely insanely large. i wonder how they would make the playing field? probably import fieldturf?

[Jigga]

I am uneasy about this game taking place. The NCAA has pimped itself out for years to increase revenue at the expense of crowning a national champion on the football field, so it's great that the member institutions got a chance to make some money for themselves, but you all know how the entertainment landscape is, if one group does it, then 50 will. They'll be one of these games every week and we'll be no closer to a playoff. Also, think about all the cheating that goes on now, how bad do you think it will become if a school can get a 20 million dollar game! Yikes...

[slapshot]

How the hell are the fans going to see the game? It's not a running track surrounding the field, it's a race track. The closest fans would be what, at least 500 yards away from the action? You'd have a better view watching a basketball game in the middle of a football field.

[DEAD!]

You'd have a better view watching a basketball game in the middle of a football field.

pssst.... Don't give any more ideas

[slapshot]

You'd have a better view watching a basketball game in the middle of a football field.

pssst.... Don't give any more ideas

What, you forget the Commonwealth Classic hockey game (or whatever it was called) for Edmonton vs. Montreal? And Michigan/Michigan State hockey at Michigan State's football stadium?

[epper]

How the hell are the fans going to see the game? It's not a running track surrounding the field, it's a race track. The closest fans would be what, at least 500 yards away from the action? You'd have a better view watching a basketball game in the middle of a football field.

no no, Bristol is not a huge speedway. Its only a 1/2 mile around, not 2.5 miles like a Daytona or Indy. Sure, the grandstands would be further away than normal, but its not 500 yards like you said, and i wouldn't doubt they'd get a truckload of fans to this thing.

[OMMF]

You'd have a better view watching a basketball game in the middle of a football field.

pssst.... Don't give any more ideas

What, you forget the Commonwealth Classic hockey game (or whatever it was called) for Edmonton vs. Montreal? And Michigan/Michigan State hockey at Michigan State's football stadium?

Or even MSU/Kentucky, I believe it was, at Ford Field.

[DEAD!]

You'd have a better view watching a basketball game in the middle of a football field.

pssst.... Don't give any more ideas

What, you forget the Commonwealth Classic hockey game (or whatever it was called) for Edmonton vs. Montreal? And Michigan/Michigan State hockey at Michigan State's football stadium?

Or even MSU/Kentucky, I believe it was, at Ford Field.

D'oh, I forgot about that. Let's not forget all those final fours played in domed stadiums.

[OMMF]

You'd have a better view watching a basketball game in the middle of a football field.

pssst.... Don't give any more ideas

What, you forget the Commonwealth Classic hockey game (or whatever it was called) for Edmonton vs. Montreal? And Michigan/Michigan State hockey at Michigan State's football stadium?

Or even MSU/Kentucky, I believe it was, at Ford Field.

D'oh, I forgot about that. Let's not forget all those final fours played in domed stadiums.

True but even then they usually don't use the whole stadium for Final Fours as shown by the seating chart for this years Final Four in the RCA Dome:

The game at Ford Field used all the seats:

[JH42XCC]

Don't be surprised if a Georgia-Georgia Tech football game takes place on the infield of Atlanta Motor Speedway or an Arizona-Arizona State game at Bank One Ballpark, a Washington-Washington State game at Safeco Field, or even a California-Stanford game at SBC Park. Heck, don't be surprised if an Army-Navy game comes to Shea Stadium (Flushing, NY).

[OnWis97]

In 20 years, I wonder if any big rivalries will take place ON CAMPUS. It's what makes college football have the greatest regular season.

[rmackman]

Okay here's an idea. Let's say I'm really rich, and I'm going to pay Florida and FSU $30 million each to play their game in my front yard so that I don't have to drive all the way to Gainesville or Tallahassee.