With Knoxville’s downtown stadium scheduled to open for the 2025 baseball season, Knox News and "The Scruffy Stuff" visited Durham, North Carolina, to meet with representatives of the Triple-A Bulls team and other local leaders to learn if a downtown ballpark can become a community asset and catalyze growth.

Visit knoxnews.com for more insight gathered from our trip, including video tours and stories on the lessons Durham Bulls officials learned about their downtown stadium over time. There are lots of takeaways for the Tennessee Smokies, downtown Knoxville stakeholders and taxpayers.

"The Scruffy Stuff" is presented by Knox News. Want more downtown analysis? Sign up for the free weekly Urban Knoxville newsletter by clicking here, and join the downtown discussion by becoming part of the Urban Knoxville group on Facebook.