Why Danny White 'can't wait' to see the Neyland Entertainment District's potential come to life

When Danny White looked at the south end of Tennessee’s campus, he saw Neyland Stadium, Thompson-Boling Arena, the panoramic waterfront along the Tennessee River and, more than anything, untapped potential. 

His focus was on the space between Neyland, the 102-year-old football stadium with a capacity north of 100,000, and Thompson-Boling, the basketball venue where the Vols and Lady Vols recently finished No. 1 in combined attendance for the 2022-23 season.

The area is consumed by the massive G-10 parking garage, but when White saw it, he saw even bigger opportunity. 

Now Tennessee is in the early stages of planning the Neyland Entertainment District, a public-private partnership that will create a mixed-use space that sits over top the G-10 Garage, with a hotel, condominiums, restaurants, bars and shopping to entertain fans not only before and after athletic events but throughout the year.

“It’s going to be awesome and I can’t wait,” White said recently during an appearance on the Ramon, Kayla and Will show on 104.5-FM The Zone in Nashville. “We’ve had a ton of interest from the private sector. It’s really going to be transformational.”

Tennessee River waterfront ‘has enormous upside’ for Tennessee athletics

Tennessee in May announced its Formal Request for Information for the project to gauge input and interest from developers, describing it as an opportunity to improve “the aesthetics of Neyland Stadium’s exterior façade and strengthen campus’s connection with the Tennessee River” with “the potential development of a ‘tabletop’ above the existing G10 parking garage to support additional tailgating, restaurants, retail and family-friendly entertainment activities.”

“Our waterfront here in Knoxville has enormous upside,” White said. “I think it’s been ignored a little bit historically. We’re not the only town to do that. But we’ve got these two iconic buildings in Neyland Stadium and Thompson-Boling Arena, literally hanging over the water, and nothing happening there.”

With an ongoing, multi-year renovation taking place at Neyland, billed at over $300 million, White said he started thinking about what else could happen in the area around the stadium. 

“As we started to think about how we can partner with the private sector and maybe stretch this project more and beyond what we can afford,” White said, “it was just about our fundraising and our capacity. That’s where these ideas of a public-private partnership came in. 

“Can we attach a hotel, condo to the stadium and create the most unique hotel experience, the most unique condo experience, in college football? Then in those conversations, the idea of a tabletop over the famous G-10 garage … it’s right in between the arena and the stadium, and right along the water.”

Danny White: Tying together Neyland Stadium and Thompson-Boling Arena ‘will really transform the south end of campus’

Tennessee last year updated entertainment inside Neyland Stadium with a party deck in the north end zone’s upper deck, directly below a new video board. The existing jumbotron in the south end zone was also replaced and the orange ‘V-O-L-S’ letters were brought back and doubled, placed at the top of both the southeast and southwest corners of the stadium. The Vols also added a lower west side club with chair-back seating on top of a field-level lounge space.

Work is currently being done on the south end of the stadium — the removal of South Stadium Hall and structural strengthening of the stadium’s south end — as well as upgrading in-stadium Wi-Fi. Brick cladding will be added to in-bowl vomitories and new restrooms will be added under the Gate 10 ramp. 

Stadium Wi-Fi connectivity work will continue in 2024 along with a new Gate 4 entry plaza, elevators in the southeast corner and upgrades to the stadium skyboxes. Initial construction on the Westside Founders Suite will begin in 2024 and will be completed in 2025, as well as an expansion of the south concourse. 

But that’s just inside the stadium. There’s just as much potential outside of it.

“If we could put a tabletop over (the G-10 Garage),” White said, “and do an entertainment district — with retail, restaurants, sports bars, options, family-friendly things, watch parties — I just think the activation opportunities, whether it’s basketball games, football games, concerts, tying those two facilities together and creating this district, I think, will really transform the south end of campus.”