Baseball’s Fyre Fest? Why MLB’s ‘Speedway Classic’ was a disaster

Fans who attended Saturday’s “Speedway Classic” Major League Baseball game at NASCAR’s Bristol Motor Speedway are demanding refunds after the event’s disastrous logistics saw attendees comparing it to the ill-fated Fyre Fest.

On August 2, the Cincinnati Reds and the Atlanta Braves walked onto a temporary baseball diamond built inside Bristol Motor Speedway, a 0.533-mile oval track in Tennessee better known for its NASCAR Cup Series races than, well, anything else.

It was a seriously major event in multiple ways: It was the first regular-season MLB game to take place in Tennessee, and it established a new league attendance record of 91,032 for a regular-season game.

Throw in pre-game concerts from country star Tim McGraw and artist Pitbull and plenty of hype building up to the event, and you’ve got a recipe for success.

Then, the food ran out.

Speedway Classic: MLB’s Fyre Fest?

Back in 2017, businessman Billy McFarland and rapper JaRule joined forces to create Fyre Festival, a luxury music festival located on the Bahamian island of Great Exuma.

The announcement of the festival came with tons of endorsements from actors, influencers, and other A-listers, while its website promised “an immersive music festival” taking place “on the boundaries of the impossible,” with plenty of gorgeous beachside images to boot.

Instead, attendees paid somewhere between $500 and $12,000 for an event that was actually taking place in an abandoned parking lot, replete with rain-soaked mattresses and cheese sandwiches for dinner — far from the luxurious getaway they’d been promised.

So, why is the MLB facing Fyre Fest accusations over the Speedway Classic? It’s all in the execution… or, the lack thereof.

“Awful logistics, no food, unprepared” say Speedway Classic attendees

The most-hyped baseball event of the summer fell victim to a major rainstorm that delayed the start of the game before being paused again after just one inning when the weather returned.

Fans waited over two hours for a resumption, only to find out that the game would be pushed to the following day — and that gave them plenty of time to uncover the other disasters.

“Major league fail,” one X user wrote. “Awful logistics, no food except bunless hotdogs and cheeseless nachos, multiple shuttles to even get in the stadium & completely unprepared for rain.”

Really! Don’t they have a huge Nascar race there? You’d think they’d be prepared with food at least.

— Believe On Jesus Christ (@TheLastDon222) August 3, 2025

Oh, and those bunless hot dogs and cheeseless nachos? They were still full price.

Concession stands ran out of food well before the first inning, and some people reported that the only remaining items were beer and peanuts.

“I was in Bristol tonight and I can’t tell you how pathetic the entire thing was,” wrote X user Dylan Slemp. “We waited an hour and a half in the concessions line only for them to run out of most of the food before the game started.”

The fan zones were jam-packed, with massive lines for things like merchandise – and that was if you could even get into the track.

“We bought tickets and couldn’t get parking for under $350,” wrote Jeff Carpenter on X.

“Figured that we’d find an Uber or shuttle from hotel. But nope! Police closed parking lots, trapping the shuttle for hours. And no Uber available.”

Other fans pointed out that it took multiple tram rides to get in and out of the event. Once they got to their cars, they were stuck in traffic for hours.

Speedway Classic: A swing and a miss

Ultimately, the MLB had to concede that its Saturday night game wasn’t happening and instead pushed the conclusion of the event to Sunday.

The series let the fans know their tickets would still be good, and that they’d be able to bring in outside concessions. But only about a quarter of the original attendees turned up.

At the end of it all, the Braves beat the Reds 4-2, and even Reds utility infielder Gavin Lux was left claiming that “Honestly, I think it was poorly handled by the MLB.”