KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) – The Knoxville Area Urban League wants disadvantaged business enterprises to bid on contracts for the new multi-use stadium. These businesses include Black, Hispanic, veteran and women-owned businesses.

“We need more. We need more businesses in our area. We need more entrepreneurs in our area,” Knoxville Area Urban League CEO Charles Lomax said.

As of Monday, eight women-owned businesses had bids for the project. Three bids are from Hispanic-owned businesses and two are from Black-owned businesses.

One of the Black business owners a part of the project is KMF3 owned by Ken Frazier.

“I’m excited to be a part of it. It’ll be another successful job that we would’ve installed, and it’ll be there for years to come,” Frazier said.

Frazier has been in the landscaping business for 25 years and will work on the irrigation and landscaping at the new stadium.

To incentivize more Black-owned businesses along with other disadvantaged business enterprises to get into business with the stadium, the Urban League will offer classes for up-and-coming businesses.

“We’re really looking to build up this trade space as well as entrepreneurs in our community to do this type of work,” Lomax said.

There are currently two contracts left to bid on for the project that will cost more than $5 million in total. The Urban League has tried getting businesses to sub-contract on a contract to cut down the cost.

The Urban League will have meetings in the future to discuss the stadium build on Sept. 28, Oct. 12 and Nov. 2.

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