KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — The Knoxville Area Urban League is hosting an event for small businesses on Thursday to get involved with Knoxville’s new multi-use stadium project.

“We try to focus on getting all the capacity training they need,” Terrence Carter, the Vice President of Economic and Business Development at the Knoxville Area Urban League said. “We offer a lot of trainings to help people grow in terms of how they operate their business.”

The event is centered around Knoxville’s new multi-use stadium project. Carter believes that the project is bridging East Knoxville and downtown together.

“The project is connecting East Knoxville and downtown back together in the Old City area,” Carter said. “We want to have as much participation in the East Knoxville community as humanly possible.”

The purpose of the event is for the smaller businesses to not only prepare now but hopefully work on bigger projects in the future.

“A lot of the contracts are tied to how much you can bond and how much insurance you can get to make sure that you can do the job, so if something goes wrong the bonds and insurance take care of those things,” Cater said. “It’s important to get the small companies involved. We want to try and grow our smaller companies, so when we have these opportunities in the future they can bid on bigger projects.”

The event takes place on April 6, at the Knoxville Area Urban League from 5:30-8 p.m. To register, click here. The Urban League says the project will create more opportunities for the younger folks as well as offer apprenticeships.

KAUL will offer resources during the event, including information about Level UP, a program that employs workers as they learn a construction trade through a pre-apprenticeship program.

The stadium is expected to be finished by 2025. It is expected to bring in nearly half a billion dollars over the next 30 years.