HOOVER, Ala. — The SEC baseball tournament, which has been played in Hoover since 1998, is at risk of moving to another state. New Orleans, Memphis, Jacksonville, and Nashville are all in the running to win the games for their respective cities, but Hoover officials believe that they made a strong case to keep the event in the Birmingham suburb.
“We feel like we’ve made a really good offer to the SEC. We’ve had a long-standing relationship with them. And we certainly hope they’ll pick us,” Hoover Mayor Gary Ivey told WBRC.
It is very possible that the tournament will stay in Hoover, but the SEC is definitely exploring its options. The conference released the following statement earlier this year:
“The SEC has formed a subcommittee of athletics directors to review the proposals from prospective sites which will include the determination of the length of the agreement with any site, the criteria used to evaluate the sites and any other issues that impact the future of the tournament. The SEC Baseball Tournament continues to enjoy great success in Hoover. As we near the end of the current contract, our membership thought it was important to explore what locations, including Hoover, would have interest in serving as a host in the next contract period beginning in 2017. This is consistent with the process used in the past to determine the location of the baseball tournament and other SEC championship events.”
Hoover submitted its bid to continue as host in mid-February. Now, all the city can do is wait. “I’m very confident,” Allen Pate, executive director for the city of Hoover, said last month. “I think we’re going to be OK.”
Hoover officials believe that the construction of a new 141,000-square-foot indoor event center next to the 10,500-seat Hoover Met will significantly increase the city’s chances of retention. The new sports complex could be used for activities associated with the SEC Baseball Tournament, Gene Hallman of the Alabama Sports Foundation said to the Hoover Sun. The $3.4 million facility will be directly connected to the Hoover Met.
Since hosting its first SEC tournament, the Hoover Met has gotten new concession stands, TVs, a big screen, repaved parking lots, a new paint job, and new bull pens.
The event is a big one for Hoover’s economy, and the 2015 edition hosted more than 132,000 fans. “I’ve heard so many compliments from fans. They filled our restaurants and businesses,” Said Hoover City Councilman Brian Skelton after last year’s tournament.
The SEC will announce its decision on the location of future tournaments sometime in June. This years’ games begin on May 24 at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium.
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