The SEC Baseball Tournament will stay in Hoover, and the planned $70 million sports complex beyond right field is a big reason why.
SEC athletic directors unanimously voted to keep the tournament there, where it has been since 1998. A contract has not yet been signed, and Bruno Event Team president and CEO Gene Hallman said it will likely be for three or five years.
This comes after Texas A&M beat Florida in the championship and more than 150,000 fans, a tournament record, came out for the event.
Construction started on the 150,000-square foot complex earlier this week and an official groundbreaking will be on June 14 at 11 a.m., Hoover Mayor Gary Ivey said.
"I think the finality that probably closed it for us is the new sports facility," Ivey said. "That would be what stepped up the game, but we were building it anyway."
Hallman said that SEC commissioner Greg Sankey was presented with an official letter from the city saying that the complex would be built regardless of the SEC Tournament's future.
The indoor part will be completed by the 2017 SEC Tournament. Adults can grab an alcoholic beverage or food and walk over to the Hoover Met. The outdoor phase will be completed by the 2018 Tournament. That includes a field that has the same dimensions as the Hoover Met and faces the sun the same way.
If weather affects the schedule, makeup games could be played at that field. Teams can take batting practice there instead of at Hoover High School and new parking spaces will mean that there will be no more need for a shuttle from Hoover High.
There will also be a player's lounge at the new complex. Instead of players having to wait in the stands if the game before theirs went long and being distracted by fans wanting autographs, they will have more privacy.
Hallman also said there will be a ferris wheel overlooking the Hoover Met and a zipline at the new complex.
"We wanted to create an atmosphere where an adult could grab an alcoholic beverage if they wanted to, but really wanted to up the play area for kids, more of what you see at the SEC football and basketball championships," Hallman said. "What we had here was adequate, but not sufficient."
Hallman felt that Memphis provided the toughest competition, with Nashville not far behind. He felt New Orleans and Jacksonville weren't in a central enough location. Those four cities submitted bids and the SEC made site visits.
Location remained a big deal, with Alabama, Auburn, Tennessee, Georgia, Vanderbilt, Ole Miss and Mississippi State all being within a four-hour drive. LSU, South Carolina and Kentucky aren't much further, but the championship game between two schools each more than 500 miles away brought in nearly 9,000 fans.
That showed that the event could be supported in Hoover even if Alabama and Auburn didn't make deep runs or qualify at all.
RV parking spaces for the next tournament also sold out within an hour of going on sale, something that happens every year.
"There was a lot of competition," Hallman said. "It was unexpected. We knew this was a great product and we expected some competition, but the competition in the past just paled in comparison with what we saw this time around.
"This year, the facility was in the finest shape it's been in since it opened. New paint, carpet. Everything about it felt new and clean and it really impressed the conference."
The city of Hoover volunteered to replace the playing surface by the 2018 season. Hallman walked the facility with South Carolina athletics director Ray Tanner - who won two College World Series championships when he was that school's baseball coach - and Tanner only suggested minor changes, such as better batting cages for the players.
Hallman said he didn't expect any challenges with finalizing the length of the contract. Ivey said he feels negotiations will take place soon. This week, the SEC conducted its spring meetings in Destin, Florida.
*** Hallman also said that the city of Hoover will bid to host the Davis Cup tennis semifinals in September. That's contingent on the United States men beating Croatia in the upcoming quarterfinals, but he said that the Hoover Met will construct tennis courts for the action on the baseball playing surface if the bid is won.
He said it won't conflict with Hoover High's football season, as the Buccaneers play most home games at the Hoover Met.