Hoover breaks ground for sports complex next to Hoover Met
Hoover officials held a groundbreaking ceremony this morning for the $76 million sports complex and event center being built next to Hoover Metropolitan Stadium.
City leaders joined officials from the Greater Birmingham Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Southeastern Conference, Alabama Sports Council and the construction and architectural firms that are involved in the project.
Hoover Executive Director Allen Pate noted there’s no time to waste because the 155,000-square-foot indoor event center has to be completed in time for the 2017 SEC Baseball Tournament in May.
“They’re coming back next year. We’ve got to be ready,” Pate said.
SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey added to the urgency and said he hoped to see the construction equipment moving while groundbreaking attendees ate lunch next door at the Hoover Met.
Sankey said each of the four cities that sought to lure the SEC Baseball Tournament away from Hoover had unique character and presented unique opportunities, “but no one could provide a campus that is being developed here in Hoover.”
The SEC Baseball Tournament has a wonderful 19-year history in Hoover, and the city’s central location in the conference played a part in the decision to keep it in Hoover, Sankey said.
However, he’s excited about the ability to for baseball fans to be engaged in new ways with the indoor event center and to build upon the success of past tournaments, he said.
Gene Hallman, president and CEO of the Alabama Sports Council, said the indoor center will include a sports bar with craft beers, a food court, merchandise area, fan activity area and players’ lounge. Other new additions for the tournament will include a Ferris wheel in between the event center and the stadium and a zip line next to the Ferris wheel, Hallman said.
The indoor event center will be built to accommodate 11 regulation-size basketball courts or 17 regulation-size volleyball courts, trade shows with 300 booths, 2,400-seat banquets and theater-style seating for 5,000 people, Mayor Gary Ivey said. The facility also will include a walking track, performance center, food court, convenience store, locker rooms, meeting space and a climbing attraction.
The outdoor sports complex will include five NCAA regulation-size soccer/football/lacrosse fields, five NCAA regulation-size baseball (or softball) fields, 16 tennis courts with a pro shop, a 2-mile walking track, playground, splash pad and large event lawn, Ivey said.
The Hoover RV Park will be expanded from 149 to 172 spaces, and on-site parking at the Met and adjacent sports complex will be expanded from 3,200 to 5,000 parking spaces, he said.
“We think it’s a pretty exciting day in Hoover,” Ivey said. “This is going to, I really think, make Hoover a destination.”
John Oros, president of the Greater Birmingham Convention and Visitors Bureau, said the new sports complex and event center is a “game-changer” for the greater Birmingham area that will benefit all of Jefferson County.
“What happens here today is the beginning of a great future for youth sports in our area,” Oros said. “This new special events center is another example of our area’s continuing commitment to youth and amateur sports. It also indicates the continuing evolution of the greater Birmingham area into one of our nation’s most attractive and sought-after collegiate and youth sports destinations.”
The sports world is a highly competitive environment, Oros said.
“To successfully compete for dollars spent by visitors, you must continually invest in facilities that create new demand and are constructed to meet the needs of the customer,” he said.
This new facility, when combined with the Birmingham Crossplex, will allow tourism officials to target new youth sports organizations that represent millions of dollars that can be spent by the parents of youth who come to the Birmingham area to compete in regional and national sports competitions, Oros said.
The new Hoover sports complex should have an estimated $35 million annual economic impact, he said.
Hoover Council President Jack Wright said he’s seen the city grow from about 400 people in 1967 to about 86,000 residents today. With all the businesses in Hoover, there are 300,000 to 400,000 people in the city around lunchtime on a good day, he said.
“Hoover’s come a long way, and Hoover is going in the right direction,” Wright said.
Councilman Joe Rives, the council’s liaison to the Hoover Parks and Recreation Board, thanked the Goodwyn Mills & Cawood architectural firm, Brasfield & Gorrie construction firm and Dunn Building Co. for their contributions to the project.
The new project will add to what makes Hoover a great place to live, work and raise a family and will bring national attention to the beautiful city in the upcoming years, Rives said.