SEC Baseball Tournament Venue - Should It Stay or Should It Go?

D1 Baseball discusses the cities vying for the next contract for the SEC Baseball Tournament:
http://www.d1baseball.com/analysis/sectourney050216/

Do you want the SEC Baseball Tournament to stay in Hoover or move to a) Nashville, b) Memphis, c) Metarie, or d) Jacksonville? (updated: These 5 are the only cities that submitted a bid. I think there is a minimum seating requirement of 10K)

While none are in close proximity for me personally, I would go ahead and veto Jacksonville due to travel distances for SEC West fanbases, particularly ours. I would also veto Metarie because of likely corndog infestations.

I also came across some awful suggestions for locations while slumming over at TexAgs.

Trustmark Park of course

If those are the only choices, Memphis

Stay. Easy choice.

1) City of Hoover does an outstanding job managing it
2) Stadium is in great shape
3) Ton of parking, great traffic control
4) Ton of RV parking
5) Great college atmosphere, family friendly, travel ball and kids teams everywhere
6) Plenty of hotels and restaurants within 5 minute drive of stadium
7) City is building a huge sports facility adjacent which will only add activities.

If you've ever been, you realize it's about the baseball, NOT the nightlife. You put it in a downtown setting next to bars and such, you're changing the entire landscape. That's fine if it's the way you want to go, but I don't think it is. Just my opinion. The City of Hoover does as well with this as the City of Atlanta does with the SEC football championship. Moving it would be change for the sake of change, which sucks.

Hoover has put in a bid as well.

I've been to all of those ballparks minus the new one in Nashville and I have been to the SEC Tournament in Hoover the last time we won in 2012.

My personal opinion on it and what I would do if I was the SEC is I would rotate it between Nashville, Memphis, New Orleans/Metairie, and Hoover/Birmingham. Jacksonville has a very nice stadium but it's a long way from most of the league. Plus in "theory" if you are an average college baseball player who plays for four years you get the opportunity to play in all four venues.

They kind of focused some on the nightlife in each of those cities, but with those tournaments a lot of those fans just go and watch the ball games each day and that usually takes up the entire day especially on the front end. So, I'm not really sure how big of a deal the nightlife aspect is. I've always felt like the RV thing was an excuse by the SEC office for keeping it in Hoover. The RV thing is a factor, but I think they overplay it.

Nashville- centrally located and convenient for a lot of the East and West teams. New facility.

Memphis- located conveniently for MSU, Ole Miss, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Vanderbilt. Has a proven track record and hosted the first Civil Rights Game between two MLB clubs. Just renovated a year ago. Still arguably the best stadium in Minor League baseball.

New Orleans- Stadium needs to be renovated- rumored to be happening soon. Convenient for LSU, MSU, Ole Miss, and Texas A&M.

Hoover- Has a good track record of hosting SEC Tournament. Convenient for Alabama, Auburn, MSU, Ole Miss, Vanderbilt, and Georgia. Biggest con is there is a much nicer stadium in Birmingham now- Hoover is essentially Birmingham's Smith-Wills Stadium.

I think all are worthy. So just rotate it.

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Originally Posted by Taog Redloh

Stay. Easy choice.

1) City of Hoover does an outstanding job managing it
2) Stadium is in great shape
3) Ton of parking, great traffic control
4) Ton of RV parking
5) Great college atmosphere, family friendly, travel ball and kids teams everywhere
6) Plenty of hotels and restaurants within 5 minute drive of stadium
7) City is building a huge sports facility adjacent which will only add activities.

If you've ever been, you realize it's about the baseball, NOT the nightlife. You put it in a downtown setting next to bars and such, you're changing the entire landscape. That's fine if it's the way you want to go, but I don't think it is. Just my opinion. The City of Hoover does as well with this as the City of Atlanta does with the SEC football championship. Moving it would be change for the sake of change, which sucks.

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This all day long. And twice on Sunday.

The only viable centrally located places are to stay in Hoover, or to move to Memphis or Nashville. All those places are pretty easy to get to via interstate highways too. Since the SEC expanded, you can't be close to everybody. But those choices seem to be geographically best to me. Could always go to Atlanta, which is very easy to get to by air, but is a congested nightmare. Probably best to keep it in mid-size cities.

And to echo another of Goat's points, it IS about the baseball, not nightlife. We have gone over early Tuesday morning for years now just to be able to see 4 games a day Tue, Wed, Thurs. That keeps you at the ballpark until almost midnight but that's the reason we do it. Yeah, the ballpark is old but there's nothing wrong with it other than it's not the new modern design with a complete wrap around open concourse. But if you are there for the baseball who cares. Seating is perfectly comfortable and roomy, especially during the week.

If tickets are "day passes" then I say Memphis, watch your game and go and hit the town and come back. Unfortunately, it is Memphis.

The tickets are issued in "sessions". Morning session and afternoon session (2 games per session)

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Originally Posted by HereComesTheSpiral

Unfortunately, it is Memphis.

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I see a lot of people saying this, even some that actively WANT it in Memphis. I mean, crap, do you need a bigger light to go off to say, 'Hey, maybe this is not a good idea!'?

Safety is a very big concern. I don't think downtown is the way to go for this, I really don't.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by HereComesTheSpiral

If tickets are "day passes" then I say Memphis, watch your game and go and hit the town and come back. Unfortunately, it is Memphis.

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Nothing unfortunate about memphis. Its reputation is not deserved. Big city and some bad things happen, but unless you are a gangbanger looking to buy drugs, you wont see anything dangerous but fast traffic

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Taog Redloh

I see a lot of people saying this, even some that actively WANT it in Memphis. I mean, crap, do you need a bigger light to go off to say, 'Hey, maybe this is not a good idea!'?

Safety is a very big concern. I don't think downtown is the way to go for this, I really don't.

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Memphis PD does do a pretty good job keeping the riff raff out of downtown on big events, and generally there will be larger crowds in the downtown/Beale St area if it is in Memphis. That said, I wouldn't go if we were the late game and I had to park on Riverside because I don't want to deal with the panhandlers.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by HereComesTheSpiral

Memphis PD does do a pretty good job keeping the riff raff out of downtown on big events, and generally there will be larger crowds in the downtown/Beale St area if it is in Memphis. That said, I wouldn't go if we were the late game and I had to park on Riverside because I don't want to deal with the panhandlers.

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I agree with all that but even the thought of it tells me to keep it where it is. I mean, there are kids all over this thing. And I'm not trying to be the perfect parent here, I'm simply saying that Hoover is about the perfect location.

I will say that if they simply have to move it, I hope it's Memphis, just for proximity to Mississippi.

#1. Nashville, #2 Nashville, #3 Hoover. They keep acting like Nashville isn't downtown like "memphis" is?! Have they actually BEEN to the stadium?! ITS AWESOME! Its negligible travel difference for State/Ole Miss fans travel wise (Both have been dubbed as "pluses for Memphis)- Vandy is there (so they could actually draw fans for once- they won't go to Memphis)- Closer for UT/UK/SC than Memphis; so overall better attendence. FAR Better city and NIGHT LIFE; what am I NOT getting?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gravedigger

Nothing unfortunate about memphis. Its reputation is not deserved. Big city and some bad things happen, but unless you are a gangbanger looking to buy drugs, you wont see anything dangerous but fast traffic

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This. Last time I checked, the race riots and shit were happening in northern cities like Baltimore, not Memphis. Act like a decent human, don't go looking for trouble, and you won't find trouble. The Beale Street/Downtown area has undergone some major revitalization and is very safe.