Autozone Park or Regions?

[HereComesTheSpiral]

The city of Memphis tried to get the SEC baseball tourney a year or two ago, don't remember exactly when it was. Which park would you rather go to as a fan? For me it is Autozone because there are things around the area for after the game. If the tournament were in Memphis, you could watch the game and hangout with all the other fans after the game. Regions is in the middle of nowhere, takes forever to get in and out of, and there was little interaction between fans. In my opinion, they screwed this up by not moving to Memphis.

Disclaimer: I am more familiar with Memphis over Birmingham so my opinion is biased.

[biscuit]

Downtown Memphis is waayyy more fun than Birmingham. Plus its closer to my house

[Will James]

Id much rather it be in Memphis. What would be really cool would be Turner Field

[FlabLoser]

Lets change the state of MS's flag and get it at TP.

There is a lot of development around TP and Bass Pro right now. That filling in would be nice. Pearl has permission to vote that area wet, but they haven't even put forth a petition. Dad gum it.

Some bars, Bass Pro, restaurants, and other stuff right around Trustmark Park would be a great place.

[biscuit]

Lets change the state of MS's flag and get it at TP.

There is a lot of development around TP and Bass Pro right now. That filling in would be nice. Pearl has permission to vote that area wet, but they haven't even put forth a petition. Dad gum it.

Some bars, Bass Pro, restaurants, and other stuff right around Trustmark Park would be a great place.

That would be nice too

[HereComesTheSpiral]

Infrastructure at TP would have to be put in place well before it is an option, not from the area so I don't know what is going on. Maybe they can make it a viable option for the next bidding, doubt they will let something out of the glorious state of Alabama

[FlabLoser]

What kind of infrastructure? TP is already right next to I-20. There are hotels & restaurants around. Gonna need more through - and they will come as the huge outlet mall under construction gets completed.

TP itself is a great ballpark. Its like a little MLB stadium.

[HereComesTheSpiral]

Not from the area and only been there once so I'm not familiar with the area

[TopDog58]

I know that Regions supposedly holds over 15k. How often is it full for a tournament game? I know that traditionally the only time AU or Bama filled it was if they played each other. I know LSU, MSU, and Ole Miss bring sizable crowds. Autozone would definitely work and hell, like Todd said, throw Pearl a bone once every 4-5 years. There wouldn't be the max crowd sizes like some of the bigger parks, but id bet most of the sessions would easily be 5-6k plus each time.

[engie]

Trustmark Park does not have the capacity to hold the crowds of the SEC tourney. There are simply a half dozen or more better options currently in the SEC footprint...

[dickiedawg]

Hoover does a great job with the SEC tournament. It's centrally located, near the SEC home office, there's plenty of parking and no shortage of hotels in the area. With that said, I'd welcome a change of scenery. Autozone Park is a great facility in a fun city to visit. I'm sure the new Regions Park will be nice as well, but the games will probably still be played in Hoover.

[HereComesTheSpiral]

Or how about doing what the basketball tournament does and going to different venues every year. Half of the fun is going some place new. I'm also in favor of rotating the football game between New Orleans and Atlanta now that we have expanded west.

[FlabLoser]

Trustmark Park does not have the capacity to hold the crowds of the SEC tourney. There are simply a half dozen or more better options currently in the SEC footprint...

Wow you're right - I just discovered TP capacity is only about 7,500.

[War Machine Dawg]

I'm all for Autozone. I've been to both stadiums and Regions is a dump now. The problem, or so I've heard, is RV parking in Memphis isn't sufficient. That's supposedly why Hoover will be the home of the baseball tourney from now until eternity. But you're absolutely right about Autozone otherwise being a far superior venue.

[HereComesTheSpiral]

I'm all for Autozone. I've been to both stadiums and Regions is a dump now. The problem, or so I've heard, is RV parking in Memphis isn't sufficient. That's supposedly why Hoover will be the home of the baseball tourney from now until eternity. But you're absolutely right about Autozone otherwise being a far superior venue.

You do lose the tailgating aspect at Autozone, but I only saw a few tents last year at the championship game so no big deal in my mind.

[Todd4State]

Having been to both Autozone. Birmingham is building a new stadium fwiw.

[engie]

You do lose the tailgating aspect at Autozone, but I only saw a few tents last year at the championship game so no big deal in my mind.

The tailgating culture at Regions is mainly @ the RV park across the street... and it is pretty bigtime over there(even though you don't really see it as an average fan coming for a single day game)...

One of the things that makes it great are the old-timer MSU and LSU fans that show up in their RVs and stay all week regardless of who is playing/winning...

[Will James]

You do lose the tailgating aspect at Autozone

I'll take Beale ALL DAY

[HereComesTheSpiral]

I'll take Beale ALL DAY

Bingo

[TheTeetFingler]

Autozone Park is miles ahead of Trustmark Park... TP is fan friendly until you have crowds like there were last night. While they handled the crowd well for the size park it is, they still could use some more concession stands, bathrooms, seating, etc.