Regions Park, formerly known as Hoover Metropolitan Stadium or The Hoover Met, is a minor league baseball park located in the Birmingham, Alabama, USA, suburb of Hoover. It has been the home of the Birmingham Barons of the Southern League since 1988, replacing historic Rickwood Field in Birmingham. The stadium also serves as the home for the SEC Baseball Tournament. Regions Park is located in the Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area near Interstate 459 at Exit 10 just off Alabama State Route 150. The stadium is located three miles from the Riverchase Galleria, one of the south's largest shopping centers.
The seating capacity is 10,800 for baseball and can accommodate up to 16,000 when the patio, banquet, and grassy side areas are used. The stadium also houses 12 suites and state-of-the-art dressing and training rooms. The stadium also features a meeting/banquet room named for Michael Jordan, who played for the Barons during his brief foray into professional baseball, during which time the stadium experienced its largest crowds.
Regions Park was renamed in March 2007 when Regions Financial Corporation purchased the naming rights. Despite the name change, many locals still refer to the stadium as "The Met".
The City of Hoover operates the stadium and an adjacent recreational vehicle park.
Regions Park hosted the AVP Birmingham Open on July 13-16, 2006, the first beach volleyball tournament to ever be played in Alabama. The feature court was above the baseball diamond as well as eight other courts on the field, made of 222 tons of sand per court.
The stadium also played host to the 2011 NCAA Men's College Cup, and it will do so again in 2012.
Along with Birmingham city officials, the Barons announced plans in November 2010 to return to Birmingham with a new field to be constructed downtown, near the UAB campus. Pending contract negotiations and construction, play at the new field was originally expected to begin with the 2012 season. Site selection, financing issues, and problems obtaining all of the land sought by the developers has delayed a move until at least the 2013 season.
Famous quotes containing the words regions and/or park:
“In place of a world, there is a city, a point, in which the whole life of broad regions is collecting while the rest dries up. In place of a type-true people, born of and grown on the soil, there is a new sort of nomad, cohering unstably in fluid masses, the parasitical city dweller, traditionless, utterly matter-of-fact, religionless, clever, unfruitful, deeply contemptuous of the countryman and especially that highest form of countryman, the country gentleman.”
—Oswald Spengler (1880–1936)
“Therefore awake! make haste, I say,
And let us, without staying,
All in our gowns of green so gay
Into the Park a-maying!”
—Unknown. Sister, Awake! (L. 9–12)