Regions Field - History

History

The history of professional baseball in Birmingham began with the establishment of the Barons as one of the charter members of the original Southern League in 1885. In 1910, the Barons moved into Rickwood Field, and professional baseball in Birmingham was played exclusively at Rickwood through 1987. The final game played at Rickwood with the Barons as the primary tenant occurred on September 9, 1987, when they lost to the Charlotte O's 5–4 in the second game of the Southern League championship series. The following season, the Barons moved into the Hoover Metropolitan Stadium in the suburb of Hoover and have remained there since. Since then, the only professional baseball played in Birmingham has been as part of the annual Rickwood Classic, established in 1996.

After two decades without baseball in Birmingham, in 2009 Corporate Realty Development brought forward a proposal to build a new stadium for the Barons adjacent to the Railroad Park. In April 2010, a privately funded, $40,000 feasibility study was commissioned, and in September its findings were released. The study indicated the construction of a stadium could potentially result in over $500 million in direct and indirect spending in the city.

In October 2010, the Birmingham City Council approved an ordinance by a vote of eight to one to increase the city's lodging tax by 3.5 percentage points to finance the construction of the stadium. At the time of its approval, the tax was expected to generate $5 million annually. Additionally, a provision in the ordinance called for a repeal of the tax by January 2012 if the Barons were unable to relocate or a primary tenant for the facility could not be found. On November 4, an agreement was reached between the City of Birmingham and Barons ownership to relocate the team as the primary tenant of the stadium upon its completion.

In July 2011, the location for the stadium was unveiled as being along First Avenue South, between 14th and 16th Streets South. The majority of the properties involved were acquired through a land swap with the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), and the remaining were purchased from private landholders. In September, the building team for the stadium was released with 61 percent being minority-owned firms and most based in Birmingham.

The official groundbreaking ceremony was held for the estimated $60 million stadium on February 2, 2012. At that time, the name of the stadium as Regions Field was unveiled, with the naming rights purchased by Birmingham-based Regions Financial Corporation. On March 14 the Birmingham Design Review Committee approved the site plan for the facility to allow for its construction to commence upon completion of the on-site demolition. After just over one year of construction, Regions Field opened on April 10, 2013, for a sold out game against the Mississippi Braves.