re: The SEC home offices in Birmingham ...

Seigelman rabble rabble rabble

The OP finally came full circle and mentioned he is in the process of not getting paid by (Jefferson County) and has brought his complaint to a Sports Message Board, to express his disdain for the Birmingham area and make it into why the SEC should move out.

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The OP finally came full circle and mentioned he is in the process of not getting paid by (Jefferson County) and has brought his complaint to a Sports Message Board, to express his disdain for the Birmingham area and make it into why the SEC should move out.

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Let's be clear. What I did was answer your question honestly and directly. What I also did was include everything, not just that.

Don't make it into something it is not. Crooks and liars and people who do not pay their bills ... I have to deal with them all the time and I always win in the long run. Do I hold a certain disdain for certain things and they way they are being handled in B-ham right now, yes. But that's neither here nor there. B-ham has been less than optimal, on many levels, for the SEC for some time now. Adequate, yes, Optimal, no.

Why should the SEC settle for mediocre?

Better yet, why is the SEC in B-ham anyway? What makes B-ham the center of the SEC universe?

Before the SEC became so grand, they had their offices in Bham.. The first SECCG was played in Bham.. Birmingham is a huge market for college sports, especially Football.. Legion Field was heralded as the "football capitol of the south.l

Auburn and Alabama played games there...

It sucks not to be paid for whatever you may have done, but there are legal ways to go about trying to collect.. The SEC has no issues with the city and the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame will see that the SEC offices get what the want from the city & state

You also have to take Birmingham's status as the industrial center of the South when the SEC offices were set up. It was as important, if not more so, than any other city in the deep South at the time and a logical place to put the SEC.

Using the 1930 census, two years before the league was formed:

Atlanta - 270,366
Birmingham - 259,678
Memphis - 253,143
Nashville - 153,866
Charlotte - 86,675

Without spending my night pulling up industrial output data from the 30's, I can assure you that Birmingham was a very powerful city at the time of the SEC's birth. Even accounting for the Great Depression, the city's output of steel, iron and coal rivaled any industrialized Northern city. Add to that, it's being roughly in the center of all the SEC schools, it was a perfect place to put the office.

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The problems was the decline of steel and coalmining.

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Add to that the actions of the city council and police department during the civil rights protests in the 50's/60's. Just opinion, but when companies in the North started streaming down south for better weather and a cheaper workforce, the vision of police dogs, water hoses and church bombings probably didn't help Birmingham expand it's industrial base.

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Using the 1930 census, two years before the league was formed:

Atlanta - 270,366
Birmingham - 259,678
Memphis - 253,143
Nashville - 153,866
Charlotte - 86,675

Without spending my night pulling up industrial output data from the 30's, I can assure you that Birmingham was a very powerful city at the time of the SEC's birth. Even accounting for the Great Depression, the city's output of steel, iron and coal rivaled any industrialized Northern city. Add to that, it's being roughly in the center of all the SEC schools, it was a perfect place to put the office.

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You make a good point, but did the SEC actually have a home office in Birmingham before WWII? I know they appointed their first commish in '40 if I remember correctly, but I don't think they actually had offices in Birmingham until '51 or '52 after deciding to locate in Birmingham when Bernie Moore took the position in '48.

Pretty sure Moore wanted the offices to be located in New Orleans, I think that had something to do with his LSU ties, but he compromised on Birmingham when LSU, UT, Ole Miss and Bama all basically agreed that B-ham would be a central location, although no one agreed it would be a neutral location, not even Auburn and especially not Georgia.

Moore was an interesting character. My family now owns some of his old family property, a large piece of it anyways, just outside of Johnson City, Tennessee, also considered by some to be the hometown of Spurrier of course.

Ironic that two of UT's biggest all-time nemesis would come right out of their backyard in Moore and Spurrier. I'm sure LSU fans around here know who Bernie Moore is, regardless of their age.

Hmm, perhaps Birmingham is on a downhill slide, but I don't really see how any of the problems mentioned in this article specifically and negatively impact the SEC offices. Move the offices to most any large Southern metropolis and you'll be faced with many of the same issues.