re: Who wants to see the SEC Baseball Tourney move to Regions Park in 2016

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For baseball, look at who wins and who shows up. SEC and west both have enough solid teams to not put it in either extreme. Someplace in Alabama or Georgia is probably the optimal for the most teams to reach.

I can see Vandy fans traveling to Hoover more than I can see them going to BR or CS. On the other side, not sure I can see Ole Miss fans driving to Columbia or Gainesville.

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Memphis. It borders Arkansas who is second in attendance every year in baseball. It's an hour from Oxford and in a city with a ton of Ole Miss alumni (they finished 3rd in attendance I believe). You're a few hours from Vandy, not that they travek well anyways. You're a few hours from Starkville, and they also have a lot of Alumni in the Memphis area. Memphis is about the same distance from Baton Rouge as Hoover.

While we're throwing places out. Here is another one.

Constellation Field in Sugar Land, TX (Houston burb)
-Near a huge metro of over 6 million
-Tons of parking and room for RVs
-Private airport walking distance away for the big money folks
-7,500 capacity so it won't look empty.
-Party friendly
-Kid friendly
-Only 2 years old.
-Good dimensions (Left Field – 325', Center Field – 405', Right Field – 348'

Autozone in Memphis has potential. As an A&M fan, the ONLY thing that I miss about the Big XII was the baseball tournament being in downtown Oklahoma City. I know it wasn't a big hit at the turnstiles, but for the folks who did show up for the entire tournament, it was great. You didn't have people showing up in RVs--instead, they stayed at hotels within walking distance of the ballpark, as did the competing teams (the coaches loved it because they didn't have to but to and from the park--they just told the player what time was curfew and when to show at meals or at the ballpark).

So, while I understand that there is a strong RV contingent in the SEC that will favor boring suburban ballparks with acres of parking lots surrounding the field, the teams don't stay in RVs and would be better served by an urban setting like I described. Now, the problem with that is that I'm not sure if any such suitable setting exists. I've looked at Memphis, and while it has potential, everyone seems to be concerned about crime--is it really that bad? Atlanta and Houston are out as MLB has decided not to allow their teams to host conference tournaments (too hard on the field, they felt, when the Rangers hosted in Arlington). The Nashville park will have some potential, but the nearest hotels seem to be about a half mile away as the crow flies.

FYI, the tourney is already at Regions Park aka Hoover Met. The stadium in downtown Bham is Regions Field. Same hometown sponsor, two similar but different names.