Will SEC Baseball Tournament remain in Hoover? Greg Sankey talks future in 'special place'

MIRAMAR BEACH, Fla. — Conference commissioner Greg Sankey was caught off guard at a Starbucks in Hoover ahead of the SEC Baseball Tournament finale between LSU and Tennessee on Sunday.

"Is it true the tournament is moving to Nashville next year?" a fan asked.

"What are you talking about?" Sankey responded.

Discussions have swirled regarding the SEC's commitment to continue playing its annual baseball tournament at the Hoover Met, the home of the tournament since 1998. The SEC's current contract with the city runs through 2025, and conversations between the two sides have been ongoing.

"We're going to be certainly in Hoover for a few more years. They've made commitments," Sankey said of the city's efforts. "You can see the entry. You can see the redone parking lot. You could walk through the facility and see enhancement plans before we play again next year. They've built the Finley Center, which is an all-purpose building that really accommodates our fans in an outstanding way. ...

"I made some notes about ingress and egress (this year). There's a direct way in. We were stacked up about a mile and a half on the 459 when I was driving in about two hours before the game. How do we reduce the fan friction to access the facility is top of mind. Now, credit to the city of Hoover. They actually sent people out to buy bottles of water that they were handing out, and they had done preparation in advance knowing that there'd be a great crowd and dealing with the heat. ... But we need to continue to work on reducing the challenges, if you will, for access for those big crowds."

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Sankey noted how the Hoover Met draws large audiences, even on school nights. He mentioned a story in which an Ohio State fan came up to him during the tournament and told him they had previously seen the enviornment and wanted to be a part of it.

"I think we want to respect that we've built something special in that location," Sankey said. "... The geographic center, even after this next expansion, is just north of Birmingham. So, it's an accessible place if you want to get there. It's going to be distant from the outer edges of the league, but it's a pretty special place. We've got 250-plus RV hookups that sellout just like that. If you ever walk through that community, for one week it is a community. (It's) fun to see people enjoying college baseball in a really unique way."

Sankey was also asked about the potential desire to put more tournaments in the western half of the conference landscape, especially now that the Longhorns and Sooners are involved.

"The pressure is to get the site location right," Sankey said. "There are sets of championships that do rotate around. Those are campus-based championships. ... We actually looked diligently and have surfaced that issue, identified that issue with our membership to say, 'Hey, we're ready to look west. We have looked west.' But the opportunities we've had in other locations have just been voted the priority. ...

"We'll continue to look at western opportunities. I was vocal about it, but the decisions made by our membership has created the inventory in the locations we have."

Richard Silva is the Auburn athletics beat writer for the Montgomery Advertiser. He can be reached via email at rsilva@gannett.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @rich_silva18.