Greg Sankey comments on future of SEC baseball tournament, relationship with city of Hoover

The city of Hoover has hosted the SEC Tournament for more than 20 years and will do so again in 2024, as well. After that, there’s a chance it could be on the move, though.

The SEC and Hoover, Alabama have a strong relationship, but SEC commissioner Greg Sankey acknowledged that other cities have made a pitch to host the tournament, too. Sankey spoke at the SEC spring meetings about the future of the SEC Tournament.

“I think we have an incredibly healthy relationship with the city of Hoover that’s been built over time,” Sankey said. “I drove through the RV lot – I don’t think people understand what’s happened behind the scenes. Then I walked through the RV lot and had people handing me food and adult beverages. So there’s something special there that we want to be attentive to our future. We have another year on our agreement. We want to work through considerations pretty quickly. But I think what we’ve done there is really the envy of a lot of people.”

According to Sankey, one of the pluses of the SEC Tournament being in Hoover is the fan support.

The SEC had really good crowds throughout the event this year, as local fans and fans from schools showed their support for the tournament.

“We had a Texas A&M team that’s a long way away geographically, Vanderbilt’s three hours away, and had an outstanding crowd on Sunday afternoon,” Sankey said. “And that kind of just builds back to what we saw Tuesday night. … With delays and rain, we had a full stadium. So we’ve drawn people in there.”

Sankey also believes that having the SEC Tournament in Hoover, at an outdoor venue, prepares teams for the NCAA Tournament.

Because the event is outdoors, teams have to wait out rain delays and play at unusual times. If the SEC Tournament was played indoors, there would be a set schedule that would be followed. In that scenario, teams might not be as prepared for the NCAA Tournament, according to Sankey.

“A lot of people want us to play indoors. … When you also see on Tuesday a two-hour rain delay, when you think about a baseball team’s regular season, first pitch is at 1 p.m., we know exactly the order of preparation … and then you end up in the postseason where all of that orderly progression goes away,” Sankey said.

“You come to our tournament, you might have first pitch at 9 p.m. We had a game that went to almost 3 a.m. We’re hoping not to have that any longer. The year that happened, the next week I’m watching a regional where we’ve got a team playing at 2 a.m. That’s not going to happen in a regular season, so there’s a lot of considerations – weather’s weather, staying on schedule. But when you think about preparation for what’s ahead, I think what we’ve done in Hoover’s done a phenomenal job of preparing our teams for the uncontrollables they’ll have for the next three or four weeks.”