Hoover Metropolitan Stadium, known for years simply as “The Met,” opened on April 18, 1988, in the Birmingham suburb of Hoover, Alabama. Built as the home of the Double-A Birmingham Barons of the Southern League, the ballpark served that role from 1988 until 2012, when the team moved downtown to a new stadium in Birmingham.
Today the stadium remains one of the busiest amateur and collegiate venues in the Southeast. It hosts the Southeastern Conference Baseball Tournament each spring, serves as the home field for Hoover High School football, and has welcomed everything from NCAA soccer championships to World Games softball over its decades of use.
Stats at a Glance
- Team(s): Birmingham Barons (Southern League, 1988-2012); now home of the SEC Baseball Tournament
- Location: Hoover, Alabama
- Opened: April 18, 1988
- Capacity: 10,800 for baseball (up to 16,000 with patio and lawn areas)
- Surface: Tifway 419 Bermuda grass
- Notable Fact: Michael Jordan played for the Barons here during his 1994 minor-league baseball season
A Minor League Legacy
For 25 seasons, the Hoover Met was the heartbeat of Southern League baseball in the Birmingham area, replacing the historic Rickwood Field as the Barons’ home. The stadium’s biggest crowds in its minor-league era came in 1994, when Michael Jordan suited up for the Barons during his brief detour into professional baseball, and the ballpark still houses a banquet room named in his honor.
The stadium also has a Hollywood connection: the daytime baseball scenes that open the movie Space Jam were filmed on this field, cementing the Hoover Met’s place in pop culture alongside its baseball history.
Still Alabama’s Big Game Stage
Since the Barons’ departure, the Hoover Met has stayed busy as the longtime home of the SEC Baseball Tournament, drawing the conference’s top teams and large crowds to Hoover every spring. It also serves as the primary home field for Hoover High School football.
The venue briefly took on a new role in 2015 when the Alabama Crimson Tide played a season there during renovations to their on-campus ballpark, and it has hosted national events ranging from the 2011 and 2012 NCAA Division I Men’s Soccer Championship to softball competition at the 2022 World Games.
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Hoover Metropolitan Stadium FAQs
Who plays at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium today?
The stadium no longer has a full-time pro tenant, but it hosts the SEC Baseball Tournament each year and serves as the home field for Hoover High School football.
Did Michael Jordan really play baseball at the Hoover Met?
Yes. Jordan played for the Birmingham Barons during his 1994 season there, and the stadium drew its largest professional baseball crowds during that run.
Was Hoover Metropolitan Stadium ever called something else?
Yes, it was known as Regions Park from 2007 to 2012 under a naming-rights deal, before reverting to Hoover Metropolitan Stadium in 2013.
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Photo: Ensign beedrill / CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.