Hoover Met Complex attendance, economic impact dropped in 2022

By JON ANDERSON

The Hoover Metropolitan Complex saw a decline in event attendance and economic impact in fiscal 2022 but fared better financially with operations, records show.

Excluding the SEC Baseball Tournament, The World Games softball competition and the Hot Rod Power Tour, almost 253,000 people attended events at the Hoover Met Complex from October 2021 to September 2022, according to the annual report for the complex.

That’s down about 5% from 266,000 attendees in fiscal 2021, city records indicate.

As a result, the number of hotel-room stays generated by the complex fell from 86,324 to 69,782, and the economic impact of the facility dropped from $67 million in fiscal 2021 to $55 million in fiscal 2022, records show.

The main reason for the decline is that one of the facility’s preferred partners, Perfect Game, had to relocate three of its major baseball showcase events from Hoover to Memphis because of The World Games softball games being played at the Hoover Met, said Shannon Ealy, general manager for the Hoover Met Complex.

Those three events generated $8 million in economic impact in 2021, Ealy said.

Also, the Hoover Met Complex lost another $4 million in economic impact due to losing the Adidas Gauntlet basketball tournaments to another facility, Ealy said. Organizers of those tournaments like to move them around the country, he said.

Sports Facilities Management, which manages the Hoover Met Complex for the city, did not count attendance and economic impact from the SEC Baseball Tournament, The World

Games softball competition or the Hot Rod Power Tour in its numbers because those events were handled more by the city, Ealy said.

If those events had been counted, attendance would have exceeded 500,000, he said.

Of the almost 253,000 people who attended the counted events in fiscal 2022, 27% (69,169) were there for baseball events, records show.

The complex also drew 39,927 people for basketball, 27,588 for soccer, 23,880 for volleyball, 22,009 for trade shows, 14,343 for school and school athletic functions, 12,975 for mat sports, 8,965 for football, 8,341 for special events, 8,003 for lacrosse, 7,441 for softball, 4,000 for parking lot events, 1,039 for pickleball and 150 for cricket.

The Met Complex also had its facilities used by more than 125,000 “local participants,” including 24,776 with the Hoover Soccer Club, 18,544 with parks and recreation basketball, 17,325 with parks and recreation flag football, 16,363 with Alabama Performance Volleyball, 13,147 with lacrosse, 9,582 with baseball practices, 8,760 with J. Smith Hoops basketball, 4,066 with the Hoover Competitive Basketball Club, 1,500 with the Birmingham United Soccer Association, 1,002 with softball practices and 3,454 with other activities.

On the financial side of the business, SFM in 2022 achieved a net income of $1.1 million for the Hoover Met Complex, compared to about $600,000 in 2021 (which included about $350,000 in revenue from the U.S. government’s Paycheck Protection Program in 2021).

This is only the second year with a positive net income for the Hoover Met Complex, but it’s still one year earlier than was projected when the facility was expanded to include the Finley Center and 10 additional outdoor fields.

The Hoover Met Complex does not, however, actually make a profit. The city still puts several million dollars a year into the facility to help with operations, in addition to annual debt payments.

That said, both SFM and city officials have said they are pleased with the financial progress of the facility.

Ealy said a big plus for 2022 was growth in the food and beverage business. Food and beverage revenues increased from about $790,000 in 2021 to almost $1.3 million in 2022. Ealy said food and beverage manager JD Danforah has done an outstanding job.

The RV Park drew more than 8,500 visitors over 12 months and generated revenues of $659,000 — about $100,000 more than the previous year, according to the annual report.

Jason Clement, the chief executive officer for Sports Facilities Companies (the parent company for Sports Facilities Management), said his company has been committed from the start to make the Hoover Met Complex a financial success by luring premier events and tournaments, while at the same time providing space for local participants.

The in-kind value of facility usage by local groups was about $590,000 in fiscal 2021, including $187,965 for school groups, $128,545 for Hoover Parks and Recreation leagues, $56,800 for other city events and $216,243 for other groups, according to SFM.

Clement said the good news is that participation in youth sports continues to grow. Also, the percentage of Americans that are “active” has grown from 73% in 2015 to 76% in 2021, according to SFM.

Sports tourism is recovering from the pandemic nationally, and Hoover actually has been ahead of the curve in recovery compared to industry averages, Clement said.

The Hoover Met Complex was one of the first to come back into operation in 2020, which paid dividends in 2020 and 2021, he said.

“We didn’t have nearly the dip the rest of the country saw, as a result of the leadership here locally that allowed us to open up” and provide events, starting on the outdoor side and then ultimately indoor as well, Clement said.

As sports tourism continues to grow, more and more communities are looking to get in the game and open new sports complexes to compete for those tournaments and economic spending that comes with them, he said.

The Hoover Met Complex already has positioned itself as a national destination for youth and amateur sports, drawing visitors every year from almost all 50 states, and wants to maintain that momentum and grow its reputation as a destination, Clement said.

Ealy said booking for 2023 has been going strong, with more than $500,000 worth of business booked by early December, including a lot of repeat business. Demand for the complex’s facilities is greater than available time slots in peak business periods, so the staff gets to be somewhat selective in the types of events they bring to Hoover, he said.

That said, the staff at SFM will continue trying to increase underutilized areas, such as the five multipurpose fields, the newly reopened and renamed Hoover Heights climbing center inside the Finley Center and the 16-court tennis center and RV Park, Ealy said.

The staff at SFM also want to diversify the types of events held at the complex to broaden the facility’s usage and expand it to new groups, he said.