The Southeastern Conference baseball tournament will remain in Hoover, Alabama, through at least 2028 after the league signed an extended partnership agreement with the city of Hoover and the Public Park and Recreation Board of the City of Hoover.
Hoover Metropolitan Stadium has served as host of the SEC Tournament every year since 1998, excluding 2020 when the event was cancelled due to Covid. Attendance records were set in each of the last two tournaments, with a total attendance of 180,004 in 2024. It is the second long-term agreement to host a SEC championship in recent months that the league has made after agreeing to keep the football title game in Atlanta through 2031.
There is a provision where the SEC could extend the host agreement through 2030. Renovations to the stadium entrance and parking lot were completed earlier this year. Other improvements are scheduled to be completed prior to the 2025 tournament, including the replacement of reserved stadium seats and addition of new hospitality spaces.
“The SEC Tournament has become one of the premier events in college baseball and the Hoover Met is a special venue for our fans,” said Southeastern Conference Commissioner Greg Sankey. “We look forward to continuing a positive relationship with the City of Hoover as the home of our baseball tournament.”
The 2025 SEC Tournament will be the first to include every SEC team, including new members Oklahoma and Texas. The 16-team tournament will be conducted in a single-elimination format. Five teams from the SEC have claimed the past five national championships since 2019.
“For the past 27 years, the city of Hoover has been pleased to host the SEC Baseball Tournament,” Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato said. “Over those years, we’ve developed a great partnership with the SEC. The city has worked extremely hard to provide stellar customer service and make sure we understand what players, coaches, fans and the SEC expect from us. Working as a team, we believe we’ve built a brand and with all our members, we have created what we believe is the best environment in college baseball.”