Former college athletic director hired as manager for Hoover Met Complex

The Hoover City Council on Tuesday night confirmed a former college athletic director as the new general manager of the Hoover Metropolitan Complex.

Sports Facilities Management, the company hired by the city to manage the complex, has named E.J. Brophy as the new general manager, replacing John Sparks, who has been promoted by the management company.

Brophy actually has been serving as the Hoover Met Complex’s director of business development and events since September but previously served as athletic director for the University of Alabama at Huntsville and University of West Alabama.

Sparks, who took over management duties at the Hoover Metropolitan Complex in August 2018, was promoted to an account executive position, overseeing six or seven facilities for Sports Facilities Companies, the parent company for Sports Facilities Management.

Sparks’ office will remain at the Finley Center in Hoover, but he also will oversee athletic and event complexes such as the new Sand Mountain Park and Amphitheater in Albertville, Rocky Mount Sports Complex in North Carolina, and new facilities being built in South Bend, Texas; Bryan, Texas; and Richmond, Virginia.

Sparks said Brophy was a natural fit to oversee the day-to-day responsibilities of the Hoover Metropolitan Complex. Brophy really was overqualified for the director of business development and events job, and once he joined the team in Hoover, it was evident he could take on the top job at the complex, Sparks said.

Brophy already has a lot of relationships with people in the Birmingham-Hoover area and had a phenomenal track record of building relationships at the numerous colleges where he has worked, Sparks said.

“This job is all about relationships,” whether that be with sports teams, organizations, companies or individuals, Sparks said. It’s about the “golden rule” — treating other people the way you want to be treated, and Brophy excels at that, Sparks said.

Brophy, now 50 years old, was an all-conference baseball player for the University of Alabama at Birmingham 30 years ago and went on to play professional baseball for the Philadelphia Phillies minor league teams in Virginia, South Carolina, Florida and Pennsylvania, reaching the AAA level before hanging up his cleats as a player.

He then coached at the college level for seven years, including a year at Samford University, a year at the University of Montevallo and five years as a head coach at Wallace State Community College in Selma.

He then moved into administration, spending three years as an assistant athletic director at UAB, five years as athletic director at the University of West Alabama and eight years as athletic director at the University of Alabama at Huntsville.

He retired with 25 years of public service in February, but after several months of cleaning out the garage and pressure washing the driveway, he knew he needed to get back to work, he said. That’s when he applied for his initial job with the Hoover Metropolitan Complex.

Now, “I am extremely honored to be the next general manager of the Hoover Metropolitan Complex,” Brophy said.

Sparks has done a fantastic job of running the complex and made it a “well-oiled machine,” and the city of Hoover is fantastic, Brophy said. He’s also glad Sparks will still be around because he has a wealth of knowledge about the sports and event industry, he said.

Brophy has a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in physical education and a doctorate in educational leadership, all from UAB. He and his wife, Cindy, live in Helena and have a son who is a senior pitcher and biology major at UAH and a daughter who is an Alpha Gamma Delta sorority member and food and nutrition major at the University of Alabama.

Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato said Sparks has done an outstanding job in coordinating, operating and promoting the Hoover Met Complex, and the city is forever grateful for his efforts.

Brocato welcomed Brophy as the new general manager. He said members of Hoover’s staff for years have had a strong, positive relationship with Brophy and look forward to continuing those relationships and support him as he seeks to take the Hoover Met Complex to the next level.