Photo courtesy of World Baseball Softball Confederation.
USA Softball 1
Ali Aguilar, infielder for Team USA, makes a playduring the World Baseball Softball Confederation World Championship title game against Japan in 2018. Organizers of the 2022 World Games are asking the city of Hoover to host the women’s softball portion of the event at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium.
Organizers of the 2022 World Games are asking the city of Hoover to host the women’s softball portion of the event at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium.
Nick Sellers, CEO of the 2022 World Games, first presented the idea to the Hoover City Council at a meeting in March when the games were slated to be held in July 2021.
But now, with the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo being postponed until 2021, the World Games have been postponed until 2022, to avoid conflicting with the Olympics. The delays will give the city of Hoover more time to consider the request to host the softball portion of the event, said Gene Hallman, president and CEO of the Bruno Event Team, which is working with the World Games.
Hoover officials say the big question is whether the city should invest an estimated $165,000 to make the event happen, especially given the economic slowdown related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Converting the playing surface at the Hoover Met for softball games would cost a little more than $100,000, and overtime of city staff likely would cost $50,000 to $55,000, Hoover Events Coordinator Erin Colbaugh said.
In early March, Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato told the council this is a really big event on the world stage that gives Hoover an opportunity to practice regional cooperation and broadcast the city of Hoover all over the world.
“It’s just something that’s hard to put a price on,” he said. “I believe this will increase tourism in our area. Our restaurants will flourish. Our hotels will flourish. Our retail vendors will flourish. ... We need to be leaders here and join in with Birmingham and Jefferson County and the state of Alabama, not to mention all the corporate members that have joined in to make sure that this is a success.”
In late April, Brocato said after the COVID-19 business shutdown, it is even more important to help host the World Games. “We need to do everything in our power to generate events at the Met complex that are going to help our local businesses, and this is the exact type of venue that will do that,” he said.
Sellers said the 2022 World Games are expected to attract about 3,600 world-class athletes from more than 100 countries to compete in 32 sports. The projected economic impact to the state of Alabama is $256 million, organizers said.
The 2022 games will be televised worldwide by the same production company that handles the Olympics, and NBC Sports has guaranteed at least 10 hours of live coverage, Sellers said. More than 100 million people watched the games on TV three years ago when they were held in Poland, he said. Also, organizers expect an estimated 1,500 credentialed media.
The 32 sports include traditional competitions such as softball, archery and martial arts and newer sports like drone racing and canopy piloting.
The softball competition is expected to be the most attended event in the competition, other than the opening and closing ceremonies, Sellers said. It should draw up to 100,000 people over five days, while the total attendance for all games is expected to be in excess of 500,000.
“It should include the same U.S. softball team that will play in the Olympic games,” Sellers said. “Also, Japan, which is consistently ranked as one of the top two teams in the world, should be here.”
Other venues for the games include the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex (power lifting), Birmingham CrossPlex, Railroad Park, Boutwell Auditorium (kickboxing), Barber Motorsports Park (canopy piloting) and Oak Mountain State Park (wakeboarding and water ski jumping), Sellers said.
Most venues are providing facilities free of charge, Sellers said. The games are getting $3.5 million from Birmingham, at least $2.5 million from corporate partners, $2.5 million from Jefferson County, $1.9 million from the state of Alabama, $1.5 million from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and $600 from the Greater Birmingham Convention and Visitors Bureau, he said.
The total cost to put on the games is $55 million, including providing housing for all the athletes while they are in town, Hallman said.
The initial thought was to have the softball event at the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s softball complex, but organizers now want to have it in Hoover, Hallman said. The economic impact of the World Games softball in Hoover would be roughly equivalent to an SEC Baseball Tournament, he said.
“That certainly will have a big economic boost for the community," Hallman said. "I think your investment would have a positive return on investment just from a dollar standpoint.”
Councilman Curt Posey during a March City Council meeting asked whether the city would get any money out of ticket sales. Sellers said no, but the city would get any proceeds out of parking and concessions.
Council President Gene Smith said that if the city were to get the type of exposure he anticipates, “the cost would be nowhere near the value.”
Councilman Casey Middlebrooks said he doesn’t expect the city tax coffers to turn a profit from the event, but it would be a big boost to tourism, hotels, restaurants and retail stores.
“It comes down to how good of a regional partner we want to be in this,” Middlebrooks said.
