Hoover to host softball at The World Games 2022

The Birmingham Organizing Committee (BOC) for The World Games 2022 has named the Hoover Metropolitan (Hoover Met) Complex as the venue for The World Games softball competition. 

Hoover is Ready

The city of Hoover has plenty of experience hosting big sporting events at the Hoover Met. The community currently hosts the annual SEC Baseball Tournament, which was attended by 162,699 fans in 2019. Softball is expected to be one of the most popular competitions during The World Games 2022. 

“The fans, players and coaches will experience southern hospitality in the state, city and in this metro area,” said Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato at the news conference announcing the Hoover Met as the host site.  

“I feel like we’ve fine tuned the art of holding a tournament and entertaining fans for the past 20 for the years with the SEC Baseball Tournament. We want to bring that experience to the World Games.”

30 Different Sports

Over the past three months The World Games 2022 organizers have been announcing competition venues for the  July 7-17, 2022 event, which anticipates 3,600 athletes to participate in 30 different sports.

“The World Games 2022 will be the first major international sporting event on American soil with full venues again, and one of the most anticipated competitions on our program will be the softball games at the Hoover Met,” said Nick Sellers, CEO of The World Games. “We’re excited to crown both a gold medal winner for The Games as well as a world softball champion in this incredible park.”

Alabama Softball Star Coming Home

Also on hand at the announcement was former Alabama softball star and Team USA member Haylie McCleney. A native of Morris, Alabama  in Jefferson County, she is thrilled for the opportunity to compete for her country near her hometown.

“For me to compete on this field where Michael Jordan played, and the Barons – as a woman I never thought I’d get a chance to play on this field.  But here in 2022 we’re gonna get to compete for a gold medal, it’s pretty special.”

Sellers noted that the Team USA Softball team is presently number one in the world heading into the Tokyo Summer Olympics. He expects there to be a lot of excitement around the team  when 2022 comes around. 

“We expect tickets to sell fast.”

Visit The World Games 2022 website for ticket info and how you can volunteer and buy merchandise.

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