The City of Hoover has hired Sports Facilities Companies (SFC) employee Shannon James Ealy as the General Manager to lead the day-to-day operations of Hoover Met Complex in the Hoover, AL. The sports complex can host a variety of tournaments, camps, clinics, and leagues. The Finley Center is located at the Hoover Met Complex, a state-of-the-art 155,000 sf sports complex and event venue. They offer basketball, volleyball, and a range of other indoor sports, as well as soccer, football, lacrosse, baseball, and softball on our outdoor fields. This facility can host events, sports tournaments, banquets, trade shows and more.
A career sports executive, Ealy, possesses 25 years of experience in sports administration. Ealy has diverse experience in leadership, day-to-day operations, revenue generation, fiscal management, external affairs, internal operations, facilities management and event operations. Ealy formed Outsource Sports Management, a sports marketing and event management company, after the national pandemic to assist sports, entertainment and tourism organizations with outsourcing services expertise due to the significant elimination of positions and rising personnel costs.
Ealy stated, “I am very excited to return to the Greater Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area to continue my career in sports administration by leading the Hoover Met Complex and its amazing staff. I want to thank Sports Facilities Companies leaders Jason Clement, Dave Pritchett, Michael Godoy and John Sparks for the opportunity to be associated with such a great organization and world-class venue. I look forward to working with and serving Mayor Brocato, his staff, the city council, the Hoover community and all users of the Hoover Met Complex.”
“Shannon will bring a wealth of experience as the General Manager of the Hoover Met,” says Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato.
For eight years, Ealy held leadership positions within the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) athletics department, led day-to-day operations, oversaw a $30 million annual operating budget, managed external and internal administrative units, and supervised football, basketball, softball and baseball. He successfully served as interim Director of Athletics during a controversial and tumultuous time in program history. He provided leadership, stability, and confidence after the university eliminated football, bowling and rifle. Under his direction, Ealy assisted with getting all three sports programs reinstated within six months.
Before joining UAB Athletics, Ealy served the Bruno Event Team as Vice President of the Alabama Sports Foundation, where he led all efforts to produce large-scale sporting events such as the SEC Baseball Tournament, SEC Gymnastics Championship, Magic City Classic, SWAC
Football Championship, US Olympic Marathon Trials, US Soccer Matches, Pro Beach Volleyball and the Brett Favre Celebrity Softball Game.
Concurrently, he provided consulting services to the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex to assist with the planning, programming and support for a downtown Birmingham stadium, entertainment district and lodging accommodations as President of Birmingham Sports Ventures.
About Hoover Metropolitan Complex
Hoover Metropolitan Complex is a world-class, multi-sport and event facility located in Hoover, AL just 10 miles south of Birmingham. The state-of-the-art Finley Center includes more than 83,000 square feet of uninterrupted multi-purpose space and Hoover RV Park features 170 pull-through spaces with utility hookups. The outdoor complex features five NCAA regulation-size baseball/softball fields, five multi-purpose fields suitable for NCAA regulation soccer, football, and lacrosse, 16 hard tennis courts, a playground, and splash pad. Hoover Met Complex is a member of the SF Network, the nation’s largest and fastest-growing network of sports facilities and is operated by the industry-leader in outsourced operations, Sports Facilities Companies.
