Birmingham offers the complete game for baseball fans
It will be a while longer before shouts of "Play ball!" are heard at Birmingham's Regions Field. Both Major League Baseball and Minor League Baseball have delayed the opening of baseball season because of the COVID-19 coronavirus. (file)
While the ongoing World Series between the Dodgers and the Astros might be the last hurrah for 2017, Birmingham has scored well on providing a good overall experience for baseball fans.
A ranking from Wallethub takes into account the quality of experience for both professional and collegiate teams, using the following factors:
- Success of the teams
- Minimum season ticket price
- Degree of fan engagement
Those factors were weighed for more than 360 cities across the U.S., and Birmingham came in 30th overall. Compared to other midsize cities in the survey, Birmingham finished fourth.
The recent relocation of the Birmingham Barons to downtown is credited with boosting fan engagement, which was Birmingham’s best factor in its score. The Magic City didn’t finish in the top 50 in any category, but was better than average across the board.
Here’s how other Alabama cities finished in the rankings:
Montgomery Riverwalk Stadium
| City | Ranking (out of 363) |
| Birmingham | 30 |
| Mobile | 119 |
| Montgomery | 133 |
| Tuscaloosa | 134 |
| Troy | 142 |
| Jacksonville | 170 |
| Huntsville | 204 |
| Auburn | 239 |
