Hank Aaron Stadium, the longtime home of Mobile’s minor league baseball team, has traded its usual off-season quiet for a glowing display of holiday lights this year, thanks to a new drive-thru attraction drawing visitors from well outside the city.
The Christmas Nights of Lights show was brought to Mobile by Titan Light Shows, a company that runs a similar seasonal display in Chattanooga. According to the BayBears’ director of broadcast and media relations, the company approached stadium staff during the 2014 baseball season with the idea, and the team quickly saw it as an opportunity worth pursuing.
Team officials viewed the light show as a way to create a new off-season tradition for local families while also introducing the stadium to people who might not otherwise visit. Many guests attending the light show, organizers noted, had never been to a BayBears game or even knew where the stadium was located before making the trip for the lights.
Since opening in mid-November, the drive-thru display has proven more popular than organizers may have anticipated, with nearly 10,000 cars passing through the route so far this season. Visitors have come from well beyond the immediate Mobile area, with the farthest guest reportedly driving more than three hours to see the display.
Team officials have been careful to note that the new attraction isn’t meant to compete with Bellingrath Gardens’ long-running Magic Christmas in Lights display, one of the region’s most established holiday traditions. Instead, they describe the stadium’s drive-thru format as offering a fundamentally different experience from Bellingrath’s walkable garden setting, giving families another option depending on their preference and schedule.
Titan Light Shows pays a rental fee to use the stadium grounds for the display, and proceeds from the $6 per-person admission benefit local charitable causes, including BayBears Charities, the Bay Area Food Bank, and the Salvation Army. That charitable component adds a community benefit beyond simple entertainment, channeling holiday spending back into local support services.
The Christmas Nights of Lights display remains open seven days a week, including on the holidays themselves, running through Jan. 3. Organizers say the format’s flexibility, allowing visitors to stay in their cars during colder or rainy weather, has been part of its early appeal for families looking for a low-hassle way to take in the holiday season.