Mobile’s mystic societies will spend a third straight Carnival season without the downtown home they were promised. Mayor Spiro Cheriogotis announced Friday, Sept. 11, that Regions Arena — the $300 million entertainment complex rising on the footprint of the demolished Mobile Civic Center — will not be finished in time to host Mardi Gras balls in 2027, pushing the building’s debut to sometime next spring.
The mayor delivered the news in person, calling representatives of nine Mardi Gras organizations into Government Plaza on Friday morning before any public statement went out. It was a deliberate choice, and one the societies noticed.
“I know this is disappointing news, but I think it’s important that we take the time to get this right,” Cheriogotis said in the statement that followed.
More than 100 rain days since groundbreaking
When crews broke ground on the arena on May 21, 2025, the scheduled completion date was Jan. 15, 2027 — roughly three weeks before an unusually early Fat Tuesday, which falls on Feb. 9, 2027. That left almost no cushion between handing over the keys and the first ball.
The cushion never materialized. According to the city, the site has logged more than 100 rain days since construction began, including two named tropical storms. In a region the mayor described as “America’s rainiest city,” that accumulation was enough to move the anticipated completion date from mid-January to spring.
“While I appreciate the ambitious timeline, we’ve since experienced over 100 rain days, including two named storms,” Cheriogotis said. “This has moved the anticipated completion date to spring 2027.”
The mayor was careful to direct none of the blame at the general contractor, B.L. Harbert International.
“For months, we’ve pushed as hard as possible to find a path to complete this building in time for Mardi Gras, and B.L. Harbert has done a remarkable job managing the challenges of construction in America’s rainiest city,” he said. Speaking to reporters later, he went further: “The message is not the contractor failed in any way. I would say they overdelivered. What they have delivered up to this point is incredible.”
Why a partial opening was rejected
A limited opening was on the table. The 298,000-square-foot complex is fully enclosed, and the mayor acknowledged the arena could have opened “in a very limited capacity” for Carnival season. He decided against it for two reasons.
The first was the impression it would leave. Interior work remains unfinished — crews are still handling tiling, bathrooms and other detail work — and outdoor work is further behind still, including asphalt for additional parking and construction of a roundabout leading to the facility. Those outdoor items are precisely the ones most vulnerable to more rain.
“First impressions matter,” Cheriogotis said. “While we could open for Mardi Gras in a very limited capacity, this is not the experience I want Mobilians to have of this transformative new addition to our city.”
He put it more bluntly when he spoke to reporters in a conference room overlooking the construction site: “I believe that by having Mardi Gras there, the level of work that would be visible and unfinished would in no way provide that first impression we want to provide.” And more bluntly still: “If I was responsible for red dirt getting on one lady’s white fur coat, that would’ve been a failure.”
The second reason was schedule arithmetic. Stopping construction to stage balls in January and February, then restarting, would have pushed the true completion date back considerably — trading a short-term win for a longer wait overall.
“Regions Arena will serve Mobile for many decades to come, and we only get one opportunity to ensure that the grand opening is as jaw-dropping as I know it can be,” the mayor said. “When it opens next spring, Mobilians will see it was worth the wait.”
Nine societies, and what happens to their balls
At least nine mystic societies had expressed interest in holding their 2027 balls inside the arena, including some of the city’s largest. Cheriogotis named the Order of Juno, the Mystics of Time, the Etruscans, the Krewe of Columbus, the Order of Inca and the Order of Polka Dots as among those in Friday’s meeting; he could not recall the names of the remaining three groups.
Most of them will be fine. The majority had already reserved space at the Arthur R. Outlaw Mobile Convention Center as a backup, a precaution the arena’s own management team had encouraged. For the two or three groups without a fallback booked, the mayor said the city and Oak View Group — the firm that will manage the arena — will work directly with them to find a venue.
“We are going to make sure we keep working with them to make sure their backup plans are in place, that they are going to have events they can be proud of. We are going to continue to serve them every way we can,” Cheriogotis said. “This is not the ideal situation, but we are going to make it as close to that as we can.”
Oak View Group struck a similar note in its own statement: “The Convention Center will play an important role in accommodating Mardi Gras events in 2027, and our team is working closely with the Mardi Gras organizations on their plans for the season.”
Cheriogotis said he was not certain whether any of the organizations had already paid the city for arena use.
The societies respond
Judi Gulledge, executive director of the Mobile Carnival Association, said the societies appreciated both the personal delivery and the timing.
“The Regions Arena team had already encouraged groups considering using Regions Arena to have a backup plan in place in the event the arena completion was delayed,” Gulledge said. “Most groups indicated they would pivot to those secondary plans. There was a general consensus that Regions Arena should be in a fully finished state before welcoming guests to showcase the facility at its best.”
The Order of Inca, which had planned to hold its 70th anniversary ball at the arena, issued a statement the following day that was notably supportive.
“Order of Inca was planning on having our 70th anniversary ball at the Regions Arena. We were fully aware that the completion date was very close to the 2027 Mardi Gras season, therefore we were also preparing a backup plan at the Convention Center in the event of a delay,” the organization’s president said.
“We want to thank Mayor Spiro and his team for realizing that the delays were going to potentially affect Mardi Gras balls and addressing the issue now rather than later in the fall so that we have plenty of time to make other arrangements. Calling the affected societies into his office to deliver this news in person means a lot to us and shows that he and his team really do care about Mardi Gras and the deep history and traditions that it has in Mobile.”
The statement closed: “We believe that making sure the new Regions Arena is 100% complete before opening is the right call and that first impressions of the new venue are only positive. If that means we have to delay our ball being held there one more year, Mayor Spiro has our full support!”
A third year without a home venue
For the societies that spent decades holding balls at the Mobile Civic Center, this is the third Carnival season without that anchor. The Civic Center was demolished after the 2024 Carnival season, and the arena was meant to replace it.
The announcement also reverses a commitment made repeatedly by the previous administration. Former Mayor Sandy Stimpson’s team had pledged the arena would be open and ready for 2027 balls even with an early Fat Tuesday. B.L. Harbert Chairman and CEO Billy Harbert — who worked on the Arthur R. Outlaw Mobile Convention Center in the early 1990s — made a similar pledge last year while acknowledging the timeline was tight.
Cheriogotis, who was elected in September 2025 and sworn in that November, declined to characterize the original target as unreachable. He had promoted the same date himself early in his tenure.
“They were shooting for the result that many wanted,” he said of the Stimpson administration. “No one wanted to tell our groups that you will not be on this site for three years for Mardi Gras. To their credit, they were able to negotiate a contract that we think will come within budget and that at least had a chance to get there.”
When the decision was actually made
The mayor was candid about the gap between what he said publicly and what he had concluded privately. As recently as Tuesday of that week, he had told reporters the arena was expected to open in the spring and would still be available for Mardi Gras balls in January.
“If I’m being honest, on Tuesday, I had not announced this decision to these groups and internally to the city staff,” Cheriogotis said. “In my heart, I had made that decision by Tuesday. I’ve had concerns since the middle of May with the amount of rain we were having.”
He said he had felt confident as recently as April that the balls could proceed; the May rainfall changed that. The decision, he said, was his alone.
What comes next for the building
Cheriogotis is not offering a firm new opening date. He said the project is roughly 50% complete and that he remains confident about a spring 2027 finish. He described himself as “optimistic” that the venue can be ready by March 6, when Birmingham comedian and singer-songwriter Matt Mathews is scheduled to perform two shows as the arena’s first announced act.
Mathews, for his part, appeared to learn the news the same way the public did. Asked via social media after Friday’s announcement whether he had been notified of the delay or told how it might affect his dates, he replied: “Nope. Not a word.”
Beyond concerts and Carnival, the arena is slated to be the home of the Mobile Mysticks, a new minor league franchise in the Southern Professional Hockey League. The team plays its first home game in October 2027, comfortably after the revised opening window. Cheriogotis said the arena will be open well before the hockey season starts, though he was unsure how much lead time the franchise will need for practice access. Mobile has no other facility with ice, which makes the arena’s ice plant the team’s only local option.