Southern Miss away game might move to Jackson

[Todd4State]

The only BIG problem with doing it around State Fair time

In addition to the ones gravedigger listed. The Starkville city fathers started putting a lot of pressure on MSU for more home games, i.e. more revenue for Starkville. However this was not the principle reason.

1. Memorial Stadium is a neutral site, therefore you cannot bring recruits according to NCAA rules. This was the rule back then, don't know if it has been changed.
2. USM and MSU were splitting gate revenue 50-50. USM was NOT putting %50 of the fans in the stands, don't let any delusional USM fan feed you a line of BS otherwise. MSU was about %65, USM %30 and the remaining %5 interested 3rd parties.
3. Towards the end time of games at Memorial Stadium, we were haveing trouble selling out the stadium in Jackson. This included the Egg Bowl game. Crowds were averaging between 40-50K. A sellout crowd of 40K at Scott Field put more money in our pockets.
4. Atmosphere. The on campus atmosphere is light years ahead of Jackson, even in the best of times at Memorial Stadium. The ONLY time a game in Jackson was better than on campus was if it was held on the w/e of the State Fair. Pay attention to this **** C34. IF you mate a football game in Jackson with an event like tha State Fair you stand a much better chance of a sellout, especially if you tie the two together. Like free admission to the State Fair if you show your game ticket, free rides, etc.

This thing COULD work, but it will take a lot of work from the city of Jackson, JSU - they manage Memorial Stadium now, UMMC - we will need their parking spaces, to keep this from turning into a big cluster 17 like the Colts/Saints game. I would also consider a beer tent in the parking lot for pre-game festivities, maybe a local band or two as well. If you can't drink inside. Get the local beer distributors in on this, maybe consider a Craft Beer thing.

Is we couldn't use the Fairgrounds for parking and would actually cause us to have major parking issues.

Parking at UMC- as you probably know I work there and on Saturdays, the Stadium parking lot is empty, so there would be no problems parking there as far as UMC is concerned unless this game was held on a Thursday or Friday. As far as on UMC's campus- there is not much and it would barely put a dent in any parking issues. UMC currently has two four story garages which are always full with patients family members vehicles, as well as some workers vehicles- we park at the stadium Mon-Fri and then are allowed to use the garages on the weekends. The other lots on campus are very small- the largest holds maybe 200 cars at the most and has a gate. Methodist Rehab's lot is big, but again- it's always full and will be no matter what.

I really think the best way to solve the parking issues are to use the Colesium with shuttles as well as the Vet's parking lot. That will probably cover it. The other issues with the Colts/Saints games- well, open more gates and that will solve that problem, and then as far as better food the only way I know to solve that is to bring in better vendors or for our fans to just put up with it for a game. But, those seem to be the main issues with people. And as far as safety, you always have to be careful, but at least the Colesium parking is fenced in as is the Vet's parking lot- and I would imagine that most of the crime occured on people that were unable to park at the Vet.

 

[patdog]

I'll be surprised if it's not in Hattiesburg. If I'm USM I just make that game for season ticket holders only and make up most of the additional revenue they could get by moving it to Jackson. USM-Nebraska in Kansas City will make them a lot more money than it would in New Orleans. Somebody would take a financial bath if they play that game in NO. They'd draw 40,000 tops and for that, why not just play it in Hattiesburg.

 

[GhostOfJackie]

Is your friend a janitor in the USM athletic department?

I asked my friend from USM's athletic department and he said it was considered but it's not a possibility. They expect the USM/Nebraska game to be in NOLA or Kansas City and for it to be a huge pay out. They're apparently only $850k in the hole. Some on here made it sound like more. It'll be in Hattiesburg.

I know for a fact that it's being seriously considered, not just talked about. Also, the article in the paper grossly underestimated how much that athletic department really owes the University. 850K is a cakewalk compared to how much they really owe.

 

[Todd4State]

I think from USM's perspective

the biggest thing against moving the game to Jackson would be the image that it would give to their alumni.

I mean, for years they talk about trying to get us to play them in Hattiesburg and how we were scared to play them, when the whole time we said- "no, it's about money and what makes sense for our athletic dept." And now they finally get us to play them there, and then they sell out on their fans and move the game to Jackson.

That wouldn't look good for them and it would pretty much prove that we were right all along. But- money talks. If the game in Jackson is too good for them to pass up, they very well may do it. But Rick Cleveland won't have much of a leg to stand on when he talks about why we won't play them in Hattiesburg.

 

[MSUDawg4Life]

the biggest thing against moving the game to Jackson would be the image that it would give to their alumni.

I mean, for years they talk about trying to get us to play them in Hattiesburg and how we were scared to play them, when the whole time we said- "no, it's about money and what makes sense for our athletic dept." And now they finally get us to play them there, and then they sell out on their fans and move the game to Jackson.

That wouldn't look good for them and it would pretty much prove that we were right all along. But- money talks. If the game in Jackson is too good for them to pass up, they very well may do it. But Rick Cleveland won't have much of a leg to stand on when he talks about why we won't play them in Hattiesburg.

Not only that, but, like us moving our games from Jackson to Starkville, having the game in Hattiesburg brings excitement to the campus and customers to the local businesses that have supported USM all of these years when we didn't play them. Moving the game to Jackson for an additional $500,000 is a slap in those people's faces and USM could risk losing future support from them.

Is one game really worth risking the support of some of the local business people? I don't think so. Not for an additional $500K. Or even a million.

 

[MSUFanVburg]

Hope Not!

Word around Hattiesburg is that the new AD is looking for a big pay day. With their outstanding debt to the University, the athletic department is taking steps just to insure they can survive in the long run. Their debt piled up under the old administration and the new is trying to counter that. Away games with big pay days will fix their problem. Sources tell me that Lucas and Hammond are discussing moving their home game against us to Jackson and maybe back to Starkville. That would be completely ok with me. CUSA and Sun Belt should always be home games for us.

The last game I attended in Jackson was the Saints versus Colts pre-season game. Whoever was in charge of traffic control and security at the stadium had absolutely no idea what they were doing. We got there an hour before the game and the first quarter was almost over by the time we got to our seats. There were people that did not get into the game until close to half time. Saw quite a few people just give up trying to get in and headed back to their cars. Swore i would not do that again.

 

[HD6]

Thank you for providing this fresh, new perspective. I honestly had not heard anything about the last attempt at non JSU football at the stadium in the past weeks.