{"id":146688,"date":"2025-01-28T10:30:05","date_gmt":"2025-01-28T16:30:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=146688"},"modified":"2025-01-28T18:04:01","modified_gmt":"2025-01-29T00:04:01","slug":"historic-ole-miss-football-crowds-generate-325m-economic-impact","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/historic-ole-miss-football-crowds-generate-325m-economic-impact\/","title":{"rendered":"Historic Ole Miss Football Crowds Generate $325M Economic Impact"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

All 2024 home games rank in top 10 crowds at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Home football games at the University of Mississippi <\/strong>generated more than $325 million in economic impact during the 2024-25 season, according to new data from Visit Oxford<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fans shattered several Vaught-Hemingway Stadium<\/strong> attendance records during the seven home games, driving a substantial boost to area businesses, hotels and restaurants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Ole Miss<\/a> is incredibly fortunate to have the most dedicated fans in college football and to be situated in the best college town in the nation,” Chancellor Glenn Boyce<\/strong> said. “Combining these elements with the university’s culture of hospitality is a recipe for tremendous success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We are so pleased that the economic impact of Ole Miss football<\/a> enhances the community’s prosperity and benefits so many people in Oxford and Lafayette County, both indirectly and directly.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Visitor spending in Oxford during the seven 2024 home games totaled $325,283,234.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fans broke the single-game attendance record four times this season, combining for 471,601 visitors in the fall of 2024, the largest on record.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On November 9, 2024, a record 68,126 fans watched the Rebels defeat the University of Georgia<\/strong> Bulldogs<\/strong>. That weekend, visitors spent more than $71.6 million across the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We are blessed to reside in one of best towns in the country, and it’s exciting to see how our athletics success enriches the economic growth and quality of life in our community,” said Keith Carter<\/strong>, Ole Miss vice chancellor of intercollegiate athletics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We appreciate the collaboration with our campus and city partners in making game days the bucket list experience they have become. We look forward to our continued partnership with community leadership to ensure sustained success.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is a closer look at visitor spending during all seven home game weekends:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1.     University of Georgia \u2013 $71,695,869
2.     Georgia Southern University \u2013 $62,728,064
3.     University of Kentucky \u2013 $47,199,489
4.     Oklahoma University \u2013 $47,161,996
5.     Mississippi State University – $38,043,928
6.     Furman University \u2013 $29,594,698
7.     Middle Tennessee State University \u2013 $28,859,199.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“From packed hotels and restaurants to thriving local shops, each game weekend fuels our economy, strengthens small businesses, and showcases the unmatched spirit of our community,” said Kinney Ferris<\/strong>, executive director at\u00a0Visit Oxford<\/a>. “This milestone underscores how vital Ole Miss football is to Oxford’s vibrancy and growth.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The city’s food and beverage tax revenue for November 2024 spiked 18.37% compared to the same time in 2023, according to tax diversion reports released this month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Comparing November 2024 to November 2023, Oxford<\/strong>‘s sales tax total spiked 7.97% and the hotel\/motel tax total also jumped 6.75%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The university serves as front porch for the city and county, said Ryan Miller<\/strong>, CEO of the Oxford Lafayette Economic Development Foundation<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“When people come to visit, they may have businesses that they say, ‘Hey, my business would be great here. My business might thrive here. I love the quality of life. I love the cohesion between the town the county and the university and I want to be a part of that,'” Miller said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The events hosted by the university \u2013 whether football games, basketball games, baseball games, concerts or speakers \u2013 drive interest, energy and buzz.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The success of the university’s athletics programs is a win for the entire community, Oxford Mayor Robyn Tannehill<\/strong> said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“When Ole Miss wins, Oxford wins,” Tannehill said. “Oxford swells from 28,000 full-time residents to more than 200,000 on home football game weekends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The visitors who come to Oxford and spend money in our community help us pay for the infrastructure needed to successfully host these large crowds. It has been a great year, and we look forward to many more successful seasons.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Marvis Herring<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Editors Note: Article was updated at 5:43 pm on Tuesday, January 28, 2025, with information from Keith Carter, vice chancellor for intercollegiate athletics.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Thousands of Ole Miss fans fill Vaught-Hemingway Stadium for a Homecoming game against University of Kentucky. Photo by Srijita Chattopadhyay\/Ole Miss Digital Imaging Services<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Thousands of Ole Miss fans fill Vaught-Hemingway Stadium on Oct. 26, 2024 as the Rebels defeated the University of Oklahoma 26-14. Visitors fuel millions of dollars in economic activity for the Oxford and Lafayette County community each fall. Photo by Srijita Chattopadhyay\/Ole Miss Digital Imaging Services<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
The Ole Miss Rebels shattered attendance records during the 2024-25 season, driving an economic boost for the greater Oxford community. Graphic by John McCustion\/University Marketing and Communications<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Home football games at the University of Mississippi generated more than $325 million in economic spending during the 2024-25 season, according to data from Visit Oxford. Here is a look at visitor spending during each of the seven home game weekends. Graphic by John McCustion\/University Marketing and Communications<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

All 2024 home games rank in top 10 crowds at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium Home football games at the University<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":123462,"featured_media":146690,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17687],"tags":[31153,2882,17646,5,7067,4,31154,1448,16294,17629,655,4033,6424],"class_list":["post-146688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-university-of-mississippi","tag-glenn-boyce-2","tag-keith-carter","tag-kinney-ferris","tag-mississippi","tag-ole-miss","tag-oxford","tag-oxford-lafayette-economic-development-foundation-2","tag-robyn-tannehill","tag-ryan-miller","tag-university-of-georgia","tag-university-of-mississippi","tag-vaught-hemingway-stadium","tag-visit-oxford"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/home-games-2024-graphic-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1622&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/123462"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146688"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146688\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":146701,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146688\/revisions\/146701"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}