Hattiesburg is hosting the high school football state championships for a fourth time in the last six years this weekend.
The games are projected to bring in $8.4 million to the local economy. The recent event is one of many that has played a role in Hattiesburg’s local economy as it continues to see tremendous growth, with visitor spending growing from $381 million in 2020 to $582 million in 2023.
The expedient growth has largely been credited to the town’s proactiveness in developing sports tourism starting in 2019.
“That was a significant focus of ours in 2019 when we unveiled our strategic growth plan to grow Hattiesburg’s visitor economy,” said Marlo Dorsey, CEO of Visit Hattiesburg. “A significant component of that was working alongside with the city to have better recreational facilities, going after more bids, hosting more tournaments.
“To grow by $200 million more dollars in three years is exceptional. At some point, that growth will have to slow down, but events like this through sports tourism and aggressive marketing campaigns make people look at our destination as a great place to visit as well as for events to be hosted.”
HOW THE FIGURES ARE PROJECTED
For the high school football state championships, known as the Mississippi Gridiron Classic, it’s projected that the city will have 18,000 unique visitors; from that figure, 55% are day traveler attendees, and 25% are local attendees.
“On the low side, we are saying 18,000 spectators,” Dorsey said. “That’s unique people, not repeats, so some people may come to watch all the games, and 18,000 is on the low side because last time, we had more than 20,000.”
“We are being very conservative, saying that there will be about 2,500 to 3,000 unique people per game. Some people may stay for more than one game or stay for two games then leave.”
In 2022, the last time Hattiesburg hosted the Gridiron Classic, the city had over 20,000 unique visitors. It’s also worth noting that the Classic held just six games in the past. In 2023, the MHSAA created an extra classification, which brings the total to seven state championship games.
This year’s Gridiron Classic is expected to make $7,925,365 in visitor spending, $554,755 will be generated from the sales tax, and $9,540 will be generated by the lodging tax.
Even with Hattiesburg High playing play for a state championship in its hometown, Dorsey believes that rather than take away from potential profits, it generates as much if not more money than the other games.
“What that does is that there is an additional layer with alumni coming into town to support their school and alma mater so they can feel like they are engaged with that,” Dorsey said. “I think when you realize that the championships are being hosted at The Rock in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and Hattiesburg High is playing Saturday evening for that event, I think what that does is that it gives an additional draw of people from Hattiesburg.
“If anything, I would say it may be a wash, but also from a lot of things that we are hearing from pep rallies and other things going on from Hattiesburg High, it might actually be more.”
PAYING OFF
Hattiesburg hosting the high football state championships is part of a collaborative effort by Visit Hattiesburg, the city, and universities to help grow the local tourism economy through athletic events. For further context, this past college baseball season, it was projected that Southern Miss baseball added an additional $10 million while the Hattiesburg Futbol Classic raised $4.7 million.
In 2019, which was the first time that the city hosted the football championship games, Visit Hattiesburg made a point to grow its sports tourism.
“Prior to 2019, we didn’t have a significant recruiting tool to where someone’s specific job was to grow baseball tournaments or soccer tournaments or land other sport-related events,” Dorsey said. “Now it is. In 2019, we made the decision to do that.”
In 2019, total visitor spending was at $433 million, while recreation accounted for $94 million. However, in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic had those figures drop to $381 million, with recreation at $84 million. Yet, as of 2023, the recreation has exceeded the initial 2019 numbers as the recreation has grown to $127 million.
Since 2019, Hattiesburg has routinely been a host city for NCAA baseball tournaments, NAIA baseball tournaments, numerous soccer and Dixie Youth Baseball tournaments, and the high school softball state championships, along with the Mississippi Gridiron Classic. Recreation also includes races, marathons, and any additional outdoor recreation.
“The results are speaking for themselves,” Dorsey said. “Many other communities had done that well before we did, and we figured, why not us? Why not now?”
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