By Alyssa Schnugg
News editor
With a busy weekend coming up, Oxford may see record-breaking numbers of visitors as the Ole Miss Rebels take on Texas A&M, ESPN College GameDay coming to town and other events slated over the next few days.
While home football games often mean heavy traffic and crowded grocery stores, officials are hoping this weekend is an economic boom for local businesses.
“We are gearing up for some record-breaking economic impact this weekend,” said Kinney Ferris, executive director of Visit Oxford.
Ferris said most area hotels are full, particularly for Friday night.
“Most are sold out Friday night, but we do still have some rooms for Saturday,” she said on Tuesday; however, rooms are filling up quickly.
Events have been happening all week, with a large banking conference in town, and basketball, volleyball and women’s basketball.
In preparation for the incoming surge of visitors, the city of Oxford turned on most of the Christmas lights around the downtown Square Wednesday night, with football coach Lane Kiffin plugging in the electrical cord that lit up the Square.
The events continue Friday as Ole Miss Women’s Soccer host a first-round NCAA Championship game against St. Louis University at 7 p.m. The Ole Miss baseball Pizza Bowl will kick off at 6 p.m. as will Men’s Basketball against Charleston Southern and Volleyball against LSU.
But there are plenty of activities beyond the sporting events happening in Oxford.
Also on Friday, there will be live music in various locations are Oxford. Tunes Around Town will include Daniel Roebuck in the atrium by the Growler; Acme Band at the North Lamar Pocket Park and Wendy Jean Garrison performing at Spring Street Cigars.
And then comes Saturday and the Ole Miss vs. Texas A&M game, kicking off at 6 p.m.
ESPN College GameDay is already setting up in the Grove.
“Having ESPN College GameDay in town is paramount,” Ferris said. “We are thrilled to have the opportunity to have Oxford in the National spotlight with coverage on ESPN, especially after winning ESPN’s Best College Town earlier this year.”
Jon Maynard, president and CEO of the Oxford-Lafayette County Chamber of Commerce and EDF said College GameDay’s visit brings a new level of awareness and excitement to what is already a supercharged event in Oxford.
“This year has seen record numbers in sales tax collections and we haven’t even begun to track the fall football months,” Maynard said. “We believe that the economic impact of the record freshman enrollment at Ole Miss coupled with the excitement of post-COVID-19 football is going to bring people to Oxford in record numbers.”
Having ESPN in town brings Oxford into the national spotlight, Maynard said.
“We want to capitalize on this awareness as best we can,” he said. “The local business community is working overtime to make sure that the experience that our visitors have in Oxford is as good, or better than their expectations.”
Along with College GameDay, other special events include a free concert with Lauren Alaina in front of the Vaught-Hemmingway Stadium and the Amazon Prime Tailgate Tour pop-up tailgate.
