A big weekend is brewing in the Golden Triangle.
On Monday, the NCAA announced that Mississippi State University will host two rounds of the NCAA Women’s Basketball championship. Three teams — Belmont University, Michigan State University and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga — will travel to Starkville for the tournament.
Of course, fans will come, too. Last year’s women’s tournament averaged 5,708 fans for the first rounds, according to the NCAA.
The tournament is the latest addition to an already busy Starkville weekend that tourism leaders expect to impact the Golden Triangle.
MSU will hosts the National Collegiate Landscape Competition today through Saturday. The university is also hosting the MS USA Gymnastics State Championship Friday through Sunday.
Greater Starkville Development Partnership CEO Jennifer Gregory said the landscape competition will bring more than 1,000 people to Starkville. She said 700 competitors are coming for the gymnastics championship.
“Typically, spring break in a college town is a slow weekend,” Gregory said. “This has the potential to be one of our biggest weekends of the spring.”
Gregory said Starkville’s 1,100 hotel rooms were already booked prior to the news of the NCAA tournament coming to town. Now, she said the event is growing to a regional one.
Nancy Carpenter, executive director of Columbus-Lowndes Convention and Visitors Bureau, said hotel rooms in Columbus were already being picked up as of Tuesday afternoon. The three traveling teams will stay in Columbus.
Carpenter said the teams are collectively using more than 400 rooms, not counting any fans who travel for the weekend.
Hotels alone should translate to thousands of extra dollars for the city, Carpenter said. Shopping and dining should generate even more money.
In Starkville, Gregory said plans are already underway to spruce up the town and welcome visitors. She said the Partnership will put out welcome banners and is working with businesses for a special Bulldog Brunch and Browse for Sunday.
Bulldog Brunch and Browse is a special Partnership-led shopping and dining event in the fall for Sundays after MSU home football games. Gregory said the Partnership is asking retailers to extend hours from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Sunday and that will compile a list of restaurants serving brunch.
The Partnership hasn’t estimated how many people will come for the weekend, she added, but the organization expects “thousands and thousands” of visitors.
Humphrey Coliseum on MSU’s campus holds 10,500 people. Mississippi State averaged more than 5,000 people at home for the women’s basketball season — with a program and state-record 10,626 crowd in January against South Carolina.
Gregory said the weekend should be a big weekend for visitors, including those who are coming to Starkville for the first time, and fans who already live in town.
“This is such a wonderful opportunity to showcase our community to new visitors,” Gregory said. “It’s vitally important that we put our best foot forward. There are a lot of moving parts, but we think that these efforts will yield a positive experience for these visitors and definitely an excellent economic impact for our businesses and local economy.”
The first round of the NCAA tournament begins on Friday. The second round will follow on Sunday.
MSU tips off against UT-Chattanooga at 1:30 p.m. Friday.
Alex Holloway was formerly a reporter with The Dispatch.
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