Hattiesburg Super Regional to create positive economic impact

HATTIESBURG, Miss. (WDAM) - Baseburg is back!!! The Southern Miss baseball team will host a Super Regional for the second year in a row this weekend.

Tennessee fans will travel to Hattiesburg later this week, bringing in both traffic and money for the Hub City.

The Super Regional Tournament is expected to generate millions of dollars in revenue.

“And by running the numbers really quickly from the economic impact, we’re anywhere between $3.5 and $5 million in direct economic impact just from this tournament coming here in Hattiesburg, and that doesn’t even take into account the games that are going to be shown on ESPN, which, of course, is millions in earned media as well,” said Executive Director of Visit Hattiesburg Marlo Dorsey.

Starting Friday, hotels and restaurants will start filling up. Fat Boy’s Pizza Assistant General Manager Justin Logan said they are excited to see what the weekend will bring.

“So, we’re super excited about it,” said Logan. “There’s been a really big turnout with a lot of the events at Southern, so we’re really excited about it. We’re hoping that we can bring some people together too because we are going to be featuring the games on all our TVs. So come out and watch it with us if you don’t feel like being out in the heat out there.”

Hattiesburg Mayor Toby Barker is encouraging the community to support the Golden Eagles in any way they can.

“Wear black and gold every day from Friday to Monday to really showcase what this community is about,” said Barker. “This weekend, we’re going to host a lot of people. We want everyone to welcome them with that Hattiesburg hospitality and we also want to be unapologetic in how much we love our university, no matter what school you went to Southern Miss is your school this weekend and we want everyone to show that.”

Tickets are on sale now, and they are expected to go fast.

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