I love playing at Trustmark. Which begs the question, should we play in Biloxi.....

[Goat Holder]

....when that stadium gets built? I think we definitely should. Coast loves baseball, and I think we need to keep as big of a presence down there as possible. How do we do it?

I like Trustmark for weekday games. Urban area, and get big crowds where those usually suffer in Starkville midweek, and it's only 2 hours away. I'd really like to play 3-4 games down there if possible (perhaps one in Birmingham at Regions Field too). But that's that. Now, how to integrate playing in Biloxi 4 hours away? Can't do it midweek, so it seems a weekend series is the best way to do it. But I think we'd all like to keep as many weekend series as possible in Starkville. But typically we play one road series every pre-SEC season, so that could work. But there again, we are now signed up to play in these new tournaments the next few years, one in Houston and one in LA. And they are important for exposure in those areas.

So we're basically down to the decision of whether or not to play 2 basically 'road' series per year, or just one. The question is, does playing that one series in Biloxi help more than Starkville? You essentially get 4 pre-SEC series. One is the opener, one is the road series tournament (Houston/LA/Arizona this year), one is the Classic we always have in Starkville. Is it feasible to play the other in Biloxi? Maybe a tournament with South Alabama and Tulane? Or maybe just a 3 game series with someone?

Looking back, I don't know that we've EVER played 2 road series pre-SEC. But I think playing down there would have some advantages. And it really wouldn't be a 'road' series, it'd be mostly our fans. I just really think a big presence on the Coast would go a long way.

I'm sure we'll just end up playing a midweek game down there, I mean teams travel farther than 4 hours all the time to play midweeks. Then we wouldn't have to sacrifice Starkville weekends and still play a road tournament. But if so, I'd at least like to see us play at least a 2 game set and make it an annual tradition.

[esplanade91]

Should be an OOC game or series to start the season, a time when we usually have a problem getting people to come to Starkville. Make it a 3 team tourny with regional teams like USA (good OOC opponent for RPI every single year), SELU (same), or one of the directional Floridas. North probably.

[BulldogBear]

I don't know about every year but when it first opens I'd say have a 3 day event where we bring in LSU, Tulane, and ULL to play a game each versus State, UMiss, and USM in a sort of coastal state challenge like they used to do in Superdome. Maybe do South Alabama, Auburn, and Alabama in another year. Three games each day. Do this in an OOC weekend early in season.

[Goat Holder]

Good point, it would be a good 'cold weather' place to play. But people really love to have weekend baseball in Starkville, not sure it'll ride. I could see playing a weekend series down there in years where we DON'T already have a road series/tournament scheduled though. But even still, I want to make it an annual thing to play down there.

I would really be alright with minimal midweek games in Starkville. Play one game sets in Pearl/Starkville, and play 2 game sets in Biloxi to make the travel worth it. We had 8 one game sets this year and 1 2 game set. Play half of those in Pearl.

[BeastMan]

They should absolutely plays a game or 2 on the coast

[Johnson85]

I don't think there's a question we play down there. Maybe doesn't get done for the first year, but I would hope you at least see a midweek game or more preferably a tournament, either:

An Early tournament type weekend with regional teams (doubt LSU would come, but USM, UM, MSU, USA, Louisiana directional should be easy to get, just set it up where the MS teams don't play each other or you don't bring all of them)

An Early tournament type weekend with cold weather teams. Should be a fairly easy sell. It's fairly easy to fly into gulfport directly or New Orleans or Mobile, and the casinos offer something.

Or

A hybrid with an even mix of regional and northern teams. I'm thinking 2 or 3 of UM, USM, MSU and two or three northern teams and have each Mississippi team play every northern team. Should guarantee fans for each game and also bring some tourism money in.

[curmudgeon]

I'd assume play on the Coast than a tournament in Starkville in February.

MSU, UM and USM

SE LA, Indiana State, and Bucknell (three teams that will be Top 100 teams)

Thursday: USM vs. SELA
Friday: UM vs. Indiana State, MSU vs. SELA and USM vs. Bucknell
Saturday: USM vs. Indiana State, UM vs. SELA, MSU vs. Bucknell
Sunday: UM vs. Bucknell, MSU vs. Indiana State

[Todd4State]

Yes, I think we should play some games on the Gulf Coast for sure.

Tim Bennett, the guy that is bringing the team to the coast, also helped get the M-Braves to Pearl and also got the Governor's Cup moved to Pearl and scheduled a lot of the games at Trustmark Park back in the day. I know he has talked to MSU, Ole Miss, and USM about playing games at MGM Park and I believe all three schools were receptive. I have heard rumors that the C-USA baseball tournament will be played in Biloxi as well which makes a lot of sense because USM is one of the best drawing teams in that league and Biloxi is a fairly centrally located destination for some of the teams in that league.

That said, it may be a year or two before we see some college games. Priority one for the Biloxi baseball people is getting the Brewers franchise settled in there of course, and that will take about a year. One thing that is very different between Jackson and Biloxi and college games is the fact that when Trustmark Park was open, there were still some contracts with some scheduled games at Smith-Wills Stadium and Bennett was basically competing with Con Maloney for college games- most notably to the Mayor's Trophy/Governor's Cup. So, Bennett got all three schools to schedule some OOC games at Trustmark Park to establish a relationship with the in state schools and that eventually led to the college baseball series at Trustmark Park that we see now. But Bennett has that relationship now that he didn't have before so that should help things along.

[Todd4State]

I'd assume play on the Coast than a tournament in Starkville in February.

MSU, UM and USM

SE LA, Indiana State, and Bucknell (three teams that will be Top 100 teams)

Thursday: USM vs. SELA
Friday: UM vs. Indiana State, MSU vs. SELA and USM vs. Bucknell
Saturday: USM vs. Indiana State, UM vs. SELA, MSU vs. Bucknell
Sunday: UM vs. Bucknell, MSU vs. Indiana State

I would prefer to keep some of those games in Starkville OOC. If we play in a tournament every year in Biloxi, it could keep us from playing in tournaments in Houston, Los Angeles, etc. The OOC home games gives our fans a chance to have a Saturday double header.

That said, if there was a college pre-season tournament in Biloxi that was REALLY prestigious, I would be more open to that. Go ahead and try to get some people like Miami, Southern Cal, and Texas to play in it.

Ideally I would like to see us play a game against LSU in Biloxi. Even though I don't think they will do it. Tulane and South Alabama would be my options 2A and 2B.

We have to be careful about our OOC scheduling and what we want because we only have four weeks. And if we play a tournament in Biloxi, a tournament in Houston, play Oregon- our weekends get eaten up pretty quick. And we have to consider our fans in Starkville and give them an opportunity to watch us play and we have to consider the fact that Cohen likes to experiment with lineups a lot early and be careful not to overschedule.

[State82]

Absolutely we should. But not more than 1-2 games. We don't need to give up weekends at DNF just to play there though. How about a midweek game or 2 during spring break? Maybe even a 2 day mini tournament with a couple other regional teams.

[HereComesTheSpiral]

I wouldnt mind memphis one year and the coast the next.

[Goat Holder]

After thinking about it more, I agree with you. I like the idea of playing a midweek series vs. South Alabama or Tulane down there. Keep the weekend games at Dudy Noble.

If I had my way, like I said before, we'd play most midweek games at either Memphis, Birmingham, Jackson or Biloxi (once it's finished). Mostly at Jackson though. 1 or 2 in Starkville. 4 in Jackson, 2 Biloxi, rotate one between Memphis and B'ham. That's a nice radius around Starkville and encompasses some big recruiting areas with a lot of MSU fans, in some nice ass stadiums. Just one more recruiting tool to throw out there.

[esplanade91]

There's no way C-USA holds their tourny in Biloxi. Confederate flag and all.

The rule is that they're can be post-season play in Mississippi so long as it isn't a fixed thing (regionals, NIT, blah blah blah). When it comes to an organized event that is determined before the season, no.

[MsStateBaseball]

Yes for sure. Recruiting recruiting recruiting

[State82]

There's no way C-USA holds their tourny in Biloxi. Confederate flag and all.

The rule is that they're can be post-season play in Mississippi so long as it isn't a fixed thing (regionals, NIT, blah blah blah). When it comes to an organized event that is determined before the season, no.

The CUSA tourney was held at Trustmark Park in 2011 & 2012.

[32 Dive]

There's no way C-USA holds their tourny in Biloxi. Confederate flag and all.

I know someone has reminded you of your error, about being held in Mississippi.

As far as Biloxi hosting, there is what I reason, as a good possibility of occurrence.

That was up there in pre-constructional priority, just under the actual movement of a minor league club to Biloxi. That's how important this type of event was to the "powers that be", if you will.

I'm not going to say that it is a definite. But I was informed well into last calendar year about the desire to make it happen. Since responsible rumormongering is encouraged, and all of that... :-)

[HailState39110]

I remember Cellular South used to host a college basketball doubleheader at the Gulf Coast Coliseum there for a few years . I went one year and it was a double header- Ole Miss vs USM then MSU vs Tulane . This was probably mid 90s and remember Daryl Wilson was a freshman and Brian Price was on the quad .
I could see them doing something similar for baseball. Say USM vs S Alabama then MSU vs La Layfaette . He'll I'd buy a ticket