Perception of Starkville

[R2Dawg]

BINGO. And we don't have a large out of state alumni presence that is able to spread that message. Unfortunately, a lot of the out of state people leave on graduation day and never come back. This is one thing Ole Miss does extremely well and we don't. They make it a huge deal for their young alumni to come back in the fall and the spring and it makes them start coming back early and so they continue to come back and when they start making money they buy a condo in Oxford.

What I see all the time is locals dissing MSU and Starkville not the out of state folks. A lot of them come to MSU out of state because they like the Starkville small college town scene.

[Rawdawg]

A big part of Starkville’s problem is we don’t have a downtown. We need downtown to thrive not to be closed up at 5:00. Downtown needs to be popular and successful and it’s just dead as a hammer.

[StarkVegasSteve]

A big part of Starkville’s problem is we don’t have a downtown. We need downtown to thrive not to be closed up at 5:00. Downtown needs to be popular and successful and it’s just dead as a hammer.

Yea that is one of the problems with the district and downtown being so far away from each other. There is no natural flow from one to the other.

[Cowbell]

I have probably spent considerable time in as many comparable college towns in the south as anyone on this board. Give me Starkville over most of them. I get that it isn't for everyone, but no town is. The same people always complain about it on this board and don't look at it the same way I do. People who like Fort Worth or Atlanta, won't like college station, Starkville, or Baton Rouge. They are all different. Starkville doesn't need a bunch of changes. Starkville just needs to keep improving like it has done since I left school. It is so nice to go to a college town without all the traffic jams and busy intersections. Starkville is a great college town. I have so many Texas and Oklahoma friends that have been so impressed by it while at sporting events or college visits. It is not looked down upon as much as some on here think.

[Ranchdawg]

I have family in Ft Worth. Husband and wife and 3 grown kids. Husband/wife both MSU graduates. They have been in Ft.Worth since the left MSU. One of their kids having been coming to Starkville for several years for baseball games. He sez that Starkville is really small but loves the people, loves no traffic, loves rural openness and feels safe.

[DawgFromOxford]

Another helpful piece is winning big in football and basketball which we haven?t done since 2014 (college game day). That?s free advertising when you?re playing deep into the tournament or in the playoff race. The school is on display. Commentators talk up the school and the town all while people all over the nation watch.

I guarantee you out of state enrollment numbers go up if we were to ever make the CFP

[StarkVegasSteve]

Another helpful piece is winning big in football and basketball which we haven?t done since 2014 (college game day). That?s free advertising when you?re playing deep into the tournament or in the playoff race. The school is on display. Commentators talk up the school and the town all while people all over the nation watch.

I guarantee you out of state enrollment numbers go up if we were to ever make the CFP

That's definitely one big piece to it. But another big piece is having more than one bar that 100 people can fit in and not feel cramped. We finally have one with The Landing. You have to have a place for students to go and not feel cramped like every other bar in The District. It's actually amazing how small The Landing makes Two Brothers look. I also thought they rushed the build on their building and after seeing The Landing, I know that is correct.

[Tater]

Needs a Cowbells sized bar on University.
Also needs a barcade.
And allow nightlife to go to 3. Cowbells showed there was a market for it.
Major Hotel on University (Col. Muldrow would be fine if they make it two way street lol)
Little Dooey's Expanding their out-back to be a full fledged every night bar and nightlife area with entry from University.

These updates would make Starkville Nightlife go from good to great.

The open container zones already vastly improved it. Moving to 1 on weekends was a good change. It's trending the right direction.

[Duckdog]

I teach in La. Over the years Ive had old students tell me how much they enjoy going to starkville of baton rouge. WE ALL KNOW BR IS A SH!THOLE! I grew up in BR and its a ghetto compared to years ago.

[DawgFromOxford]

That's definitely one big piece to it. But another big piece is having more than one bar that 100 people can fit in and not feel cramped. We finally have one with The Landing. You have to have a place for students to go and not feel cramped like every other bar in The District. It's actually amazing how small The Landing makes Two Brothers look. I also thought they rushed the build on their building and after seeing The Landing, I know that is correct.

100% agree. There no single magic solution. Multiple puzzle pieces need to come together

[StarkVegasSteve]

Needs a Cowbells sized bar on University.
Also needs a barcade.
And allow nightlife to go to 3. Cowbells showed there was a market for it.
Major Hotel on University (Col. Muldrow would be fine if they make it two way street lol)
Little Dooey's Expanding their out-back to be a full fledged every night bar and nightlife area with entry from University.

These updates would make Starkville Nightlife go from good to great.

The open container zones already vastly improved it. Moving to 1 on weekends was a good change. It's trending the right direction.

1. A Cowbells sized bar in The District? Yes. A bar like Cowbells in The District? No.

2. A barcade could work, but I don't think it would work in The District. I think downtown or in between downtown and The District would be a great place.

3. I don't have a problem closing bars at 1. Oxford's bars close at 1 on Fridays and 12 on Saturdays and do completely fine.

4. Agree completely. I wish the The Graduate would've bought that land instead of the University. It's going to be really hard to make Muldrow two way now because of The Landing. Had the widened the road prior to putting it in, you probably could've done it. You might could widen it on the other side though.

5. Little Dooey's is throwing away money not having that back area open all year. They'd double their revenue with that because that could be a good nightlife place for people in their 40s and 50s to go and not have to fight the crowd in The District.

[Coach34]

I have so many Texas and Oklahoma friends that have been so impressed by it while at sporting events or college visits. It is not looked down upon as much as some on here think.

Starkville is great for a game weekend. But it's awful on Tuesday or Wednesday or basically any other day that there is not a game

[StarkVegasSteve]

Starkville is great for a game weekend. But it's awful on Tuesday or Wednesday or basically any other day that there is not a game

I wouldn't say it's awful, but it's definitely pretty dead. A lot of people that say Starkville is incredible have never been there on a random Tuesday night in the middle of November or a Wednesday night in June. Now, the thing is that you can say that about Oxford as well to an extent. The two differences are that their downtown is focused in one central area and ours is spread out and PERCEPTION.

[Tbonewannabe]

To change the perception you need to work the media. Start pumping advertising dollars towards groups like Barstool to promote media that makes Starkville look like an awesome place to go to college. Pay someone like Sabrina Carpenter to come to a baseball game and post about it on her social media accounts

Hands down our media are stuck in the late 90s early 2000s. We are very slow on marketing. We also have this aw shucks mindset of not bragging because Ole Miss does it soooooooo much.

Sorry to tell you but Ole Miss doing that is why when I tell people that I am from Mississippi State, that almost always ask Ole Miss. I have to tell them that is the other school. Happened when I lived around Atlanta and now in Orlando.

[StarkVegasSteve]

Hands down our media are stuck in the late 90s early 2000s. We are very slow on marketing. We also have this aw shucks mindset of not bragging because Ole Miss does it soooooooo much.

Sorry to tell you but Ole Miss doing that is why when I tell people that I am from Mississippi State, that almost always ask Ole Miss. I have to tell them that is the other school. Happened when I lived around Atlanta and now in Orlando.

They get it. It's that simple. They know how to constantly keep their name in the news even when they're not winning. They've stayed relevant even in the down times of their sports. Why? Because they marketed something else to get people to campus. It's kind of like the LFL, we all know that it's just The Baseball Grove out there. Hell, steer into it. Make it something people that don't give a rip about baseball want to come see. It's another way to get people to Starkville. I don't give a rip if people don't pay attention to the game out there, but don't act like we're this locked in fanbase AND THEN do all the stuff they do. Market it for what it is, a hell of a time.

[gtowndawg]

I don't know if you consider Memphis out of State but the amount of kids that we personally know at State (from about 4 different high schools) is staggering. We know at least 25 families that have kids at State and other than maybe 4 of those families, none of them have any connection to State at all.

[StarkVegasSteve]

I don't know if you consider Memphis out of State but the amount of kids that we personally know at State (from about 4 different high schools) is staggering. We know at least 25 families that have kids at State and other than maybe 4 of those families, none of them have any connection to State at all.

Technically speaking yes, but I think OOS tuition is waived for them if their GPA or ACT is high enough. I've often thought we need to do the same for Georgia and Texas. I believe OM waives OOS for them if the GPA or ACT is high enough. Arkansas now waives OOS for any students from Texas that have a high enough GPA or ACT. They've really started siphoning off some of those kids that would've gone to Ole Miss, OU, or LSU recently.

[gtowndawg]

Hands down our media are stuck in the late 90s early 2000s. We are very slow on marketing. We also have this aw shucks mindset of not bragging because Ole Miss does it soooooooo much.

Sorry to tell you but Ole Miss doing that is why when I tell people that I am from Mississippi State, that almost always ask Ole Miss. I have to tell them that is the other school. Happened when I lived around Atlanta and now in Orlando.

I had a client from Indiana text me Friday night when Ole Miss was playing. He thought he was being nice congratulating me on how well Ole Miss was playing. It really does get old.

FYI: that's why I'm all in on brading ourselves as "State" on everything. It's the only chance we have to seperate ourselves as a brand from Ole Miss (because what we have done has obviously not worked).

[gtowndawg]

Technically speaking yes, but I think OOS tuition is waived for them if their GPA or ACT is high enough. I've often thought we need to do the same for Georgia and Texas. I believe OM waives OOS for them if the GPA or ACT is high enough. Arkansas now waives OOS for any students from Texas that have a high enough GPA or ACT. They've really started siphoning off some of those kids that would've gone to Ole Miss, OU, or LSU recently.

100% true, my daugher is a freshman. A 26 or at least a 3.6 GPA get's 90% of the out of state tuition waived.

[Coach34]

The two differences are that their downtown is focused in one central area and ours is spread out

This all day. Totally agree