Perception of Starkville

[BeardoMSU]

College students, housewives, people who want higher quality products, people who want fresh produce, people who want cleaner food


I mean it's pretty common to shop at those places in Dallas where I am. Starkville could really use a Trader Joes or even a Whole Foods.

Yeah, having choices with your grocery stores is awesome. I do most of my shopping at Wegmans, but I also have a Traders and Whole Foods to buy random stuff from. I can't imagine going back to the alternative. I was still living in Starkville when the new Kroger opened and I was soooo excited, lol.

[StarkVegasSteve]

Yeah, having choices with your grocery stores is awesome. I do most of my shopping at Wegmans, but I also have a Traders and Whole Foods to buy random stuff from. I can't imagine going back to the alternative. I was still living in Starkville when the new Kroger opened and I was soooo excited, lol.

That Kroger, while it was probably not a bad location when first built., is poorly placed now. It's a pain in the ass to have to battle traffic all down 12 and back just to get quality produce and meat.

[BeardoMSU]

That Kroger, while it was probably not a bad location when first built., is poorly placed now. It's a pain in the ass to have to battle traffic all down 12 and back just to get quality produce and meat.

I believe it. Visiting Starkville last Christmas was my first time seeing the new HW12, and holy cow...what were they thinking.

[StarkVegasSteve]

I believe it. Visiting Starkville last Christmas was my first time seeing the new HW12, and holy cow...what were they thinking.

It made no sense when they did it and makes less sense now. They claim it was too help with traffic and accidents. And while it might do that for the accidents they were trying to prevent, it caused 1000x more problems and even worse traffic.

[CaptainObvious]

How does all of this affect the type of athlete State recruits? Most of the football and basketball players and their families in our recruiting footprint have likely never seen the inside of a Whole Foods or Trader Joe's or a Ruth's-Chris or Fleming's for that matter.

Most if you talk about Bars in the district and tiny horrible restaurants like 2- Brothers like they are some prime cooking establishments . I rate 2-Brothers on the same level as Dave's Darkhorse and Waffle House. No wait. Waffle House has better food and a better quality of clientele than 2-Brothers.

Everybody hates chains in here for some reason, but I'd darn sure like to see reasonably priced steakhouse chains like Texas Roadhouse, Longhorn, Saltgrass, or even Outback in Starkville. As for shopping, look what that small shopping center with Marshall's and Aldi's did. Parking lot is always full. Build something like Dogwood Festival off Hwy 12 @ Hwy 80 north of campus with chain stores and watch how it gets built up all around. You already have a built in tax base with it being a college town. Add a 1.5% sales tax to use to build up a fund for commercial development to give investors incentives and tax breaks to come develop! How do you think Ridgeland, which was being left in the dust by Flowood and Madison, was able to get so much development in a short period of time? That land where The Renaissance is was some of the highest price land in Mississippi! Yet they found a way to bring developers in and now that I 55 corridor links Ridgeland, Madison, Gluckstadt and Canton. Brandon 047 didn't want to be just a rural bedroom community, but along Lakeland Drive was some of the most expensive land in Rankin County. There was a time when there were 3 shopping centers out there. Walmart, Kroger and Cowboy Maloney! And nothing but trees and open fields on the north side of Lakeland! It has blown up with all types of business and fast food restaurants to grow their business tax base.

MSU HAS to be the focal point of Starkville and the city needs to build AROUND it, not just on one side of it!

[StarkVegasSteve]

How does all of this affect the type of athlete State recruits? Most of the football and basketball players and their families in our recruiting footprint have likely never seen the inside of a Whole Foods or Trader Joe's or a Ruth's-Chris or Fleming's for that matter.

Most if you talk about Bars in the district and tiny horrible restaurants like 2- Brothers like they are some prime cooking establishments . I rate 2-Brothers on the same level as Dave's Darkhorse and Waffle House. No wait. Waffle House has better food and a better quality of clientele than 2-Brothers.

Everybody hates chains in here for some reason, but I'd darn sure like to see reasonably priced steakhouse chains like Texas Roadhouse, Longhorn, Saltgrass, or even Outback in Starkville. As for shopping, look what that small shopping center with Marshall's and Aldi's did. Parking lot is always full. Build something like Dogwood Festival off Hwy 12 @ Hwy 80 north of campus with chain stores and watch how it gets built up all around. You already have a built in tax base with it being a college town. Add a 1.5% sales tax to use to build up a fund for commercial development to give investors incentives and tax breaks to come develop! How do you think Ridgeland, which was being left in the dust by Flowood and Madison, was able to get so much development in a short period of time? That land where The Renaissance is was some of the highest price land in Mississippi! Yet they found a way to bring developers in and now that I 55 corridor links Ridgeland, Madison, Gluckstadt and Canton. Brandon 047 didn't want to be just a rural bedroom community, but along Lakeland Drive was some of the most expensive land in Rankin County. There was a time when there were 3 shopping centers out there. Walmart, Kroger and Cowboy Maloney! And nothing but trees and open fields on the north side of Lakeland! It has blown up with all types of business and fast food restaurants to grow their business tax base.

MSU HAS to be the focal point of Starkville and the city needs to build AROUND it, not just on one side of it!

And for the longest time that was the problem. Starkville thought opposite of that.

On your other points, I'd love to see a chain style steakhouse in Starkville. I think an Outback or Longhorn would do very well in Starkville. Although I thought the same about Chilis and that closed.

A shopping center would kill it in Starkville. You have a great base of college kids to be able to market it to. Where to put it would be the issue.

And last point, I am not specifically talking about athletes. We need to be expanding our recruiting footprint in both academics and athletics and not narrowing that footprint.

[Lord McBuckethead]

Hardy should do a music festival in DW once a year. He could bring in a BUNCH of known musical acts. Not just country but some rock too.

Problem with Davis Wade is it absolutely wrecks our field, but I am okay with that. Not like our baseball players need a perfect field. Visiting teams find it easy to perform.

[Lord McBuckethead]

Both of those locations Fullwood and Madison had the greater Jackson population to support it. Not to mention, no one wants to live "In Jackson".
Again, location, population, and terrible small minded leadership for the 1970-2000 time frame.

[Lord McBuckethead]

Yeah, no offense but students from Mississippi don't have the bank roll. Look at what Ole Miss brings in.... $$$ from out of state.

[StarkVegasSteve]

Yeah, no offense but students from Mississippi don't have the bank roll. Look at what Ole Miss brings in.... $$$ from out of state.

Which was my whole point at the start. We need to start embracing OOS like they do. Maybe not to that extent, but a hell of a lot more than we are now.

[Rawdawg]

Hardy should do a music festival in DW once a year. He could bring in a BUNCH of known musical acts. Not just country but some rock too.

I know for a fact we will never do a concert at Dudy Noble like the Hardy concert ever again. As someone who was working with them on it, it was an absolute cluster17 and they lost money on it. What should happen moving forward is using the Hump during the offseasons for concerts and that?s in the works.

[Pancho]

what happened with the hardy concert?

[Rawdawg]

what happened with the hardy concert?

Ticket sales, concession sales and merchandise sales missed their projections by quite a bit. We had to file a large insurance claim to fix the damage to the venue, and by delaying the concert a day everyone had to be housed, staffed etc for an additional day which further cut into margins. Not to mention the logistics of everything that went into it before hand did not go like the people who are all smarter than those that are smarter than us told them it would be.

[Maroonthirteen]

These threads are always interesting to read. My .02

As someone that has lived in the GTR and Desoto/Memphis...had kids at State and OM ... Oxford has an advantage over Starkville because of their proximity to Desoto/Memphis. Many people visit Oxford because it is an easy one hour drive to and from Memphis. Starkville is closer to NW Rankin and Madison. However what can be done to lure people to Starkville from those areas??? Unfortunately some people in the GTR see Tuscaloosa as the place to go to shop and eat etc.

Columbus use to be the main commerce city of the GTR. However that has changed. All Starkville has to do is invest and built it and more locals will come to Starkville instead of Columbus or Tuscaloosa. I like what another poster said. Continue to develop area off 12, north of town, between 182 and 82. The idea of an outdoor mall (like tanger) is good. 82 is the main thoroughfare for visitors to enter Starkville and the town needs a front door, so to speak.

Other random, Starkville downtown is fine to me. You have Rosey Baby that is a local favorite. The Grill and Georgia Blue are nice hangouts. Restaurant Tyler is incredible. Hobies is fun to have a drink on the balcony. State fans need to just go back more often, patronize the establishments there now and add to the local economy. Football and baseball suck? Football weekends too expensive? Well go on non sports weekends and just enjoy the campus and visiting the awesome restaurants Starkville has to offer.

[cheewgumm]

I?m sure Starkville trying to do this but I would focus on bringing industry and jobs to Starkville.

Don?t worry about building bars or shopping centers - those will bike themselves if there are jobs that pay decently.

You can?t get a Nissan plant , I get that, but the one focus should industry and jobs.

That will grow the population and bring more $ to Starkville.

Starkville a goal ahold be population growth and Job growth.