The city of Oxford is going to be buzzing more than usual when Ole Miss and LSU play in football on Sept. 19.
From country superstar Ella Langley opening things up with a Thursday night concert at the SJB Pavilion to ESPN’s College GameDay previewing the rivalry – and on a much larger scale, to Lane Kiffin’s return – the small north Mississippi town will be the at the center of the national spotlight. And costs for tickets and lodging tell you that the hype is real.
“September 19 will be very crowded,” Visit Oxford Executive Director Kinney Ferris told SuperTalk Mississippi News. “I don’t know that I’ve ever known the date of a specific game beforehand like I do this one.”
For starters, both the concert and football game are officially sold out, per the Ole Miss Athletics Department. This means fans will have to rely on scalpers and third-party sites to get in the door. Good luck with that.
As things stand, the cheapest ticket to Langley’s concert is $262 with the most expensive being $1,186, per Ticketmaster. On the game front, it costs $600 at minimum to get into Vaught-Hemingway Stadium that day. No other home game, at this point, has entry prices that high, though it is worth noting that if Ole Miss emerges as a viable College Football Playoff contender as the year goes on, admission will come with a steep cost for non-season ticket holders.
Home rentals drive an even higher rate for the LSU game weekend. According to Airbnb’s website, a rental for four people from Sept. 18-20 in Oxford yields a high price, ranging from nearly $1,500 up to more than $4,000 per unit. For comparison, Ole Miss hosts Georgia on Nov. 7, and no rental for the same number of people has a price tag north of $3,400.
As for hotels, availability in Oxford is limited but not completely unavailable. While third-party sites may suggest that there are no hotel vacancies within the city, Ferris noted that those sites don’t tell the full story.
“If you like to look at a third-party site like Expedia and those don’t show room inventory, that’s not necessarily how many rooms that the hotel has,” Ferris said. “Sometimes, you have to call directly to that hotel property in Oxford, and not just look at websites, because they only give certain inventories to those third-party sites. And a lot of times, people don’t know that.”
Even then, hotels in cities surrounding Oxford, like Batesville, Tupelo, Grenada, and even Memphis, will likely welcome a myriad of fans who plan to go to the game, or at least be in town while the battle unfolds on the gridiron. Those hotels are currently charging fares higher for that specific weekend than most others.
Back to football, the end result of the year’s Magnolia Bowl will have ramifications that could prove larger than the game itself. For Ole Miss, a win would validate athletics director Keith Carter’s decision to promote Pete Golding from defensive coordinator to head coach, while also serving as a résumé boost for the Rebels.
For Kiffin and LSU, a win in Oxford would seemingly justify the coach’s jump to a program he deems larger and better equipped than the one he once oversaw, while also giving Tiger fans bragging rights and salt to dump in the wounds of Ole Miss faithful.
Both teams have been floated as potential College Football Playoff contenders, meaning the loser will pay a price in its pursuit of a national title.
Ole Miss came in at No. 9 in the preseason AP Top 25, while LSU was ranked two spots down at No. 11. If the two teams take care of business in their first two matchups — and week one presents a challenge for both, with Ole Miss facing No. 24 Louisville and LSU hosting Clemson — Sept. 19 could be a historic top-10 showdown.
