Baseball season tickets, attendance surge

CHARLIE LUTTRELL

4th Street Sports Reporter

Southern Miss has enjoyed continuous success on the diamond throughout the decades, but the past few seasons have seen a surge in attendance and season ticket sales. Southern Miss has established itself as one of the premiere Division I programs, being the only team to currently have six-straight, 40-win seasons.

USM broke its previous record of 2,500 season ticket sales set last season with more than 3,400 season tickets sold this season. As of Feb. 7, less than 200 season tickets remain for the 2023 baseball season. Those packages are for standing room tickets only. “The vision that Hill Denson saw in 1986- everybody laughed at it. What we are seeing today is what Hill saw in 1986, and I can’t stress that enough,” Head Coach Scott Berry said.

The 2022 campaign was a record-setter as the Golden Eagles hosted the conference tournament, won the Hattiesburg regional, and hosted a Super Regional for the first time.

Tickets were in demand all season long as Southern Miss ranked No. 10 nationally in average attendance (4,771). The program broke the record for most fans in attendance in a single game multiple times through- out the season.

The Golden Eagles drew their No. 1, No. 2 and No.5 highest ever attended games at the Pete in 2022, including a record 6,346 in the May 11 Hattiesburg Super Regional game against Ole Miss.

And ticket sales picked right up from where the season left off. Senior Account Executive Tyler Cochran said that the Southern Miss ticket office retained nearly 90% of its season ticket holders from last year, and then added to that number with previous season ticket holders and customers looking to upgrade from their experiences last season.

Students who are Eagle Club members will receive a first-come, firstserve access to the 200 tickets per game allotted for student seating.