Carey Edwards hoisted the trophy gingerly.
“It’s heavier than it looks!” the Rotary Club of Columbus president exclaimed.
The three Mississippi State athletics administrators who ferried college baseball’s ultimate prize to Columbus in the backseat of a black GMC Yukon could say the same. At Tuesday’s meeting at Lion Hills Center, the MSU staffers told Rotarians the Bulldogs’ first-ever College World Series trophy required quite an investment — and one the school was more than willing to make.
“I will always hope that we win the national championship,” Executive Senior Associate Athletic Director and Chief Financial Officer Eric George said. “I’ll never take the financial savings over holding that trophy. But it is a cost.”
In Omaha, where the Bulldogs beat Vanderbilt on June 30 for the CWS crown, Mississippi State came out more than $550,000 in the red, according to figures George presented. The school spent $242,226 on lodging alone at the Hilton Omaha, where George said the rate was roughly $300 a night.
Multiply that by 50 rooms by roughly two weeks, and it adds up. George said the NCAA reimbursed the Bulldogs $150 for 35 rooms for each day of the stay, but it couldn’t match MSU’s expenditure.
Even in postseason play at Dudy Noble Field, George said the Bulldogs’ windfall wasn’t what it might seem. MSU brought in over $1 million in net revenue during Regionals and Super Regionals in Starkville, but with a huge portion of the profits remitted to the NCAA, George said the school ended up with roughly $90,000.
“It’s something we’ll gladly do, but when you see all those people in there and you think about the money that’s coming in, we’re not really getting to keep that,” he said.
Building the brand
Make no mistake, though: Mississippi State’s first national title did the school a world of good in branding, licensing, development and a host of other areas.
While George admitted it was his job to be “the wet blanket,” Deputy Athletic Director for External Affairs Leah Beasley and Deputy A.D. for Development Bo Hemphill both shared numbers indicating the Bulldogs’ first national title had blown previous MSU sports successes out of the water.
Beasley said Twitter, Facebook and Instagram posts from the baseball team’s accounts and the main MSU athletics accounts totaled 71.5 million views. By comparison, one of the Bulldogs’ recent runs to the Final Four in women’s basketball brought in 10 to 11 million.
Additionally, MSU was first in pageviews from June 26 to July 26 among Power Five schools whose websites use the SIDEARM Sports platform — and most of them do.
“There’s not enough that I can say up here or that Eric or Bo can say to really capture how much this did for our brand,” Beasley said.
Financially, the school has already felt the impact. Beasley said a College World Series email campaign raised $75,000 in two weeks, while major gifts of $25,000 and above have totaled $1.8 million. All told, MSU athletics has raised almost $2 million since the Bulldogs returned victorious from Omaha.
Generating excitement
Hemphill said those donations, among others, will go a long way toward improving the quality of the Bulldogs’ facilities no matter the sport. So far in 2021, MSU has raised more than $19 million towards its yearly goal of $20 million for renovating Humphrey Coliseum. Hemphill said the school intends to start the project, valued at $55 million, in April 2022.
He cited past renovations and improvements like the $27 million Leo Seal Jr. Football Complex in 2011, a $75 million north end zone expansion to Davis Wade Stadium in 2014 and the $60 million new Dudy Noble in 2019.
“What we were able to do in Omaha — generate that excitement — not only helps baseball, but it helps football; it helps basketball; it helps our entire athletic program,” Hemphill said.
Given the Bulldogs are evidently happy to shoulder the costs associated with Mississippi State’s first national championship. Already, Beasley said, they’re ready for a second.
“We’ll continue to ride this high as long as we can — until we win the next one this next year,” she said.
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 31 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.