Ole Miss set to finish No. 2 nationally in attendance for 3rd straight year
OXFORD | Ole Miss added two of the top three crowds in Swayze Field history to its annual total over the weekend and will finish second nationally in average attendance for the third straight season.
The Rebels are averaging 8,834 per game which would be a school record, comfortably ahead of third-place Arkansas, as the Razorbacks are averaging 7,565 per game at Baum Stadium.
LSU, averaging 10,777, will lead the nation for the 23rd consecutive season.
Arkansas, fourth nationally the past two seasons, is in the top three for the first time since finishing second in 2015. Mississippi State was third nationally in 2016 and 2017 but is renovating Dudy Noble Field this season, resulting in a lower capacity.
South Carolina is fourth at 6,700 per game.
The Rebels posted a school record crowd of 12,152 for Saturday’s win over LSU, a day after the third-largest crowd (11,861) watched LSU even the series. Prior to this season the school record crowd was 12,117 against East Carolina in 2017.
“I’ve been here four years now and it never gets old,” assistant coach Mike Clement said about the Swayze Field atmosphere following Saturday’s game. “A lot of times, usually, when you’re at a place a while, it starts to become normal. This is not normal. I hope people here understand that. I’ve been fortunate to have been at a couple of different places. This is not normal.
“This is a college football atmosphere in a college baseball stadium. It’s second to none. I know the people in the other dugout today would argue that, but I’ll argue nose-to-nose with them.”
The Ole Miss-LSU three-game total was 32,075, the second-most attended series in school history behind that East Carolina three-game set (33,070). The Saturday LSU game was the fourth largest crowd in the SEC this season. LSU has three of the other five, and Arkansas holds the top spot with 13,472 announced for its date with USC on March 3.
The Rebels have four regular season games remaining — Arkansas Pine Bluff Wednesday and Auburn for a three-game series starting May 11.
The Rebels averaged 8,545 in 2017 and 8,580 in 2016. Ole Miss will draw more than 270,000 fans for then third straight season. The total attendance school record is 2016’s 291,714, but that also included two home postseason games.
In fiscal year 2017, Ole Miss reported $1,304,233 in standard baseball ticket sales and $2,041,371 in revenue associated with baseball premium seating.
Ole Miss athletics director Ross Bjork told RebelGrove.com that the current season has generated $2,579,464 in premium seating revenue, a more than half million dollar increase because of the field club added to Oxford-University Stadium in the offseason.
Ole Miss averaged 7,002 in the first year of the renovated grandstands in 2009. In Mike Bianco’s first season in 2001, the Rebels averaged 1,900 per game.