Hattiesburg made $20M during baseball regionals

HATTIESBURG, Miss. (WHLT) – How much money did the recent baseball tournaments at Pete Taylor Park bring in for the City of Hattiesburg? Tourism leaders believe about $20 million.

The NCAA regional baseball tournaments were held over three weekends at Pete Taylor Park on the University of Southern Mississippi (USM) campus. Though Southern Miss didn’t advance to the College World Series, Hattiesburg still took home a win in economic impact.

The Hattiesburg American reported early results show revenue from hotels is about 23% higher than the same 30-day period last year.

Visit Hattiesburg Executive Director Marlo Dorsey said the city is seeing about $20 million in economic impact in the last three weeks, so far. He added that the city’s exposure on national television networks is priceless, too.

The newspaper reported Hattiesburg’s strongest year in tourism was in 2019 when the city gained $300 million in visitor spending. In 2020, the city lost about $50 million, but those numbers began to improve in 2021. Dorsey said the organization believes the city will exceed $300 million this year. He added the city is already seeing 20% to 25% more than last year.

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