The draw of football fans to Oxford crowds streets and makes for long lines, but also bolsters the local economy.
Comparison of Oxford’s monthly tax reports from the last calendar year detail that
the months of football season draw in the most revenue from lodging taxes and food and beverage taxes, with the summer orientation month of June coming in close second.
October of last year brought in $27,164 in lodging taxes and $185,495 in food and beverage taxes.
Football fans descend upon the Grove throughout the season to feast at multiple well-equipped Grove tents.
Newk’s Eatery has become a go-to restaurant among novice and experienced Grovers.
“As far as catering, when it comes to football, especially when it comes to referring to tailgating here in Oxford (business) doubles,” said Jamie Moody, assistant manger of Newk’s Eatery on Jackson Avenue. “It really does. It brings a lot to us as far as the catering aspect goes.”
The Blind Pig Pub and Deli on the Square looks forward to an increase of crowds during lunch and dinner.
“We tend to have a pretty decent crowd during the weekends, but we’ll get more of a lunch and dinner crowd and night crowds during game weekends,” said Landon Boyte, employee of The Bind Pig Pub and Deli.
Along with decadent food choices, Oxford provides its tourists with a wide selection of souvenirs and Grove necessities.
Katherine Beck, a new store on the Historic Town Square, is a hot spot for the lovers of embellishment. Tourists on the hunt for that last minute sparkle are seen swarming the boutiques of the Square.
“We get lots of women looking for last minute Grove decorations,” said Carter Martin, Katherine Beck employee.
While Southern hospitality is arguably at its finest in Oxford, finding a hotel room during football season is no small task.
A 2012 Oxford Convention and Visitors Bureau Travel Market Research Study indicates that 26.4 percent of annual overall lodging market can be attributed to group-leisure activity, with 11.8 percent is due to the draw of team sporting events.
Boutique hotels such as Downtown Oxford Inn find that they swing from vacant to full occupancy within hours of opening reservations.
The Downtown Inn has a waiting list of about 75 hopeful tourists per game weekend on average.
“After that, we just kind of cut it off at that point,” said Adam Salters, Downtown Oxford Inn’s general manager, of the waiting list. “We could put more, but that’s about it.”
Requests from tourists for more hotel accommodations have been heard and new hotels are being built in hopes of accommodating more guests.
However, accommodations for the increase in tourists during the seven home football weekends may hurt Oxford’s hotel and motel businesses in the long run, according to Marry Allen Hedges, Oxford Tourism Manager.
“There is kind of a misconception that hotel rooms are always filled every weekend,” Hedges said. “I mean that is definitely true during football weekends, but really that’s pretty much it (besides) Double Decker and graduation weekends.”
Hedges would like to see the momentum of football weekends carried throughout the year to stimulate tourism.
“(We need to) try and drive in visitors during the week and all these weekends when there is nothing going on, but (we need) to really fill the rings on Sunday through Thursday nights,” Hedges said. “That’s we we try to do with group tours, and our marketing efforts.”
