Thursdays With Greg Byrne - 3/9/10 (Special Tuesday Edition)
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TICKET PLANS FOR NCAA, NIT TOURNAMENTS
The following information has been developed by the Bulldog Club in connection with our ticket office for the respective men's basketball tournaments in which the Bulldogs may compete. Please read and be ready to respond accordingly next week...
NCAA TOURNAMENT:
All teams selected for the NCAA tournament will be assigned a limited number of tickets. If the Bulldogs receive a bid, tickets assigned to Mississippi State will be allocated strictly by Bulldog Club priority rank.
Pre-order forms have been sent to all men's basketball season ticket holders. Ticket holders should follow the directions on the pre-order form to submit a request for each of the eight possible sites. If tickets are still available after the requests are filled, they will be made available to Bulldog Club members beginning on Monday, March 15, and information will be released at that time that will let you know how to order tickets.
NIT:
Should Mississippi State host NIT games on our campus, tickets will be $20 for the Men's NIT and $7 for the Women's NIT. Your regular season tickets will be placed in your account for renewal and will be available to you online in your Dog Tag account for purchase beginning Sunday evening after the selections are announced, and may be printed at home. You may also call the ticket office beginning at 8:00 a.m. on Monday, March 15, and purchase by phone. Any tickets not purchased by 5:00 p.m. Monday, March 15, will be released and sold to the General Public.
Your NIT order cannot exceed the number of regular season basketball tickets ordered on your Bulldog Club account. Any additional tickets you request would be allocated after all priority orders are filled. If Mississippi State is selected to host multiple rounds in the NIT, your order will be automatically processed for second and third round games should we advance. All tickets not printed at home will be available at Will Call on game day. Game dates and times will be announced after tournament selection.
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ALUMNI, BULLDOG CLUB TO HOST NASHVILLE PEP RALLY
The Mississippi State Alumni Association and the Bulldog Club would like you to stop by Rippy's Smokin' Bar & Grill Friday for a pre-game pep rally prior to the basketball team's SEC Tournament quarterfinal game against the winner of Florida-Auburn.
Our pep band and spirit squads will be at Rippy's, located at 429 Broadway in downtown Nashville directly across from the Sommet Center, from 4 pm until both groups cross the street for the game. Coach Stansbury's team plays the first game of the evening session, which is scheduled to tip off at 6:30.
For more information and to see their menu, visit Rippy's on the web at www.rippysbbqnashville.com.
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MSU NIGHT AT MEMPHIS GRIZZLIES, MARCH 31
State alum and Bulldog Club member Martin Taggart, a member of the Memphis Grizzlies ticket office, has arranged a Mississippi State night for the Grizzlies game Wednesday, March 31 against Erick Dampier and the Dallas Mavericks. There will be a pre-game meet and greet available with Dampier and special discounts for the Mississippi State family.
The Memphis Maroon Club and the Desoto Dawgs are helping Martin promote the event. For more information, contact Martin at 901-205-1459 or email him at mtaggart@grizzlies.com. Click here for the order form with details on the event.
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RECREATIONAL VEHICLE FOOTBALL PARKING
There has been much discussion regarding a recent letter that went out to Bulldog fans that enjoy bringing their recreational vehicles to campus on football weekends. Give me a brief moment to explain the impetus for the letter, which came from Mike Richey, Associate AD for Bulldog Club and Ticket Operations.
The university's game-day committee and the university's event parking services charged the athletic department with finding ways to reduce the number of vehicles we are currently parking on grass around the campus during athletic competition. Obviously, this came on the heels of last season's wet summer and early fall that turned many of those grass lots into quagmires. You may remember we were forced to relocate parking areas during the course of the football season because some areas were unusable due to wet grounds.
That fact, coupled with an annual increasing demand for reserved parking passes, gave us a real challenge in finding paved areas for parking. Our goal was simple...provide parking areas in comparable locations with respect to distance from the stadium and provide a stable parking area that would not change, so that fans would know where to park and that they would have an unchanging place to park.
The space currently used by non-hookup RVs can accommodate more than 600 automobiles, the event parking group has reported. Moving those RVs south of the stadium on paved parking near the recreational fields by the Vet School gives us the opportunity to move some of those vehicles previously on grass to a paved lot. Please remember that our intent was to keep each group's parking location equitable to what they have had in the past. This switch addressed both the location and the grass lot issues.
The feedback we have received centered on two primary concerns. Those fans who bring RVs would like to maintain a "reserved" space in the new lot. And those RV folks who have enjoyed bringing their vehicles to basketball and baseball games would like to maintain their current locations for those two sports in their current areas at the north end of campus near The Hump and Dudy Noble Field.
We will address both of those issues with the event parking staff and feel confident that we can find a suitable solution to those two requests.
As always, we want open lines of communication with our fans and supporters and will respond to your needs as best as possible within the scope of what is available to us.
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MISSISSIPPI STATE HOME SPORTS SCHEDULE THIS WEEK
Tuesday...Softball vs. Tennessee (DH), 4 pm.
Wednesday...Softball vs. Tennessee, 4 pm; Baseball vs. Western Kentucky, 4 pm.
Friday...Men's Tennis vs. LSU, 2 pm.
Sunday...Men's Tennis vs. Arkansas, 10 am.
Come out, support your Bulldogs, and get your Dog Tag scanned.
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IT'S MAROON FRIDAY...
...And many of you are in Nashville...But we are all in the maroon!
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We appreciate what you do for Mississippi State Athletics and want to encourage you to get others involved. There are three things you can do to help Mississippi State reach its desired goals -
1. Buy Season Tickets
2. Financially Support the Bulldog Club
3. Get Others To Do The Same
Thanks for taking the time to read this update.
Go Dawgs!
Greg Byrne
byrne@athletics.msstate.edu
Follow me on Twitter (@Greg_Byrne)