Thursday Bulldog Update - 4/22/10
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THANKS TO YOU, SBW XXV A TREMENDOUS SUCCESS
For the second-straight year, you made Super Bulldog Weekend a state-wide success. And the 25th year of the spring-time homecoming may have been the best yet. The weather was great...the food was better...and the fun was everywhere. It truly was a super weekend.
When 34,127 of you filed into Davis Wade Stadium, not only did you help break the school record many of you set last year, you again set a state mark for spring football game attendance. Coach Mullen's team played fast, and looked like they were having fun. It stoked everyone for this coming fall.
In addition to establishing that mark, many of you also packed Dudy Noble Field with the largest crowd in our baseball stadium since the NCAA Super Regional against Clemson. More than 11,000 fans cheered the Diamond Dawgs on to victory Saturday afternoon, which spurred Coach Cohen's team to a series win over Tennessee.
But even more than that, many folks told us that the numbers on campus - in the Junction, at the Union, tailgating - were like a regular season football game. And it showed that our folks were not satisfied just breaking a record once. It sent a powerful message to athletic recruits and prospective students on the campus last weekend.
Thank you!
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FOOTBALL TICKET PRIORITY DEADLINE APPROACHES...
The deadline for exercising your Bulldog Club priority in the purchase of 2010 football season tickets is May 14, so we encourage you to send your orders to the ticket office at your earliest convenience. Now, this does not mean that you can't order season tickets - even if you are a Bulldog Club member - after that date. Following the May 14 deadline, we will process all of the season ticket orders we have on hand and seat the individuals who have responded. After those orders have been filled, Bulldog Club members can still utilize their donor priority and exercise their membership privileges in seat location, but only if seating inventory remains in that priority area.
Click here to order season tickets.
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...EARLY FOOTBALL SEASON TICKETS SELLING WELL
Roughly two months into the football season ticket selling season, we are experiencing a growth - again - in the number of tickets sold. Through the close of business Monday, we are running just over 6 percent ahead of where we were at the same time a year ago.
We feel like this is a good sign, as we have just now begun some of the early promotion centered on football season ticket sales. We also believe that there will be growth in the general public season ticket sales as we move closer to the season, simply due to the excitement generated last year by our team and by the atmosphere we were able to create in Davis Wade Stadium.
We finished last year with a school-record 40,901 football season tickets sold, thanks to you.
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BANCORPSOUTH ROAD DAWGS TOUR BEGINS NEXT WEEK
This is one last reminder that Coach Mullen, members of the Bulldog Club, and others from the athletic department will begin their state-wide tour next week in conjunction with the university alumni association. The 12-stop trek, which will include visits to nine Mississippi cities and a trio of stops in Alabama and Tennessee, starts Monday morning.
The annual circuit is an opportunity for fans throughout the region to visit with Coach Mullen on their home turf. This year's tour will begin with lunch in Batesville on Monday, April 26, and concludes Friday, April 30 in McComb.
A complete schedule, along with event prices can be found by clicking here. For more information, please visit MStateAthletics.com or contact the Bulldog Club at 662-325-3074.
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BASKETBALL, GOLF PRACTICE PLANS ONGOING
The basketball practice facility continues to make progress. In fact, we saw yesterday the first steel girders erected for the side of the actual practice areas. Until this point, the parking garage and foundation for the practice level was all that was completed. With dry weather becoming more frequent, we anticipate picking up some speed in the construction process and still hope to have the facility useable by late winter.
Preliminary plans for the golf practice facility at the MSU Golf Course, just east of campus, have been done and that project should shortly be ready for takeoff. MSU graduate Nathan Crace of the Mississippi-based golf architectural firm Watermark Golf is spearheading the project. Pending final cost estimate, we hope to get started on that project in late spring or early summer.
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NORTH END ZONE STADIUM EXPANSION CONCEPTUALIZED
Some concept drawings - it is too early to even call them preliminary plans - have been put on paper for a possible north end zone stadium expansion at Scott Field. MSU graduate Bob Luke of Meridian, who is also overseeing work on the university's master plan, has helped put some ideas together for a possible facility renovation there. Despite that expansion being in the very early stages, we are working now to secure lead gifts for that facility. There is little doubt that whatever we decide to do in the north end zone, that renovation will be a phased expansion project covering multiple areas over multiple years.
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NCAA ELIMINATES MEDIA GUIDES AS A RECRUITING TOOL
The NCAA recently voted to eliminate the use of media guides as a permissible recruiting publication. Beginning this August, media guides in any sport will no longer be permitted to be sent to prospective student-athletes. With that legislation in mind, we will reduce the number of sports for which we produce media guides and the number of media guides produced for each sport. We will only produce a printed media guide for those sports that generate a substantial amount of media coverage.
This will also affect the media guides we have historically made available to Bulldog Club donors through their membership privileges. Those individuals who paid for media guides on their football season ticket orders will still receive a printed publication as requested this year. However, media guides will no longer be available to Bulldog Club members through the ticket office after this football season as we continue to reduce the total number printed.
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MISSISSIPPI STATE HOME SPORTS SCHEDULE THIS WEEK
No home events scheduled.
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TOMORROW IS MAROON FRIDAY...
Are you 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 the athletic department at 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!