OXFORD, MISS. — It’s a decades-long rivalry, amped up this year by head coach drama and the high rankings of both teams. But in addition to the huge crowds predicted and the heightened security in place, the eye-popping cost of a trip to see the LSU Tigers face off against the Ole Miss Rebels is a hot topic for LSU fans.
A room at the Graduate by Hilton in Oxford this weekend runs just under $4,000 for Saturday night. The next night, Sunday, Sept. 20th, the price drops to $150. At the Super 8 by Wyndham, a room for Friday and Saturday night was about $450 before they sold out. Next weekend it’s $150.
Some Ole Miss students are vacating their apartments for the weekend, renting them out and will be able to pay for rent for the next several months just from what they will make this one weekend.
“We looked at an Airbnb that was like $4,700 for Friday and Saturday night for six people, and we’re like, ‘No, we got to do the motorhome trip’,” Vinny Landisio, an LSU fan driving to Oxford from his home in Connecticut, told UWK. (More on how a Connecticut couple became LSU fans below)
Several factors have contributed to making the trip especially pricey beyond high gas prices and general inflation. Oxford is a small town with limited accommodations and the game is a family tradition for some fans.
The teams have competed against each other more than 100 times, with their annual matchup coming to be called the Magnolia Bowl.
Oxford is a manageable driving distance from Baton Rouge, making it an attractive “away” game for Tiger fans.
The Associated Press has LSU ranked seventh and Ole Miss ranked eighth, which only heightens the attention being paid to the game. ESPN’s “College GameDay” program will be there.
And then there’s the whole Lane Kiffin thing.
Kiffin, in his first season coaching the Tigers after six seasons at Ole Miss, left Oxford with a bad taste in its mouth. He let the university know he was decamping for LSU just as the Rebels were headed to the playoffs. He apparently intended to stay through the end of their season, but Ole Miss immediately showed him the door.
Gov. Jeff Landry joked to ESPN that the National Guard might be needed to make sure Kiffin makes it back to Death Valley safely.
Couple tailgating for 40 years: Unheard of prices and security
Kelly and Julie Walker have been tailgating at LSU games for 40 years. They have been in Oxford most of the week and have friends from Connecticut meeting up with them.
“I think it’s the craziest we’ve seen in prices and stuff and I’ve never been anywhere where they report that they’re anticipating 320,000 people on campus,” Kelly Walker told UWK.
The Walkers, who are loyal LSU fans having tailgated in the same spot on campus every home game since 1986, also follow the Tigers to game throughout the country in their camper. Kelly said in his four decades, he can’t recall a game ever needing so much police presence as officials have called in this weekend in Oxford—including not only local police departments, but also the New Orleans Police Dept.
“I’ve never seen them talk about security as much as they have about this game. I’ve just never seen them talk about bringing the National Guard in, bringing police departments here, bringing state troopers in, bringing people from Mobile, New Orleans, for police to come from that far,” Kelly said.
Another thing he can’t say he’s ever seen is the sticker shock.
“We heard from some employees here that rooms that would normally go, let’s just say, even at a Holiday Inn Express or something that would normally go for $130 a night, are now like $500 a night,” he said.
Their friend, the Connecticut fan, Vinny Landisio paid nearly $500 for two tickets to the game and found a two-bedroom house on Airbnb for about $4,700. It’s why Landisio and his wife chose to head south in the RV.
But how does a couple from Connecticut become a Tigers fan when he never went to LSU or lived anywhere near Louisiana?
“So I came down here in 2010 on a guys trip. We were doing one different stadium a year, and we came to Baton Rouge in 2010 and we kind of never left. We met Kelly Walker and we never left. We went home and told all of our friends about the experience that we had in Baton Rouge at an LSU game, and our wives were like, ‘We want to meet these people.’ We came down the next year with our wives, and we’ve never left. We’ve become huge LSU fans. My wife and I are actually down here for the rest of the season now,” Landisio explained.
So this weekend, joining the Walkers and Landisios for the Oxford game are four more Connecticut residents, now all turned LSU fans.
The retired firefighter said it’s the Louisiana hospitality, friendliness and welcoming smiles in 2010 that started it all, something they’re not used to in New Haven, Connecticut. That’s now turned into nearly 17 years of a solid friendship where the six Connecticut residents make it a point to come down for roughly 7-9 games yearly. If that’s not enough, after the Landisios retire, they plan to move to Baton Rouge.
“We haven’t experienced that anywhere that we had been already. Kelly Walker and them guys were so welcoming to us, taking us out to dinner on Sunday night the day after the game because we were flying out on Monday, helping us get to the airport on Monday morning, and we were like, ‘We’ve never ever experienced any hospitality like this in all the other places we went to or just in our lifetime. We’ve become huge LSU fans just from going to a football game,” Landisio said.
From the Ole Miss game, they’ll head to Baton Rouge for the next two games, then Auburn, back to the Red Stick, Knoxville, TN and then they’ll start making their way home for Thanksgiving.
Vinny and Kelly say they weren’t sure what kind of reception LSU fans would get this year in Oxford, but said people there have not been taking out their hostility toward Kiffin on the LSU fans.
“Most everybody here has been super, super, super friendly,” Kelly said.
His wife Julie Walker said she’s more concerned about the huge crowds than the prices. Only a few people in their group are attending the game. She and others will just be going to tailgate for a while before the game starts.
“I can’t be around those kind of crowds,” she said, adding that she may not even go to the campus.
Meanwhile, Landisio says he’s not coming all the way from Connecticut not to watch the Tigers play in person.
“We’re going to go to the game on Saturday, but we’re just going to go neutral. You know, wearing clothes that won’t represent LSU like we typically do because I just don’t want to put myself in that position. I’m just going to go there with a nice USA T-shirt on or something like that and a hat from my hometown and just act like we’re there to watch the game and quietly cheer for LSU,” Landisio said.
Kelly Walker said he knows the university and the town have been concerned about keeping Kiffin and everyone else safe this weekend.
“I don’t think it’s scary. I think they’re just trying to stop any foolishness.”
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