Selection of a developer to make upgrades to Vaught-Hemingway Stadium on campus – including premium suite seating, improvements to the student section, additional athletic office space and upgrades to restrooms – will be made in late April, according to Sports Business Journal.
The university requested bids from interested developers in December. The window for proposals closed in February.
Additional seating is a critical need for the stadium, especially in the student section. While the stadium’s capacity is listed at approximately 64,000, attendance at football games during the 2025 season averaged 104% of capacity, among the top 10 in the country. Non-seated attendees, such as media members and spectators in luxury suites, were taken into account.
During the 2024 season, Ole Miss was among the top five nationally with 105% of seating capacity filled.
Since university enrollment has reached an all-time high in recent years, student tickets are in increasingly high demand. Students who miss out on university-distributed tickets are forced to purchase single-game tickets from resale marketplaces — none of whom are endorsed by the university, creating ripe opportunity for scams.
Also included in the district development program is a “full-service luxury condotel” (a condominium which functions as a hotel) “with roughly 100 hotel keys and 30 condominium units,” as well as “35,000 square feet of retail and dining, a new plaza and public realm enhancements — most notably, the preservation and elevation of the iconic Walk of Champions — and modernized athletics offices relocated within the development footprint,” per Brailsford & Dunlavey, a planning and development advising firm.
The Vaught was built in 1915 with 24,000 seats. Steady upgrades over the years brought the stadium to over 50,000 seats in 1998, then increased again in 2002 to 60,580. The last renovation occurred in 2016 and included an addition of more than 4,000 seats. Grass also replaced the artificial turf on Jerry Hollingsworth Field.
The Lloyd Bell Tower and North Plaza were added in 2017 as part of renovations to the area surrounding the stadium, the same area which this request also seeks to renovate.
