LSU’s hiring of Lane Kiffin as its new head football coach is poised to yield a big economic impact for both the school and the City of Baton Rouge. Ever since LSU poached Kiffin from Ole Miss, the team has had more than 15,000 new season ticket requests, as well as a large uptick in corporate partner and donor interest. LSU economics professor Dek Terrell says the real impact will come later.
“The bigger impact would come next season, when you see the fans who are purchasing those tickets go out to the stadium and spend on tailgates and things of that nature,” Terrell explained.
Terrell says even a slight increase in economic impact will translate to a huge dollar amount.
“Maybe, the athletics impact is going to be 10% more. That would be $50 million in the first year, just due to that,” Upton noted.
Terrell says while the hiring of Lane Kiffin will be an economic shot in the arm, there is no substitute for contending for a national title.
“And if you compare the Joe Burrow year in 2019 to the previous year, licensing and merchandising were both up over 60%,” Upton said.
