On football game weekends, Starkville attracts around 55,000 visitors who eat and shop in town and generate greater revenue for local businesses in the area. 
These restaurants, boutiques and stores see their business as much as double, especially on weekends of the bigger games such as SEC games and the homecoming game. 
As visitors walk through downtown before the game, they may see Occasions boutique. This boutique brings out the maroon clothing and anything else that relates to Bulldogs, maroon or Hail State for football game weekends. 
Pat Ramsey, owner of Occasions, said football weekends bring in many out-of-state visitors. She said she enjoys talking to them to find out where they are from and what brings them to Starkville. 
“We are located downtown, and on football game weekends, there are tons of people milling around. There is an excitement in the air, and a lot of people come in the store to look at the maroon things we carry,” Ramsey said. “I love to see the camaraderie and the constant flow of people on game days.” 
One restaurant, The Little Dooey, is one of Starkville’s oldest “mom and pop” restaurants, and for this reason it sees many of the same people come back to the restaurant throughout the years. 
Bart Woods, owner of The Little Dooey, said national media attracts customers and visitors to the restaurant for a football game.
“The last time we played Florida, Google sent us a letter stating that we had over 3,700 hits on Google Maps,” Woods said. 
As in many businesses in Starkville on game days, many of the staff at The Little Dooey arrive at 7 a.m. and do not leave until 9 p.m. Woods said he enjoys closing on Sunday evening knowing that people enjoyed being there. 
“We enjoy seeing comments people have posted on Facebook or Twitter and seeing what media outlets have to say about us,” Woods said. “We have learned that if you take care of your students, they will take care of you, so we are very thankful for their support.”
Campus Book Mart in downtown Starkville sees its sales increase drastically during football game weekends. Stan Raye, manager of Campus Book Mart, said on these weekends traffic downtown starts early on Saturday morning and does not slow down until kickoff. 
“On football game weekends, we tend to see a lot of people that we only see on game days,” Raye said. “The most rewarding part of this is making new friends with the customers and alumni coming in to see us.”
These businesses also see that these weekends challenge them as they must prepare for thousands more people than during a normal weekend. 
“The past is the best teacher for us,” Woods said. “We look at what has been a success and what has been a failure for us in the past, and we look for ways to improve.” 
Raye said Campus Book Mart orders more merchandise, brings in extra help and opens extra registers to not keep people waiting in line in preparation for this weekend. 
“Football season is right about the time of the christmas season, so it is a very busy season. We try our best to check our inventory and reorder as time goes on throughout the season,” Raye said.