With a tip of the yarmulke to Deadspin, it says here that last week, Ole Miss fans camped out at the Hyatt Regency Dallas and gulped down three nights' worth of records at the hotel's atrium bar. As in: They dropped $26,000 on New Year's Eve; $27,000 the night after that; then more than $29,000 following the Rebels' victory over the Red Raiders in the final Cotton Bowl ever to be played at Fair Park.
Thought it might be fun to fact-check this little item, which was no easy task. The woman who answered the bar phone laughed when I asked her about the item. Then she said, "I don't think I'm at liberty to tell you that." Then she forwarded me to the manager's office, where "Chase" answered the phone. Same story: "I'm not at liberty to discuss things like that." Then he forwarded me to the hotel's public relations manager, Priscilla Hagstrom, who said that's the first she's heard of it and she'll have to check and call back. I have since lost interest. Will update accordingly when she calls back, if she calls back. --Robert Wilonsky
Update: Hagstrom did indeed call back at 5:16 p.m., and she said that, alas, the hotel doesn't give out "specific operating revenue figures." But she did have this much to offer: "The numbers you gave me aren't exact, but we did have a very good Cotton Bowl event." Meaning? "Ole Miss was a class organization, from the team to the fans to the alumni." OK, but how close are those numbers? "Since more tickets were sold this year than in years past, as the Cotton Bowl expanded its seating to 88,175, it was just an overall scuccess everywhere." Time for drinking.