A Block from the Gulf

The only available entrance to MGM Park as of Jul-2015, down the left-field line.

A look in at the main seating bowl from down the third-base line.

The Beau Rivage casino resort hotel, operated by the park's naming sponsor MGM Resorts, dominates the view.

Chronological Tour: Stop 377

• Location: Caillavet Street at Jackson Street (between Howard Avenue and US 90, Beach Boulevard), Biloxi, Miss. (map it using Google Maps)
• Opened: 2015
• Home team: Biloxi Shuckers, Southern League (2015-present)
• Capacity: 6,076

Rating: 4 baseballs

Biloxi has been known as a gaming destination since the mid-1990s, but the Mississippi Gulf coast region thrives on its own and continues to grow in population, making the area ripe for baseball development. This new park, for whom the naming sponsor is the company that runs the Gulf-side Beau Rivage casino hotel across the street, joined a line of Gulf cities with ball clubs, including Pensacola and Mobile to the east (both of whom played in the Southern League along with Biloxi) and New Orleans to the west. Sadly, both Mobile and New Orleans were set to leave the roster of Minor League Baseball teams after the 2019 season.

MGM Resorts has dropped its naming sponsorship effective with the end of the 2023 season (though the Beau Rivage will still dominate the view from the stands). A new name for the facility is pending.

Getting to the Game

Watching the Game

The club does not hand out rosters, but they sell game-day notes for $1. The lineups are posted on a whiteboard at the customer service kiosk near the plate on the third-base side. At the playoff game I attended in 2019, they had a free handout of a scorecard with pre-printed lineup, with all the players on both teams listed numerically.

There is very little netting behind the plate here, at least for now. However, Buck Rogers, the club’s general manager, told me on my visit that insurance companies will likely demand longer netting (and thus fewer souvenirs) as a result of the spate of spectators getting nailed with foul balls, largely because they were inattentive to the game. Sure enough, by 2019 the club had extended the netting to the ends of the dugouts, the same as many other teams.

Enjoying the Game