I know the administration is doing a waaay better job of interacting with the everyday fans and I hope they are consistent every year with the meet and greets but I feel like we are missing something
We play Rice in 2 weeks and the Admin hasn’t announced a Rice cookoff or anything of that nature
We all talk about make “Gameday an event” and I feel like Cajun the culture with a low hanging fruit like this is a bad miss
Not trying to be negative I just feel like that’s something that could’ve been organized with relative ease just like the gumbo competition last year
Yes, the opposite of how it was done last time. Last minute, thrown together, sponsors toes stepped on, 2 people walking around “judging” the gumbo (neither from this area btw). It was a total cluster. There are posters here that can give you a better breakdown who were involved.
I’ve lived here long enough to know, Cajun men love to compete in cook-offs. A real one. I forget the company who put it together but a few years ago, there was a really well done cook-off in the parking lot during the Hud era. Cold day. Many participants. IIRC, we paid $10 for unlimited samples and we were asked to vote on best categories.
Did that event put 5K extra people in the game? Probably not. But it did bring more people to the property, on the doorstep of our event. If it brought 500 extra people to the game, at no cost to our management team and made the parking lot look like a ‘happening’ place, it was a home run for UL. Maybe 10 of those people join RCAF and 1 of them is a whale donor? Getting people to our events is not a zero sum game.
I’ve been saying that this is also important for more events in places like Houston. Who knows if one donor shows up and writes a huge check? But we will never know if we don’t try.
If there’s anyone from Cajun athletics lurking here or if there are any fans willing to take the lead on something like this, I have a friend with USA Rice interested in participating. Kane Webb, based out of Crowley, kwebb@usarice.com.
Last year Cajun Country Rice was the sponsor for the Gumbo Cookoff. Not sure if they’re involved this year or if there’s still an official rice. Sent you a PM with contact info for person that can help.
Surprisingly, there is no Downtown Alive that would open the season. Would be great for Rice fans to experience. I just read that it now only occurs once a month starting on Sept. 5. Of course, it will be available for the McNeese game weekend.
Why not have something similar at Cajun Field on Friday nights before Home games? Isn’t there already a band stage set up for tailgating?
Call it Swamp Alive or something catchy to connect to UL football to draw out students and fans for a party and pep rally. Let Lafayette and Acadiana know that The Swamp is the place to be that weekend. Make the weekend a Friday festival and Saturday tailgating and football game event. May take a while to fully develop but could turn out to be a great thing. Just maybe, once people come out on Friday, they’ll come back on Saturday to tailgate and attend the game.