Gumbo Cookoff brings over 30,000 people and 100 cooking teams to New Iberia each year.
Tailgating Cookoff brings 2,000 to 4,000 people to Loreauville each year for a 1 day event.
Christmas in the Village brings an average of 2,000 people to Loreauville for a 4 hour event. I literally serve over 100 pounds of popcorn and can't keep up with demand.
New Iberia Christmas has food trucks, famers market, plus other things, & ends with a parade. Not sure of the attendance because I'm not involved with that one.
No festival is having an "annexed version" of their event at a separate location. You're thinking of it as a benefit to UL. They could care less about football. They only care about making money for themselves. Their events also usually end around 10 or 11. What time does a UL game end? At the same time.
I'm speaking from the festivals point of view. I work with groups that put on multiple events and that's their way of thinking. Just like you're thinking abut it from the UL point of view.
So you mentioned the Gumbo Cookoff and Tailgate Cookoff are New Iberia and Loreauville events that average 30k and 4k each. Take the parishes of Lafayette, St. Martin, Iberia, Vermilion, Acadia, and St. Landry combined. That's almost 600k in population. There's a lot of potential fans to go around with these events, but I'm talking about events within Lafayette Parish alone. Comic Con, Festival Acadiens, Latin Festival....the low hanging fruit here is the communication between these festivals and the local community within the parish. And look, it may not work. I don't know. But we will never know if we don't attempt to, again, TRY.
I'll tell you what disappointed me most about the homecoming game, well besides the fact that the throne spirit stick, shoulder pads & bling were taken away from the team by the coaching staff. It was the sorry turn out of the students. I can't believe there weren't more students at the game showing their school pride & spirit. Oh snap! Say what? You mean the school's been kicking them out of games for being too mean to the other team? Way to go ULMH. That's the way to prove you are the man & no one else should get to go to home coming.
So you work directly with CODAFIL? You work directly with the DownTown Development Authority? I'm going to guess no because I grew up with Louie Ancelet and I've had conversations with Barry on more than one occasion about bringing the Acadien Festival together with UL athletics in some capacity. An Annex version is simply a small sample to get you to buy the entire 3 course meal. Further than that, you don't speak for all the festivals around the area. We're not talking about an event in Loureauville. We're talking big time events that will get people to the games. And btw, having an annex version of a larger festival absolutely benefits them by getting the awareness to 20k+ people, many of which are new students, out of towners, and football fans that might not even know about these festivals. It benefits both parties.
Also, its FREEEEEE to ask questions. It's FREEEE to have a meeting. It's FREEEEE to negotiate.
Stop with the culture of CANT.
Never said I work with CODAFIL or DTA but I do work with other events and organizers in the area. Want to get an annexed version of a festival to Cajun Field on a Saturday? You better start planning now. Oh wait, the conference schedule isn't out yet so you don't even know if a festival will be scheduled on game day. I'm just pointing out the reality of scheduling. Your opinion of what will bring people is just that, your opinion. It's not a culture of CANT, I'm pointing out the viewpoint of the other side.
When I ran the old scoreboard we used to scroll scores of interest across.
Only problem was, if there was a drizzle at any point in the 72-hours leading up to the game, it would quit working.
You're pointing out why the admin shouldn't be blamed for being stuck in neutral. Like you always do. Working "with groups" to do cook-offs in Loreauville means nothing when you're talking about relationships between the University and private organizations that promote our culture world wide. I'm sure you'll probably take that the wrong way, but it's not meant to be a shot. We have too many people that think nothing exists outside of how they do things in St. Landry or St. Martin or Iberia or Acadia or whatever parish. Small time thinking gets you small time results.
The amount of people or the desire to commingle Louisiana culture and Louisiana Athletics is not an opinion: they are long standing facts. Festivals attract large crowds in this area and promoters want to do business with Louisiana Football. Somebody, somewhere can figure something out. Again, it is FREEEEE to TRY.
Once again, you don't have any idea what we do when it comes to these groups and events. Yes, we work with organizations that promote our culture world wide. We work with Grand Reveil Acadien, La CommissionDe L'Odyssee Acadienne, Louisiana Travel & Billy Nungesser, Iberia Parish Tourist Commission. Oh yeah, the Canadian Government is also helping us with a project. But our (event coordinators) way of thinking that brings in tons of money to our area wouldn't help UL and "larger events" because we have a small way of thinking.
I never said not to try, just pointing out the scheduling reality & that's just one issue.
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