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[RaisingCajun08]

Festivals Acadiens et Creoles is this weekend.

In the commercial is the reminder "ITS FREE."

Just like Festivale Internationale. Or Mardi Gras. Or Downtown Alive. Or Rhythms. Or the Sugar Mill Pond thing.

We redefine "conservative" in this town. The typical resident of Lafayette is (unknowingly) much more of a Huey enthusiast than am I, the resident liberal.

Call it what you want. For as all of these "free" events to continue to run, they must be making money. All draw large crowds in their own right.

Festivals Acadiens has over 40 bands on the lineup this weekend. They all get paid to play.

Last night, I was surfing their website and all sponsorship opportunities were marked "sold out". Were they actually sold out or was the website no longer selling opportunities since its the week of the festival, I dont know.

Vendors pay for a spot at the festival. If they dont get their money back and make a profit, not many would return. I see the same vendors year in and year out. That tells me, they also make money.

On the marketing page of their website, they advertise that they bring a $11M impact to the Lafayette area yearly. How accurate that number is, I have no idea. I'm not a finance guy so I dont know how that number is calculated. Either way, $11M impact for a "free" festival.

Tell me we cannot do better and bring in more money to UL athletics just by lowering prices, attracting more people, and making it an event to go to. To many people in administration expect fans to shut up, pay their money, and except the product.

[HOUCajun]

Tv timeouts make the games long and boring. It’s not a problem at home because it allows you to follow other games of interest.
This problem is not only UL’s but it does magnify the game management issues we have.

[RaginDave]

App State has a monopoly for Saturday entertainment in Boone, NC and the surrounding area. It is the only show around for about 150 miles in any direction. There are too many options in Lafayette for other things to do on a Saturday afternoon. Just the facts of life.

Have you been to Boone and the surrounding area. There are plenty of things to do in Boone on a Saturday in the fall. In fact the fall and winter are the most visited time of the year in Boone because of the leaves, hiking, skiing, cycling, tubing, white water rapid and tons of other outdoor events.

North Charlotte the fastest growing area of Charlotte metroplex with mooresville and huntersville is less than 90 miles from Boone. As is Winston Salem which is part of the Triad and a hopping area of NC. Banner Elk and blowing rock are beautiful in the fall and have tons of events and festivals going on at that time of the year.

The brewery scene in that part of the country has no equal. From Morganton to Asheville there is nothing like it.

I would venture to say that most people that are at the app state games on Saturday in the fall don’t live in Boone. They live an hour or more away and go to Boone and watch football but end up staying for more than football because of all the activities available to them.

We should do a better job of getting people here for the game and hoping they chose to stay for a festival or an activity.

We should wish to be more like Boone.

[RaisingCajun08]

Tv timeouts make the games long and boring. It’s not a problem at home because it allows you to follow other games of interest.
This problem is not only UL’s but it does magnify the game management issues we have.

This is true. BUT, if UL could ever figure out the cell reception problem, we could follow other games in the stands from our phone. I'm one that likes to do that but cant.

[Rainman66]

They probably know lots of the talent mike assembled will be wearing a different color next year and getting paid handsomely to do so. I only see support at this level going down not up in the way college football is currently structured.

Define lots of talent? From last year's squad I believe we lost one real impact player and that is Amos. Yes, Kam left, but he was a graduate transfer.

Two years ago was not a normal year, with the NIL and no sit out hitting at the same time, plus head coach leaving and taking some considerable talent.

I believe we maybe lose one starter (don't know who) this year, but I just don't see the 'lots of talent' leaving.

[facelessjonmoon]

This is true. BUT, if UL could ever figure out the cell reception problem, we could follow other games in the stands from our phone. I'm one that likes to do that but cant.

It's even hard to post on RP during games

[RaginDave]

Define lots of talent? From last year's squad I believe we lost one real impact player and that is Amos. Yes, Kam left, but he was a graduate transfer.

Two years ago was not a normal year, with the NIL and no sit out hitting at the same time, plus head coach leaving and taking some considerable talent.

I believe we maybe lose one starter (don't know who) this year, but I just don't see the 'lots of talent' leaving.

Kam
Trey
Brandon Bishop
Errol Rogers
Dontae Fleming

[CajunNation]

This is true. BUT, if UL could ever figure out the cell reception problem, we could follow other games in the stands from our phone. I'm one that likes to do that but cant.

A forgotten tradition in Cajun Field was scoreboard watching. It was awesome to react to scores with the rest of the stadium as they were flashed on the scoreboard.

This is something that would be easy to do and would make a lot of people happy.

[CajunT]

Exactly. The name on the back of the jerseys will always change. 5-6 hours tailgating and watching football with great friends under a perfect sky does not. No matter how you slice it, 15k on a day like Saturday is putrid, unacceptable and many factions are responsible for it. NONE of which, are the players or coaching staff members, but they suffer the most. And that ____es me off.

I keep reading about cULture, but that has been as much of our problem is any incompetence on the university side. Historically our university has cared very little for funding and growing athletics. That has been discussed ad nauseam here on this forum. Missed opportunities for decades. That is where the apathy began and has its roots.

Our cULture enjoys food, festivals, drinking and entertaining over the course of the same decades that outside of the success of Softball and Baseball, we simply looked forward to hanging out and tailgating for many years for football season.

The Lafayette community, including businesses simply hasn't valued this university as the largest employer in the parish or it's academics. The blame is equally shared here by the university, it's political apparatus here locally and in Baton Rouge. Outside of the diehard supporters in academics and sports, which are not entirely the same people at times, the causal fans and residence of the tri-parish area simply don't value this university or it's athletics. They much rather hang out in the parking lot, at festivals, at sporting events with their children or at home with their friends and family.

I've read post from every side here and at this point I don't really care any longer. Many people simply see this university and its athletics in the Sun Belt Conference as small time and in my opinion giving those people free sh^t to come to a football game only leads to them wanting freer _____ to return. If you don't think there is some truth to this, then look around at society today.

[Rainman66]

This is true. BUT, if UL could ever figure out the cell reception problem, we could follow other games in the stands from our phone. I'm one that likes to do that but cant.

This to me is the biggest issue. This is like taking the phone away from people for 3+ hours. Run the numbers on college kids that can stand not having their phones and internet access for that amount of time, it ain't good. Now you want them there early for tailgating and atmosphere, but they can't post what a good time they are having (or not) for 4+ hours, not going to happen.

I am one of the ones that go for the football, but the fact that I cannot keep up with other games going on at the same time even by the ESPN app (don't even think about streaming) is a MAJOR irritation.

Those LONG delays would go by a whole lot faster for all people with good internet access.

[Rainman66]

Kam
Trey
Brandon Bishop
Errol Rogers
Dontae Fleming

I stand by my comments, that is not a lot of talent. Yes they are good players, but all, with the exception of Trey, have been replaced without much effort.

[HelmutVII]

I bet a lot of people bounce out of Troy, Alabama; Huntington, West Virginia; Hattiesburg, Mississippi; Boone, North Carolina; Harrisonburg, Virginia, etc. when they graduate as well, but somehow those schools deliver. We aren't even giving ourselves a chance because we aren't cultivating a bond with our students when they are here. We can forget about it once they are gone.

yes but they probably stay in state so that means they are closer. We are losing population in this state (how many congressional districts did we have 20 years ago and how many do we have now).. Louisiana has the proud distinction that it is the only southern state losing population. Another category we are number 1 in that we don't want to be in. So once our students graduate .....they are gone out of state and they aren't coming back. Kind of hard to build an alumni base to go to games when they are out of state and don't want to come back.