2008 Bowl Season Louisiana Snubbed by Indi Bowl

[cajunfan96]

_ _

Damm Right! It's not ok. It's time UL stops getting @#$&!!!!

[1stTake]

Thats not Shreveport that's Ruston the only place on earth where the goofballs put up iron fences to keep you out of solid metal buildings.

[ULtimateCajun]

_ If you've got the local folks willing to get behind it and organize it can be done. It takes a strong local committment to selling tickets and small sponsorships. I can't imagine the university would be overly excited because it would be a strong competitor for local dollars.

I enjoyed the Lafayette experience with the New Orleans Bowl despite being miffed at the lack of signs and such around town promoting the game and the general lack of awareness we encountered. Given the short lead time I sure there wasn't much thought given to getting local business fired up and competing for visitor dollars. _

Yeah I think Lafayette could have done better with that bowl but the circumstances were not favorable. There were still Katrina evacs in the parking lot of the Cajundome. The city was a strained mess by that time. I'm sure Lafayette could do better if there were a next time.

[Turbine]

I would like to see the Tabasco Cajun Bowl as a regular season game held every Thanskgiving at high noon.

The opponent rotates yearly between all the FCS teams in the state.

[geo_cajun]

I couldn't help but think this same thing yesterday. How sweet would it be for Shreveport to loose their bowl, and Lafayette get it. Justice indeed. However, the bowl business seems difficult to be profitable. But with the amount of oil companies in the area, we should be able to land some good sponsors. There are some major international companies with bases here. I was thinking swamp bowl or oil bowl, but I like the Tabasco Cajun Bowl, but I don't think the cajun thing would work. More ideas, this is fun; however unrealistic it is.

[HOUCajun]

_ The theory when government funds tourist attractions is to bring visitors, preferrably from out-of-state but if it can keep in-state residents from taking dollars to other states then that is good.

Northern Illinois will do well to bring a 1,000 fans. Each of those fans will have to spend in excess of $8,000 each in Shreveport/Bossier to recover the state's investment. If you count trapped dollars, ie. Tech fans spending in Louisiana rather than elsewhere and it attracts a total of 28,000 (20,000 Tech, 1,000 NIU, 7,000 local) each fan still has to spend $320.53 per person. If you aren't staying in a hotel that's a hard number to hit.

By contrast the Cajuns or Red Wolves would have easily brought 10,000, most would have been in hotel rooms and reduced the recovery point to $242.57 per person. With hotels generally requiring a three day stay, that number is very easy to hit.

More importantly it exposes a group of people to the region who logically are targets to become repeat visitors, especially the Arkansas crowd who tends to visit Mississippi for its casino experience rather than north Louisiana despite very similar drive times in central Arkansas. _

I had a room reserved at Harrah's. It was only for 1 night but it was around $180 +tax. I'm sure my 2 days there would have cost me around $500 plus gambling losses. If the family would have decided to come it would have been closer to $1000. Oh well.

[ATXCajun]

_ I couldn't help but think this same thing yesterday. How sweet would it be for Shreveport to loose their bowl, and Lafayette get it. Justice indeed. However, the bowl business seems difficult to be profitable. But with the amount of oil companies in the area, we should be able to land some good sponsors. There are some major international companies with bases here. I was thinking swamp bowl or oil bowl, but I like the Tabasco Cajun Bowl, but I don't think the cajun thing would work. More ideas, this is fun; however unrealistic it is. _

Acadiana Bowl. Mission: Promote tourism and the culture, lifestyle, and economic opportunities in Acadiana. Cajun Field is insufficient in its current state, but this would be a great opportunity to make needed improvements.

[HoustonCajun]

_ Our stadium is not big enough or nice enough, IMHO. _

True. But, suppose we could get the city behind us helping to enlarge and improve the stadium (as it would benefit enormously from a bowl game) and private funding for suites and other enhancements that could turn this into a 50,000 seat stadium. Just maybe, we could take this game away from the I Bowl.

The I Bowl will struggle financially this year given the participants and the state might not want to continue to subsidize it. Maybe we could end up like Boise State with our own bowl game. Not as just a new bowl game, which likely would never happen (there are too many already), but as a replacement for the I Bowl. Too rediculous to happen? Who knows. It is good to think outside the box and find ways to improve UL football, facilities and perception.

[DestinCajun]

Acadiana Bowl. Mission: Promote tourism and the culture, lifestyle, and economic opportunities in Acadiana. Cajun Field is insufficient in its current state, but this would be a great opportunity to make needed improvements. _

What does the stadium in Shreveport look like? Drop the I Bowl and replace it with a Lafayette based bowl game.

[Boomer]

We need a Freshman only JUCO game in the Fall in Lafayette!!!! 4 teams from 4 different states to compete in a tourn. format---lot of fun and great recruiting!!!!