It’s time to show up.
This week, the University of Louisiana at Lafayette will celebrate the 125th anniversary of its founding with a plethora of different events during homecoming. There will be the Bill Bass Open that raises funds for the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns golf team, the Golden Ambassador Society Dinner at the Petroleum Club, the homecoming parade that will feature the latest UL Athletics Hall of Fame class, and finally Saturday night’s game.
However, the football contest which serves as the close of the festivities and is being nationally televised, will more than likely have an attendance of less than 20,000.
Why is that? What are the reasons that Cajuns game have been so poorly attended?
There are plenty of reasons why attendance has gradually decreased across college football. Streaming deals, economic issues, and on-the-field success have been some of the biggest issues thrown around, especially in Group of Five football. But what’s the reason at Cajun Field?
The Cajuns sit at 4-2 on the season with an exciting offense and a strong defense, but the average attendance is 16,971. The highest attended game was the season opener against Northwestern State when 18,186 fans went to the game. But a solid 1,000 of those were NSU fans.
That attendance mark currently ranks ninth in the Sun Belt Conference, with App State (36,831), Troy (26, 973), Marshall (26, 409), James Madison (24,972), and 1-5 Southern Miss (24,922) making up the top five. So the fact that people want to see a winning product, as true as that may be, is not directly impacting attendance at other schools.
Is it really that LSU is right down the road and offers a Power 5 experience? Does it have something to do with the prices of tailgating and ticket prices? Could it be that the local market has grown apathetic?
The truth is that many factors go into the low attendance numbers. The biggest, in my personal opinion, is the streaming deal. The ability to pay a small monthly fee and watch every game from the comfort of your own home has kept people away from Cajun Field, which of course has impacted the environment. Fans can throw their own “tailgates at home” and sit in comfortable chairs to watch their team.
The second biggest is economic. The cost to attend a game has gotten to be too much for a family. For your average family of four, you will spend $100 just on tickets. That doesn’t include food, drinks, etc. Don’t get me wrong, the athletic department did a great job a few years ago of making concessions more affordable, but it’s time to do the same with tickets.
For example, tickets for this Saturday’s Coastal Carolina at Arkansas State game cost $18 per ticket, and that is before Ticketmaster fees. Tickets for the upcoming App State at Georgia State game cost $20.00 before fees. ULM’s cheapest tickets for its homecoming game against Arkansas State are $15 before fees. While these prices are comparable to what Cajun Field is currently charging, each of those home programs is having similar attendance woes.
On the other hand, the school that leads the conference in attendance, Appalachian State, has an average starting price of $70 per person to attend a game at Kidd Brewer Stadium. However, single-game tickets aren’t currently available for App State because their stadium is sold out for the 2023 season. General admission for Troy ($18) and Marshall ($25) are comparable to Louisiana, while Southern Miss ($25 is the cheapest single ticket) offers a family four-pack in some of their lower-level sections for right at $20 per ticket. General admission at Texas State is $20 while ULM, one of the lowest schools in the SBC in attendance, is at $15 for their general admission seats.
I think that if the university puts together some multi-ticket deals as well as made certain sections of Cajun Field more affordable, including lower prices for youth attendees, you’ll start to get casual fans who are looking for entertainment to come in.
The other longstanding argument is that LSU is only 45 minutes away. That is an argument that even I believed for a long time, but has since been proven untrue by Troy, who has a pair of SEC schools within three hours of their campus (Auburn is 90 miles away and Tuscaloosa is 150 miles away).
The other glaring statistic is that in 2021, the population of Lafayette Parish was 244,205. So if you take that number and get the percentage of Lafayette Parish residents attending a Cajuns game, it comes in at 6.67%. Technically, there’s less than that amount of Lafayette residents coming to Cajun Field because people from St. Landry, Acadia, St. Martin, Vermilion, and other parishes in the Acadiana area attend games.
But the looming question remains: What will it take to fix it?
I think the biggest solution is the stadium renovation. Cajun Field was built in the 1970s and while there have been some minor renovations, it’s time for a major facelift, which the university is currently working on. This project, similar to the Russo Park renovations, has been delayed several times due to different issues. Demolition of the upper deck of the home side is rumored to be taking place this offseason with the new-look Cajun Field at Our Lady of Lourdes Stadium ready for the 2025 season.
The next is creating a better fan experience, which I think will begin to happen with the new stadium. More fan interaction, better giveaways, the Pride of Acadiana playing different halftime shows, get the fancy LED lights that go off when the team takes the field or scores a touchdown. All of these things sound minute in theory, but when you put them all together, it creates a better environment that people will tell their friends about and bring more people to Cajun Field.
The catch-22 with that, however, is that even if all of these upgrades happen, people still may not show up. But I prefer to believe in the Field of Dreams that UL used to market the new Russo Park: “If you build it, they will come.” Maybe that’s naive thinking, but I personally think creating a better environment will lead to more fans.
I’ve heard all the reasons for not attending Cajuns games, including the ones mentioned above. However, there’s no specific fix. It is probably a combination of several different factors.
That said, regardless of the issues, it’s time for people to show up. The university is working to fix the issues regarding the stadium itself and create a better experience, but fans have to do their part as well. The 2023 Louisiana Ragin Cajuns are 4-2 and contending for a spot in the Sun Belt Conference Championship game while playing home games against former SEC quarterbacks and 5-1 football teams. It’s beyond time to show this team that spends countless hours preparing to put a product on the field that its fanbase can be proud of, so fans need to be proud of it and support them.
Homecoming is a special weekend in college football and typically has strong attendance. Alumni return to celebrate and reminisce on their college days, family of the homecoming king and queen come in to celebrate their accomplishment, but the number of fans that have no reason to be there other than the game has to be larger not only this week, but every home game for the rest of the year and every year moving forward.
This team deserves it. There are no more excuses. Grab your family and friends, drive over to Cajun Field, and let’s create an incredible atmosphere for the nation to see.