Construction continues on the Our Lady of Lourdes Stadium at Cajun Field on Thursday, Aug. 22. The first home football game this year is against Grambling on Saturday, Aug.
31. The demolition phase of the renovation project began in December and construction is ongoing. At 7 p.
m. Saturday, though, the 2024 football season begins with Grambling in town and UL athletic department officials are confident they’ve done their best to make it as normal a gameday as possible. “We’re still ready to rock and roll and status quo for the most part,” UL deputy director of athletics Trey Frazier said.
Frazier said pregame tailgating opens at 8 a.m. Saturday morning and “will largely be the same as last year.
” Game parking will be similar to previous seasons too with free parking at the Lite Center four hours before kickoff, as well as the Cajundome and Blackham Coliseum. Also, Cajun Walk will go off 2.5 hours prior to kickoff up Reinhardt Drive as in previous seasons.
“Game one, I really feel like we’ll have a pretty full stadium experience with the way we’re trending right now,” Frazier said. Still, with a major construction project ongoing, there will be changes for fans to be aware of if attending Saturday’s game. First of all, there will be “around 20,000 seats available” for each home game this season – a little less than half the normal capacity.
Of those 20,000 available seats, 3,500 are reserved for students and UL’s band in the southeast corner sectio.