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 sections 109-111. As of Thursday, 2,500 of those seats have already been claimed, but no students will be turned away. Any students above 3,500 will receive standing room only tickets.
Grambling’s band is attending the game and will sit in section 101 – immediately adjacent to the hill on the north side – along with all visiting fans who purchased tickets through Grambling. That section roughly seats 2,000, but Frazier said he expects several thousand other Grambling fans purchasing tickets elsewhere, including UL’s new single-game tailgating opportunity. “It’s a new thing for this year, which provided a designated tailgating spot and it’s online for people to purchase,” said Frazier, who said there’s 40 spots in that area and it’s already sold out.
Most of UL’s season-ticket holders purchased their tickets in the south end zone and near midfield. There are still single-game tickets available. Any fan interested in purchasing a ticket for Saturday’s game should do so online at , says Frazier.
“Yes, we still have tickets available and online is the easiest way to do it and it’s actually cheaper to purchase online,” he said. “Also, you can see the map of exactly which seats are available if you purchase online.” For fans concerned about the heat, Frazier said the ‘Cool Zone’ will once again be available in the Southeast corner near the student entrance with “big huge water jugs available free to the public with cups of water and fans.
” Also, there will be extra independent vendors offering food and drinks, as well as multiple “grab and go” places selling just water, colas and beer “hopefully an expediated process from a normal concession line.” So despite not having access to the entire west side of the stadium, there will be as many concession points of sell available than a year ago – “just in a much more condensed area.” While there aren’t any traditional suite options this year, Frazier said there are still some hospitality club spots available for purchase on a season basis.
The premium hospitality is located on the east side behind section 107 and features complementary food and beverages. The only other areas to view the game not in an actual seat will be the “duck blinds” – 10 x 10 tents set up just behind the seats on the upper concourse, providing “kind of a private outdoor suit experience and yes, we have the ability to sell a couple more of those.” Another addition to UL’s gameday activities is an area called ‘Cajuns Village’ – sponsored by Ragin’ Cajuns Sports Properties – located in the parking lot between the baseball field and the track/soccer complex.
It will open three hours prior to game time, so 4 p.m. for this game.
“A lot of their sponsors will have vendor tense and bounce houses and the pregame radio show will be there,” Frazier said. “So fans if they don’t have an actual tailgate to go can come out there and have some fun, get some freebies and check out the radio show.” The other unique thing about going to UL home games this season is fans will steadily be able to see the construction progress on the west side.
“People are going to be extremely impressed when walk in and sit on the east or south end zone and see the progress we’ve made,” UL athletic director Dr. Bryan Maggard said. “I saw an actual mocked up timeline of what the progress is going to look like throughout the season.
I think by the games in October, you’re going to see the substance of that West tower. It’s going to be fun.” Frazier said season ticket sales were “flat” as expected.
“We’ve set goals on revenue and ticket sales and we’re pacing right where we need to be,” Frazier said. “Naturally, we had some folks still a little bit skeptical of what’s going to happen and we hope they buy some single-game tickets for this first game and enjoy it and keep coming back out.”.
