Lafayette paper: 100,000 expected for tailgating today

CaribbeanGreen · October 15, 2011

It''s their homecoming (looking forward to the day when almost every belt school doesn't schedule us as their homecoming game), they are 5-1, and there is some kind of huge festival going on.

Doubt they have 100k, but not surprised they will have a large tailgating scene.

We need to win some football games, starting toxay. A win today puts 5k extra butts in the seats next week.

Oh, no doubt. Today is an outlier by every measure regarding ULL attendance.

They're still doing a healthy mid-high 20's thus far, because they're winning... something I think we would easily attain in the same circumstance.

bstnsportsfan3 · October 15, 2011

all i know is that if we were 5-1 and 3-0 in the SBC and this was our homecoming i bet we would be a sell out...

WINNING = FANS

Lets stop getting penis envy cause the cajuns have more fans. were turning around the program and the fans will come. we havent had a winning program in 7 years. its going to take time.

and...yall get to live in DFW while they live in layfayette.... so thats a plus! :thumbsu:

bleedgreen4ever · October 15, 2011

all i know is that if we were 5-1 and 3-0 in the SBC and this was our homecoming i bet we would be a sell out...

WINNING = FANS

Lets stop getting penis envy cause the cajuns have more fans. were turning around the program and the fans will come. we havent had a winning program in 7 years. its going to take time.

and...yall get to live in DFW while they live in layfayette.... so thats a plus!

Keep bringing up winning. Well, we had a winning record in the early 2000s and never came close to having so many fans show up for games. We will have to become a winning program in a major conference before that really makes a difference. We forget that there isn't much to do in Lafayette other than go and watch this game. Being in the DFW is only good for the TV market and recruits, everything else goes against us.

SilverEagle · October 15, 2011

When did they ditch the SELA name anyway? Late 90's?

SWLA...SELA is at Hammond La.

Green Mean · October 15, 2011

Keep bringing up winning. Well, we had a winning record in the early 2000s and never came close to having so many fans show up for games. We will have to become a winning program in a major conference before that really makes a difference. We forget that there isn't much to do in Lafayette other than go and watch this game. Being in the DFW is only good for the TV market and recruits, everything else goes against us.

True but I think the school has done a great job in enhancing the school pride and getting people more aware about the program. Should we have another good run like we had in the belt in the early 2000's then I really think the attendance and outlook would be completely different today. Again we have to give people a reason to come to the games and they would come if we start winning again. Plus I think what they have done the last 5-10 yrs as far as incoming student and raising their school pride has been really nice.

CaribbeanGreen · October 15, 2011

SWLA...SELA is at Hammond La.

That's right... So in about a 10-15 year span we've had SWLA, USL, ULL, and UL, right?

Adub4ever · October 15, 2011

ULL prob has the best loudest fans in the belt... (BE&B12) SMU couldnt fill half of Ford stadium today vs (BE)UCF

CaribbeanGreen · October 15, 2011

Per Harry's tweet, it's nowhere close to 100k. Still sounds like a nice crowd, though.

CajunProud · October 16, 2011

Say what you want about the history of our football team, but Lafayette is an AWESOME city. We have big things to do EVERY night of EVERY week of EVERY year. If you haven't lived here, you wouldn't understand it. We had a very cool festival in town today, yet we drew 32,000. Name a day of the week and I'll name an event that's going on that is drawing thousands.

Good game tonight guys, Dunbar is an animal and I hope you guys win out!!

Louisiana · October 16, 2011

We can analyze it all we want... but when ULL was at the bottom of the standings, they weren't selling out and didn't have 1/5th that for tailgating.

At the end of the day, the math is pretty simple.

Living in Lafayette all my life and being a huge Cajun fan, I for one can respond appropriately to this thread. We always have around 30,000 people tailgating, win or lose, because it's just a great place to pass a good time. Now that we are FINALLY winning football games...we have around 100,000 people tailgating, no joke! I hope some of you guys can make a trip to Lafayette and experience it for yourself. The few Mean Green fans that I did see were greeted with great food and cold beer/drinks, from yours truly of course! Lafayette is the $hit and The University of Louisiana truly is a sleeping GIANT...the beast might be waking up!

This is more than just "math" it's a lifestyle...football is everything is south Louisiana. What we kill in the morning usually gets cooked in the evening and we have fun doing it. Today's attendance was 32,885..largest Sun Belt game ever. If you look at the top ten Sun Belt attended games, Louisiana is consistently at the top of the list. PLEASE COME TO LAFAYETTE, YOU ALL ARE MORE THAN WELCOME!

Our menu today consisted of:

butter corn grits with BBQ jumbo Gulf shrimp on top

slow cooked pulled pork sandwiches on French bread

white chocolate bread pudding

GEAUX CAJUNS

Edited October 16, 2011 by Louisiana

PerryG2480 · October 16, 2011

There was a relatively large section of empty seats visible on the ESPN3 feed throughout the entire game. It was a good crowd, but how on earth was it 32k? What does that stadium hold?

stebo · October 16, 2011

Their stadium has a capacity of almost 50k. The sections that were sparse would have been full if they didn't have the grass seating. Great job by UL filling their stadium for a Sun Belt team and not complaining about the conference holding them back.

Louisiana · October 16, 2011

Our Largest crowd is something like 44,000 vs. Southern University and there was still a little room in the grass.

rcade · October 16, 2011

I just can't shake the memories of our crowds; even during our Belt title years, we were getting 16 - 18K per game....ten thousand less what LaLa is averaging right now.

In Fouts Field.

rcade · October 16, 2011

The few Mean Green fans that I did see were greeted with great food and cold beer/drinks, from yours truly of course! Lafayette is the $hit and The University of Louisiana truly is a sleeping GIANT...the beast might be waking up!

Congratulations on the win and the crowd. Has Louisiana-Lafayette changed its name? I keep seeing people refer to it simply as the University of Louisiana.

ScreamingEaglesFan · October 16, 2011

I could be wrong but seems like I remember the rajun Cajuns having a NCAA touney basketball team before their belt days, am I mistaken? Seems like it was before the Belt days. It might have been football but I remember the nickname from before our belt days.

CajunProud · October 16, 2011

^ you are correct, it was the basketball team! Unfortunately we got the death penalty from 73-75! Never been the same since!

Green Mean · October 16, 2011

^ you are correct, it was the basketball team! Unfortunately we got the death penalty from 73-75! Never been the same since!

You guys have had 36 years to get better and turn it around

DeepGreen · October 16, 2011

A few "eye witness" facts from the ULL game which I attended. (I've attended the past three ULL-UNT games in Lafayette)

- Friendly people, willing to offer food and conversation to opposing team fans. Genuine people.

- I doubt they had 100K tailgating; but they did have a whole bunch. Very impressive.

- There were many empty seats in the stadium but I'm sure if you put the fans sitting in the grassy end zones into those seats you would get the 32K attendance

- I think of student section and their extremely foul mouths as "LSU Lite" (fans).

- great game-day atmosphere but dry and hot

- No offense ULL fans, but get a larger video board. The one you have is so small that it's useless.

- Our DB's were still reading their press clippings from the FAU game!

- By far the best attended ULL game I've been to. Previous games at ULL may have had 2-3000 fans on the press box side. WINNING HELPS ATTENDANCE!

Louisiana · October 16, 2011

You guys have had 36 years to get better and turn it around

Yeah, we went to the dance in 92',00',05'and maybe some other years in between that I can't think of off hand. Our basketball tradition is WAY richer than UNT. Outside of WKU, I would say we are the class of the Sun Belt...but I am a homer.

Edited October 16, 2011 by Louisiana

emmitt01 · October 16, 2011

Yeah, we went to the dance in 92',00',05'and maybe some other years in between that I can't think of off hand. Our basketball tradition is WAY richer than UNT. Outside of WKU, I would say we are the class of the Sun Belt...but I am a homer.

That's three trips to the dance. Ditto North Texas...except our last two were this decade, and we were a prayer from adding a fifth last season. Tap the brakes there Jethro.

TheTastyGreek · October 16, 2011

That's three trips to the dance. Ditto North Texas...except our last two were this decade, and we were a prayer from adding a fifth last season. Tap the brakes there Jethro.

Also, our trips to the NCAA tournament officially happened.

You won't see any Sun Belt Conference logos hanging in Hot Springs for the years we've won the tournament.

Louisiana · October 17, 2011

That's three trips to the dance. Ditto North Texas...except our last two were this decade, and we were a prayer from adding a fifth last season. Tap the brakes there Jethro.

My bad...92,94,2000,2004, and 2005. In all 10 NCAA trips but like I was saying I'm a homer. WKU is no doubt the class of the Belt.

KRAM1 · October 17, 2011

....and we didn't even come close to 100K for our opening week-end....with a NAME OPPONENT. Even in their worst times, they still have better overall fans than us. They also have a win over A&M (1996)....have we?

No but we have a win over Tennessee...do they? HeHe... :-)