Baton Rouge USL Feasibility

They would ha e to play in Lafayette

Because that’s where USL was at

For sure the largest issue at hand. Have to think if a group came together to buy/form/fund a team that a renovation of Olympia(or Memorial) would be the first step. Doubt High School coaches would have a issue with that either.

If you look up other teams stadium capacities they range from 5k to 25k so both would technically be just fine.

BR is a mercurial place though, it’s sports obsessed but LSU dominates the landscape to such an extent no minor league has ever been able to break through, except I guess mid south wrestling in the early 80’s if you want to count that. They ran BR weekly and drew good houses but that’s it.

I think it’s because LSU is a “major league” team in most every sense of the word, and BR is not really a college town. If you think about it, LSU fans have much more of a pro fan base mindset than the rest of the SEC.

Alabama isn’t actually located in Birmingham so I can see there being more of a market for local minor league sports.

And IMO Baton Rouge in 2021 is even less hospitable to potential minor league sports than it was 20-30 years ago.

I edited my last post to add a little more context, but I think it definitely *could* work. You’d need some real money behind it to make it feel more than just a minor league team in a city that has a major league mindset of sorts.

I'm not trying to hold BR to the same standards as Birmingham, but I still think they can support at least a USL-L1 team. Out of the 830k people in the metro area, you don't need a lot of people to regularly show up. The minimum required capacity for a D3 stadium (USL-L1) is 1k. For a D2 team (USL-C), it's 5k. It's also close enough to New Orleans and Lafayette to maybe pull some fans from there. For instance, I live in Montgomery and went to the Birmingham game this past weekend.

Have a stadium in a decent enough area and it will work.

Memorial is near downtown and holds around 20k. (Not the best area but a team could help build it up). I believe it is a BREC stadium/property so not sure how that works in terms of funding renovations. BUT it is overdue and this would be a great reason to.

I just don't think LSU has any interest in helping fund and work with a team unless certain boosters/ donors find it interesting.

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BR is a mercurial place though, it’s sports obsessed but LSU dominates the landscape to such an extent no minor league has ever been able to break through,

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The only reason I think a USL team may have a chance in Baton Rouge would be that it is a sport LSU doesn't have a men's team for (maybe a club team?). It would still be difficult because playing in Memorial Stadium makes it difficult to tailgate and/or have bar gatherings pregame. Not sure how much extra sports dollars there are in BR metro either, and the people who do have them likely aren't going to "minor league" soccer games.

NOLA may be a better option, but still don't think it would be a stellar option. The Gold seemed to be doing okay in rugby, and soccer has a lot bigger fan base in the city/metro. A SSS in NOLA would actually not be a terrible idea considering it could host high school football, and in theory may be able to even draw some Gold Cup games in the future. Could even see the Honduran national team playing a game there based on the amount of Hondurans in NOLA. Given the financial situation in the state and city, that is nothing but a pipe dream.

I’ve thought for years New Orleans could potentially be a perfect division 2 market for the USL Championship. It’s a pretty big and very notable city that will never be a threat to jump to D1. It could be a pillar for the USL.

If you could somehow unify Jefferson Parish Latinos with New Orleans Catholic League guys and Northshore baws, you would have one hell of a fanbase right there. Doing that would be the tricky part, but the right plan and ownership group could make it work. New Orleans could easily have an amazing party atmosphere.

There are easily enough diehard soccer fans in the New Orleans metro to support a D2 team. You just have to bring them together and give them a product they’ll enjoy supporting.

Baton Rouge is a much trickier market to crack. Like DS said, the whole city sports culture revolves around LSU, and we treat LSU like a major league organization. The Pelicans barely have any presence here, despite being an NBA team with a superstar barely an hour away. The Saints are loved here, of course, but are still a distant second in diehard support compared to LSU.

I think Baton Rouge could support a USL D3 team, but making it work would be tough. You’d probably have to never play home games on Saturdays in the fall to have a chance at profitability. The location would also be tough to decide. Thirty years ago, the Cortana Mall location we’ve discussed in the past would have been perfect. Now, I’m not so sure.

I think you’d have to play somewhere in South BR so that people in Ascension Parish wouldn’t be too inconvenienced. Olympia Stadium off Perkins and Kenilworth might be the best bet. It’s in a safe part of BR, and not a far drive from the parts of the BR metro where soccer fans generally live.

I hope we get the chance to prove ourselves as a soccer market one day. Lafayette could probably support a D3 team in the future, as well. Strong soccer club culture there.

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I think it would need to be in Orleans Parish and tbh the best bet for that would be a new minor league baseball stadium that a soccer team uses. I know they do that in Tulsa for their downtown park and that seems to work okay?

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Ideally it would but no idea where you put it. Maybe by the convention center? Realistically it would probably be renovating Zephyr Field even more.