LAFAYETTE — The Cajuns might've struck out in regional action, but Lafayette won the weekend.
For the first time since 2016, Louisiana softball was awarded with hosting a regional while many fans and visitors reaped the benefits.
Lots of visitors were in the Hub City last weekend, while Lamson Park welcomed in a record number of spectators throughout the three-day event. Specifically, Louisiana contests increasing each day — the highest over 1,900 fans.
“Any time you can host an NCAA championship in your hometown, it’s no doubt that it’s a win for the community", says Bryan Maggard, Vice President of Intercollegiate Athletics. "There’s some level of economic impact with this but most importantly, for the fan base and for the community it’s a nice jolt in the arm I think.”
Most visitors drove in, like Baylor and Ole Miss fans, while proud Princeton supporters traveled by air. With the park packed by cheers as loud as the crack of the bat, let's talk about the economic impact.
“When a team in any athletic sport has success, it benefits the entirety of the community", says CEO of Lafayette Travel, Ben Berthelot.
This past weekend was jam-packed. Festivals, graduations and Louisiana baseball. Lafayette Travel's "Super Bowl" or better yet, "World Series". As CEO of Lafayette Travel, Ben Berthelot explains, he says that the Lafayette Regional alone brought in an estimate of $500,000.
“A piece of that was the room nights generated. You only had three teams in town so it’s not a whole lot of room nights but we also had a lot of other big events in town, which leads to compression, which leads to the rates of our hotels going up which is a really positive thing. As many of those people that are in town, from Princeton and other areas, that was their first time maybe trying crawfish or trying etouffee or jambalaya or gumbo. So, their going to go back home and talk to their friends and family like ‘wow, you’ve really got to go to Lafayette.’”
So despite the heartbreaking loss in the regional finale, it was still a homerun for the Cajuns. The top-25 program continued to stay in the national spotlight. Meanwhile, introducing softball fans what it means to be apart of the "cULture".
“It’s so much more than economic impact and that dates all the way back to the previous sunday when on national television, the University of Louisiana is announced as a host in the Lafayette Regional for a regional. That type of exposure is something you can’t buy.”
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