Raising Cane's River Center Arena and LSU's PMAC to be replaced by larger, new arena to be built in Baton Rouge

[cajun]

I know this was rumored for some time, but it looks like it's finally happening.   LSU is officially seeking an agreement with the city of Baton Rouge to ensure that they don't host events that could cannibalize from a large and very expensive new Arena that they are planning to build in Baton Rouge.   The new facility would be similar to the Moody Arena in Austin, TX most likely.   And I'm sure that both BRAC and LSU would like to capture revenue from hotels and retail space around a large new Arena that would host concerts, live events, and LSU basketball.      Baton Rouge isn't large enough for two major event arenas.   In order to justify the $300 million + price tag for what LSU is describing as a "best in class" facility, they want to make sure that Baton Rouge refocuses the River Center on convention spaces almost exclusively.    This means that professional sports (like hockey) would move to the new Arena and the River Center would be limited to BRSO, smaller concerts, and an assortment of conventions for 30 years.   

Baton Rouge, in turn, has been softly considering repurposing or replacing the old River Center arena for convention space and a hotel.    This would help enable that kind of change for the River Center and free up some real estate for them where expansion has been next to impossible with their aging, obsolete arena taking up so much space.   

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In a change that could reshape live events in Baton Rouge, LSU athletics leaders have begun planning to replace the aging Pete Maravich Assembly Center and work with city-parish government to make the new arena the city's top venue for major events.

As part of the agreement, the Raising Canes River Center downtown could be refocused as a space mostly for conventions — potentially with a new hotel — so as not to compete with the new arena for live events.

"From my vantage point, this is the type of big-scale, exciting project that we need more of in Baton Rouge," Metro Councilman Rowdy Gaudet said. "The possibility and opportunity to attract a large-scale arena that will bring in the types of concerts and musical venues that we in Baton Rouge have been missing out on is extremely exciting."

"We have an opportunity here in East Baton Rouge Parish to stand together as a whole community to bring a significant parishwide benefit to our residents with the development of a state-of-the-art sports and entertainment arena underway at LSU," Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome said in a statement.

The plan, which is still in its early stages, aims to address what city leaders have for years identified as a problem: Baton Rouge needs more big events, and the boosts those events bring to the local economy.

Big changes to Baton Rouge live events proposed | News | theadvocate.com

 

Edited February 27 by cajun

[cajun]

I know it's weird to comment on my own thread, but in my ideal world, a larger version of the River Center convention space (with attached hotels, parking decks, etc.) would be built on the site of the former Godcheaux's department store while a larger new arena and hotels are built on the Government Street River Center property.    But that's expensive and would require more than just a TAF investment - not to mention a logistical challenge of Baton Rouge being without any convention space while both a new arena and a new convention hall are constructed.

What is more likely here is that a brand new multi-purpose arena with up to 15,000 seats (but scalable depending on need) gets constructed on property acquired by LSU somewhere along Nicholson Drive.   This new arena would host not only LSU men and women's basketball (and potentially Southern too), but also professional hockey.   It would also draw mid sized/large concerts and events that otherwise pass Baton Rouge over in favor of other cities with larger spaces.   There is a severe lack of appropriate space for mid sized concerts that are far smaller than the giant Garth Brooks or Taylor Swift sized events at Tiger Stadium, but far larger than the local/regional acts at Chealsea's.       The new Arena would be constructed by the Tiger Athletic Foundation, but would be managed by the same (or similar) group as the Moody Center in Austin.  

This could enable 3 major opportunities in the Baton Rouge area: 

1.   LSU buys the remainder/undeveloped part of the water campus north of Water Street, but south of I-10.   This gets turned into a new arena that's flanked by hotels, housing, and restaurants and linked to LSU by a significantly expanded Tiger Trails bus route.

2.   The River Center could finally tear down the old Centroplex/Arena and expand their highly successful convention space while maintaining their excellent and updated music hall   They've been trying to find ways to expand their convention space offerings and allocate space for a hotel for some time - this might be the best opportunity for that.  

3.   LSU's dated, but much loved Pete Maravich Assembly Center gets demolished, enabling the expansion of the Bernie Moore Track Stadium, Mike the Tiger's habitat, and possibly a brand new "Pete Maravich hall of champions" immediately north of LSU's massive football stadium.    

 

 

I really like the Water Campus location for the new Arena.  If we are being honest, the likelihood of that being 500,000-700,000 square feet of office space is pretty slim since the pandemic.   There is a glut of office space in the US that likely will take decades to correct.   This is an opportunity for BRAC to maximize the potential of the Water Campus development in ways that are beyond what they ever dreamed it could be.    It would also be right up against downtown, Chealsea's Pastime, and empty land that could easily support parking decks and hotels.    It would also help link LSU and downtown.

The risk to Baton Rouge is that LSU isn't sharing any details about this new arena.   A smaller location seems unlikely given the price tag, but  LSU has started to outgrow the PMAC and the city of Baton Rouge really needs some kind of arena that's a bit larger than the PMAC or River Center to attract larger acts and events.   Everything discussed about the new arena's  size, scale, and location is conjecture at this point.   LSU is asking Baton Rouge to sign this agreement without sharing anything about what they are planning.    IMO it would be reasonable for Baton Rouge to refuse this agreement until they are sure that the location and size of the venue works for everyone.    LSU events would obviously have priority over the use of this new arena since TAF is paying for it.   But LSU also needs a commitment from the city of Baton Rouge to ensure that they won't build something later that could compete with the new arena.    That's a reasonable agreement if LSU can build it downtown and commits to a minimum capacity for games, events, concerts, etc.   

Edited February 27 by cajun

[richyb83]

I like the way you think! Excellent ideas!    That would be a nice location  adjacent to the Water Campus.   hmmm

I can't see the old PMAC not being demolished at some point. The maintenance of that building has to be very expensive. I heard the whole project is $450 mil that's a whopping cost.

Kim Mulkey has been a catalyst

 

 

[cajun]

On 2/27/2024 at 10:51 PM, richyb83 said:

I like the way you think! Excellent ideas!    That would be a nice location  adjacent to the Water Campus.   hmmm

I can't see the old PMAC not being demolished at some point. The maintenance of that building has to be very expensive. I heard the whole project is $450 mil that's a whopping cost.

Kim Mulkey has been a catalyst

 

 

 

She's pushing for a Basketball-only facility.   That's just not really possible unless we are okay with just another small arena like what Auburn, Ole Miss, or Alabama has.   Those are fine venues, but Baton Rouge needs an arena that can host bigger acts that we've lost to the Lakeside arena in New Orleans in the 1990s.   And those events would help justify a larger facility than what LSU could support on their own.  

If it's on campus, it needs to be right on the edge of campus - like the north gates along Nicholson.  That way we can have hotels and businesses developed right off campus.  

[dan326]

Hmm, I was thinking an LSU location would be better but come to think of it I don't know if they have anywhere with enough space.

[richyb83]

More details emerge on potential new LSU arena

https://www.wbrz.com/news/more-details-emerge-on-potential-new-lsu-arena

[cajun]

On 3/3/2024 at 5:46 PM, dan326 said:

Hmm, I was thinking an LSU location would be better but come to think of it I don't know if they have anywhere with enough space.

I have heard a location around where the golf course currently is today.   I've also heard that they'll keep the PMAC to handle gymnastics and graduation events for at least the next 10 years.  

Honestly I think that's a huge mistake (the location next to Alex Box).    That's basically an intersection of a two lane street with another two lane road with an at-grade rail crossing.   Both of those streets should have been widened decades ago, but they don't even have sidewalks on both sides.    No idea why Nicholson's widening past Burbank is still not even started, but it's been funded since 2006.    And there will be times when this new Arena has an event on the same day a baseball game is happening.    

I don't see a way to do this on the main campus unless they tear down and relocate the Natatorium and build it right at the North Gates along with a new parking deck.     Some place next to the Vet School might work, but that's also kind of questionable given how difficult traffic is in that area during a baseball game.  

One important fact here is that the "LSU campus" can be expanded to real estate that LSU acquires.   They could buy land from BRAF or the city if they wanted to build this "near" but not on the main campus.    There's been a lot of rumors about a location on Nicholson closer to Magnolia Mound.