Shreveport Made A Play To Host LSU vs Missouri Game
Due to tropical weather threats, this weekend's LSU Football game is being moved out of Baton Rouge. The game against Missouri was scheduled for 8pm in Tiger Stadium, but with Hurricane Delta aiming for Louisiana, the decision was made to move the game out of the city...and out of the state (to Missouri). But it did have a chance to stay IN Louisiana, according to Lt. Governor Billy Nungesser.
This morning, Nungesser told KEEL News that he spoke with Shreveport Mayor Adrian Perkins about getting the LSU vs. Missouri game to Independence Stadium in Shreveport. Nungesser said:
"When the Mayor (Perkins) called me, I was over in Lake Charles feeding volunteers, and helping some of the folks over there. And we quickly made the call, but I think it was a great idea, but it was a little late. And I think they had already had plans to move (to Missouri), that's just my opinion. But they thanked us for our interest to help move it to Shreveport."
Nungesser was on the topic of moving college football games to Shreveport, as he was discussing the move of the Bayou Classic to Independence Stadium next April. While talking about that game moving, he casually mentioned that he was working on behalf of Shreveport to get this LSU game to town as well. Nungesser said:
"As a matter of fact, yesterday I was over in Lake Charles and I was working the phones. As I knew LSU (vs Missouri) was not going to be played in Tiger Stadium, I talked to the Mayor of Shreveport, and we were encouraging them (LSU and SEC officials) to try to move that game to Shreveport. I don't know if we won that battle or not, but every time we have an opportunity to move something to that area (Shreveport) and have an economic impact, we surely want to do that."
So the team of Perkins and Nungesser were not able to land the LSU game in Shreveport, but clearly Nungesser doesn't think they're done with attempts to land football games in Shreveport. With New Orleans continuing to shut out events in their city, Shreveport could be in position to land more events, especially if Nungesser and Mayor Perkins are on the same page.