Louisiana-Lafayette Ragin' CatjunsWay back on September 12, 2009, exactly eight years and one day after 9/11, Little Manhattan was hit by its own Little Disaster in Lafayette, LA. I was there on a ridiculously rainy Saturday night watching helplessly as Cajun terrorists relentlessly attacked the qats' own Twin Towers of Keithen Valentine and Josh Cherry. It was a 17-15 wet fart of a game, broadcast exclusively on this new thing called "ESPN3."
The pregame tailgating was great. I drank out of a beerzooka with some hot chicks and my buddy accidentally deuced in our hosts' 5-star portapotty urinal and then when he realized right afterward that it was only supposed to be for pee, he had to prod the dung down the tiny drain with the leftover cardboard from a spent paper towel roll. I saw a fat guy with no shirt on in an above-ground pool that they had set up
in the parking lot of the stadium do the Billy Madison move where you drunkenly hold a keg over your head but then accidentally fall over. But he was IN A POOL. Oh and it was pouring rain so he was at risk for lightning strike but he just dngaf
I spent the too much of that day wizard staffing and getting psyched to watch Josh Cherry go 0-fer on field goals to visit any of their other facilities. I wanted to see their weird huupz stade, but my dreams came crumbling down that day. But just like with our nation's most horrible disaster ever, I #NeverForget. 5 years, 9 months, and 28 days after our loss to Louisiana-Lafayette -- and a full 13 years, 9 months, and 29 days after 9/11 -- I would make my return. These are the pictures of their weird huupz stade. And maybe a couple other things.
Ground Zero.
btw, this stadium is a tater dream/nightmare scenario. Tons of parking lots surrounding the stadium
, but also would you just look at all those trees
Okay, now let's talk about their super weird basketball arena. It happens to be called the Cajundome, which is both an accurate description of what it is AND a great nickname for your then-girlfriend. Here's a picture I stole from Wikipedia. I think this was probably taken during an actual ULL basketball game, because there are nearly 70 cars in this parking lot. When I went there, however, there were no cars there because it was July and I broke in.
Even from the outside you can tell it's weird. I mean it can't decide if it wants to be a boob or a spaceship or a watertower or what. And uptop where the nipple would be, it's like it has a little square cork stopper thingy like you would find in a
fancy bottle of booze or something.
Did you know! The Cajundome was recently home to a rock and roll concert featuring Def Leppard supported by Styx and Tesla? I wanted to go because there was a sweet groupon for it but I couldn't go because I don't go to rock concerts in arenas whose seating sections look like they are made of Legos.
Don't worry though, some hero put Def Leppard's entire
from that night on YouTube so I know what me and Mrs. Cajundome are doing on our upcoming anniversary!
oh btw the rest of this stade review will have def lep references instead of 9/11
I got there right when they were putting out the basketball court for some reason even though it was July. Rick Allen would not have been much help in this process.
Look how high up this arena goes! What on Earth man, who thought Lafayette, LA. needed a basketball arena this big? And look at that ridic roof. What a terrible place this probably is to see a concert. I bet the acoustics just bounce around and get all mushy and it probably sounds like you're listening to music underwater, like what the guy on the High N Dry album cover would hear if he had dived into a pool full of water instead of an empty one.
Pretty sure ULL hung those banners to represent each of DL's Top 10 singles
This roof is trying to be the Astrodome roof, but its smaller scale assures that it will always be Two Steps Behind. Also those speakers are complete garbage.
So, like, there's a lot going on in this picture. It's the area of the arena that would be behind a basket. I think those are...suites or conference room windows or something? From afar it kinda reminds me of like some sort of Star War or Transformer villain. Dunno. Just know it looks weird AF. And look at those dinky scoreboards and ribbon boards and stuff that are just kinda randomly thrown up there in the vast landscape of this bizarre arena. This is the photo that bums me out more than just about any other sad stadium photo I've ever taken. I don't know why. It just does.
No fan should have to put up with looking up at this during a basketball game.
Oh god here it is from close up. Very odd. Also let your eyes follow along the top row of seats across the way. Kinda just looks like they ran out of Legos.
I'll be goddarned if this isn't the most legroom I've ever seen in a top row of a sports venue. I bet when Joe and the Lads launched into Love Bites there was more than one couple that got down on the ground right here and started necking until they realized the song is actually not a love song at all but is really about breaking up.
Look! They got a little bit of the court down! Would be supes funny if they just left it like that and the ULL basketball team had to practice on only that much court. Imagine like 12-16 guys trying to run drills on that tiny sliver of hardwood.
Also they have like two weird tiny windows in their basketball arena behind the other basket?? If I had to give my best guess I'd say one window is to represent the original version of Bringin' On The Heartbreak and then the other is to represent Bringin' On The Heartbreak (Remix) that wasn't really much of a remix at all other than the fact that it kinda added some extremely subtle background synthesizer in like three places max.
This vinyl interior siding is better suited for a spoon factory in Sheffield than it is a D-1 basketball arena. Good grief, I know Cajuns are hillbillies but that doesn't mean you can't have pride in yourself.
OK so I went in their suites. First thing I saw was a dead roach which I decided not to show here because unlike the Cajundome Custodial Staff, I have standards. They were pretty sad. Look at that TV.
LOL @ that phone/fridge combo. I bet even Tesla would be bummed out by these accommodations, let alone some bigwig banker guy in Lafayette who paid tons of money to sit up there.
It astounds me how little of this scoreboard is actually a scoreboard. Also, sup with that random yellow door?
So I was in the Cajundome for like 2 full hours wandering around, which was just completely excessive. Finally I went outside and it was almost dark but I managed to snap some pics of their fooboo stade from the outside just for this thread. Have you ever seen a more ISU'y press box than this? I mean what is this I don't even
If I had to put up with these ridiculous obstructed views in my home stadium, it would drive me to drink more than Pete Willis.
Also can we take a second to LOL at these lights? WTF is going on here?
So that was enough for me in the Cajun Sports Complex. It was a magical mysteria.
Tom
