Saturday night’s BYU-LSU game (9:30 p.m. ET, ESPN/WatchESPN) moved from Houston to New Orleans’ Superdome because of the catastrophic flooding throughout Southeast Texas caused by Hurricane Harvey.
Why BYU-LSU moved to New Orleans and not elsewhere
The choice of NOLA over other options is a little complicated.
Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images
Game officials also considered Baton Rouge a candidate, sources told SB Nation, and LSU said Dallas, Jacksonville, Nashville, Orlando, and San Antonio offered to host.
Why a veritable home game for LSU?
The game had to stay somewhat local to Houston. BYU would’ve had to send its equipment truck on Monday to get to Orlando in time to set up, a source said, and the decision wasn’t final until late Monday afternoon. Getting LSU to Provo, Utah could’ve presented a similar challenge.
The game also couldn’t have been delayed, in part because of BYU’s LDS rule against athletic events on Sundays. Monday or later would’ve meant very short upcoming weeks for both teams.
Since the game had to be Saturday, that limited options in Texas. AT&T Stadium in Arlington and the Alamodome in San Antonio were both scheduled to host college games that day.
Why NOLA? That’s not exactly out of the way of the storm.
Weather forecasts had rain in Baton Rouge, Orlando, and Nashville throughout the week, including Saturday. Now, the game itself is at least indoors. There was still legit cause for concern, but that’s the thinking of the decision-makers, according to people with knowledge of the situation.
Another factor in the Superdome’s favor: a seating map similar to Houston’s NRG Stadium. Both are approximately 70,000 seats. Both stadiums also have the same management company, SMG, easing logistical transition.
Also, New Orleans is set up to handle out-of-towners, while Nashville’s faced a hotel shortage.
What about people who bought tickets?
BYU, LSU, and at least one ticket reseller (StubHub) announced refunds. New tickets went on sale later in the week at both schools.
What about the game contract?
As unchanged as possible. LSU’s still getting $4 million from ESPN, which owns the annual Houston game, the AdvoCare Texas Kickoff. BYU, a private school whose finances don’t have to be divulged, is making a bit less.
The game’s keeping its name, leading to branding like this:
BYU
That’s similar to the 2005 season’s Sugar Bowl, relocated to the Georgia Dome by Hurricane Katrina.
This kind of thing seems to happen to LSU a lot.
This is the third year in a row that an LSU road game has been moved to Louisiana by weather elsewhere (South Carolina 2015 and Florida 2016), and the move from Houston calls to mind a similar circumstance from 2005:
A dozen years after so many New Orleanians fled to Houston to escape Hurricane Katrina’s wrath, the Crescent City’s most prominent sports venue is opening its arms for a game first scheduled in its neighboring state.
“We’re repaying a favor,” said Alan Freeman, the Superdome’s general manager. “Folks in Houston took care of the population here after Katrina. They opened their arms to us.”
How do the teams feel about all this?
LSU players are more than fine with playing in their home state’s NFL stadium.
Many of them are from the Houston area and have expressed support for that city, though:
And BYU players are from all over and used to playing all over:
It won’t make much of a difference for either coaching staff. LSU already had the bulk of the tickets in Houston, so this was already going to feel more like a Tigers home game.
See More:
