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From 2001 through 2010, the Bossier-Shreveport BattleWings of the now defunct Arena Football League played in Bossier City’s CenturyTel Arena (now known as Brookshire Grocery Arena). After the AF2 league folded, the owner moved the team to the Crescent City in 2011. The rebranded New Orleans Voodoo played for a few more years until the team and league folded.
The Shreveport market has gone 14 years without an indoor professional football league team.
That changes soon! Next March, beware of the new Shreveport Rougaroux of the National Arena League!
Just what is a Rougarou(x)?
Although Shreveport’s new indoor football team added an “x” to give this mysterious word to give it an updated Louisiana vibe, locals are quite curious about the team’s nickname.
Keith Carter, one of the Shreveport Rougaroux team owners, gave his explanation of the unique name at an introductory press conference last week:
“A Rougarou is that mystical Louisiana creature that grandparents and parents told their kids about. You better get in bed or the Rougarou is gonna get you. The Rougarou was taking the blame for all the dead cattle in our pastures. It’s half man, half werewolf and feeds on cattle. And the Shreveport Rougaroux loves to eat beef!”
Perhaps that may send a shiver up the bovine spine of this season’s championship team – the Omaha Beef!
“Pass me some of dat steak sauce, cher!”
It sounds like a lot of fun – until you start adding up the costs
The problem with many minor league sports teams is the lack of long-term capitalization of the franchises. Deep pockets are needed to start and then sustain most new businesses (especially sports franchises).
For a football team, the ownership group must be able to outfit the players with uniforms and then make payroll for preseason practices and a three-month arena football season (March through June).
As the team signs its players, the uniforms must be purchased. They aren’t cheap. A helmet ($500 and up), shoulder pads ($300), jersey ($200), pants ($100), socks ($20), and shoes ($100) could add up to more than $1,200 per player. With 25 players on the roster for most arena football squads, an initial outlay of about $30,000 is needed to dress-out the team.
The pay for arena football caliber players varies, but most franchises are paying about $1,000 per game per player (during the season only). The team ownership must be able to cover this $25,000 weekly payroll for a three-month season. Those twelve weeks of payroll costs will require $300,000 just to cover the players’ payroll alone.
The team’s coaches, trainer, and administrative staff must be paid, too. Let’s conservatively add another $100,000 for that. You’re now approaching $500,000 in year #1.
Oops! Don’t forget the costs of operating the facility
There is a concrete floor on the bottom of every indoor coliseum.
If the facility wants to host a football game, a wooden floor must be overlaid. That’s an expensive proposition to purchase the wood and then assemble/disassemble the pieces prior to playing a game at the facility.
If the facility is also used by an ice hockey team, the bottom of the arena is filled with ice and must be carefully managed and maintained throughout the season.
In the case of the Shreveport Rougaroux, the team intends to play at Hirsch Coliseum (circa 1954) on the Louisiana State Fairgrounds.
The arena currently houses the Shreveport Mudbugs semi-pro hockey franchise. The new indoor football team has apparently cut a deal with the Mudbugs hockey team to share the Hirsch Coliseum.
This means that wood flooring and some type of protective shield is needed between the ice and the overlaid football field (which someone must pay for). In addition to adding goal posts at both ends of the arena, don’t forget the cost of insurance, security, and other stadium personnel required, too.
Whew! That’s going to require a lot of money – from the start-up costs plus the weekly recurring operating expenses during the season.
The chance to earn a profit is still possible
Ticket prices for the Shreveport Rougaroux will top out at $30 with $25 and $20 tickets also available.
Let’s estimate that the new team averages $25 per ticket and 3,000 paying customers for each of the five home games next spring. Each game’s ticket revenue would bring $75,000 per week or $375,000 for the regular season. Let’s sprinkle in another $125,000 in profits from the sale of team merchandise and concessions.
Will $500,000 in potential revenue be enough to cover the initial and weekly operating costs in Year #1? Shreveport is going to find out next spring.
Danger! Some arena football leagues themselves are struggling to survive
Even if the Shreveport Rougaroux is enthusiastically embraced by the community in 2025, there still must be other viable franchises for this team to play arena football games against.
After reviewing the arena football landscape over the past 12 months, the word “volatile” comes to mind.
Remember the original Arena Football League from 25 years ago? They filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2019. In 2023, a Canadian group bought the rights to the name “Arena Football League”. The group announced a 16-team reconstituted Arena Football League would start playing this spring in 2024.
And now the scary tale of the Louisiana Voodoo – circa 2024
The newly reborn Arena Football League wanted to place a franchise in the state of Louisiana. They initially tried to obtain a lease to play this spring in Bossier City at the Brookshire’s Grocery Arena (sorry – booked already).
The league then settled on Lake Charles with games to be played at the Civic Center. After last fall’s splashy public announcement in Lake Charles about how happy the team was to be coming to southwest Louisiana, the team pulled up stakes just one week before the season started this spring.
Yes, the Voodoo transported a spell (get it?) down I-10 East 70 miles to Lafayette and played their first home game in UL-Lafayette’s Blackham Coliseum.
The city of Lake Charles was understandably confused. The current management group for the Lake Charles Civic Center (ASM Global) revealed the VooDoo’s credit was…let’s just call it “stinky”.
Check out ASM’s press release on this matter:
“Working with the City of Lake Charles, ASM did everything in its power to make the inaugural season for the Louisiana Voodoo a reality for Lake Charles. The Arena Football League signed and agreed to lease terms that required the team to provide lease payments, insurance certificates, and other functions in connection with their use of Lake Charles Event Center. Ultimately, the Arena Football League did not pay their rent, nor did they provide a certificate of insurance as outlined in the executed contract, leading to the contract’s termination.”
After the Louisiana Voodoo played their first home game down the road in Lafayette, the team’s ownership failed to cover all of the costs for use of the arena there, too. A report later indicated that UL-Lafayette was owed more than $30,000 for the arena football team’s use of Blackham Coliseum.
An insurance certificate provided to UL-Lafayette prior to the game listed the Minnesota Myth, another AFL team, as the insured party. The Minnesota AFL franchise would later cite a lack of adequate funding as a primary reason for the non-payment.
To the surprise of no one, both Arena Football League teams (Minnesota and the Louisiana Voodoo) folded shortly thereafter.
Let’s take a closer look at the National Arena League – home of the Shreveport Rougaroux
On Tuesday, the National Arena League welcomed yet another new team.
The Amarillo Dusters (a terrific nickname) just became the 11th team expected to play football in 2025. Amarillo (much like Bossier City-Shreveport) has successfully supported their arena football league team over the past couple of decades.
Amarillo’s most recent arena league team carried the nickname of “Venom”. After ending play during the COVID-19 season of 2020, the Amarillo Venom was supposed to start play again this spring in the newly reincarnated Arena Football League. Unfortunately, the Amarillo Venom bit the dust prior to even playing a down this season.
The former owner recently sold the franchise. The reorganized Amarillo Dusters will now try to return next spring in 2025 and compete with Shreveport.
The recent history of the National Arena League shows constant change
The National Arena League’s first season on the field came in 2017. None of those teams remain.
However, the Carolina Cobras have been a constant presence in the National Arena League beginning in Year 2 (2018). In the spring of 2024, the league was fielding just six teams:
Carolina Cobras – Greensboro Coliseum, Greensboro, NC
Colorado Spartans – Blue Arena, Loveland, CO
Sioux City Bandits – Tyson Events Center, Sioux City, IA
Idaho Horsemen – Ford Idaho Center, Nampa/Boise, ID
Omaha Beef – Liberty First Credit Union Arena, Omaha, NE
Oklahoma Flying Aces – This team was literally homeless in 2024. They were expected to play in Enid, Oklahoma (northwest of OKC) at Chisholm Trail Coliseum. However, the team couldn’t reach an agreement with the arena and suspended operations after opening with four straight road games this spring. Yes, the Oklahoma Flying Aces have officially been grounded.
In July, the National Arena League has announced a merger with the American Arena League.
Teams from the American Arena League coming into the National Arena League in 2025 will be the Columbus (GA) Lions, Corpus Christi (TX) Tritons, Harrisburg (PA) Stampede, and the Wheeling (WV) Miners.
In the seven years of the National Arena League, there have been 18 franchises which have come and gone (folded). Another ten teams were announced by the league but never even played a game prior to waving the white flag.
Enjoy the arena football games while you can, Shreveport!
Hopefully, the owners of the new Shreveport Rougaroux team in the National Arena League will have adequate financing to get the team funded for the first year of operations in 2025. If the team performs well at the gate next March, it could be the start of a long and happy relationship.
Recent history has not been kind to most arena football teams or their leagues. When thinking about the scary nature of the arena football league business, a familiar tune came to mind.
Here’s a new ending to that song to help you stay positive, Shreveport!
“As your team fights to stay alive
And the league may shake and quiver,
Louisiana’s football fans may not resist
Some Rougaroux – on the Griller!”
Ah-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha!