BATON ROUGE - Home openers at LSU and Southern University drew tens of thousands of fans to Baton Rouge on a rainy Saturday and officials said the crowds gave the city's economy a significant boost.

More than 102,000 fans packed Tiger Stadium for LSU's sold-out home opener. More than 15,000 fans filled A.W. Mumford Stadium for Southern's home opener.

"You can't beat that kind of vibe. Especially a night game," a fan said.

Officials said both crowds supported Baton Rouge's economy regardless of which team they cheered for.

"That means more tax dollars that stay here in our local city that come from visitors, so we don't have to pay as residents and they go into roads, into schools," Laura Cating of Visit Baton Rouge said.

One of the clearest signs of that economic impact is hotel occupancy. On a typical weekend, Baton Rouge hotels average about 60 percent occupancy, but on game days those rates can jump to nearly 75 percent.

"They dramatically jump on those game-day weekends by about ten percent. That means the majority of our hotel rooms, especially ones that are highly desired, are booked up," Cating said.

Hotels aren't the only businesses seeing the benefit. Restaurants, bars, grocery stores, and other businesses also see more customers on game days.

A 2025 report from the Louisiana Legislative Auditor's Office found the LSU football program generated more than $117 million in revenue with more than $66 million in profit.

Tailgate tourism, when people travel for the game-day atmosphere without attending the game, is also growing in popularity. Cating said it's contributing positively to the city's economy as well.

"Watching that become more and more prevalent and something people want to get that bucket list experience for, they're going to come to LSU, they're going to come to Southern University. They're going to come get it here in Baton Rouge," Cating said.