Inside OLOL’s deal for LSU arena name

By Hunt Palmer

LSU set out to find a partner for its proposed arena project in the fall of 2024.

Our Lady of the Lake was approached, and less than a year later, an agreement between the two is pending Board of Supervisors approval. According to OLOL Vice President of Government Affairs and Advocacy Ryan Cross, the 10-plus year agreement for the project is planned for the current location on the LSU golf course facing Nicholson Drive and strengthens an already thriving partnership between the two organizations.

“The care that we have been able to provide to the students in LSU athletics, the 500 athletes that have come through our clinics on campus the last several years since we’ve had that partnership, is so important,” Cross said in an interview on After Further Review with Matt Moscona. “We have the absolute best physicians that I would stack up with just about anybody when it comes to providing that type of orthopedic sports medicine care, care that we not only offer to LSU student athlete but also offer to the Baton Rouge community and to our communities across the state of Louisiana and Mississippi. So, continuing to make that connection and to show that LSU athletes trust the team at Our Lady of the Lake and it’s important that our community know that that trust is in place so they can trust us as well.”

The financial investment from OLOL will be significant, but President and CEO EJ Kuiper says that the decision made too much sense to pass up.

“When were shown the opportunity and the world class, state of the art facility that we’re hopefully going to build, we needed to get some information around brand equity and how LSU compares to college athletics,” Kuiper said. “Quite frankly, pro football, pro basketball as well. The results were absolutely amazing. The outreach that LSU has, the reach, the equity that LSU has built over the years is phenomenal and can barely be matched by anybody in sports. We knew it was a powerful partnership, but after getting it validated to us by these consultants we knew it was the right thing to hitch our wagon to the LSU brand which is world class.”

The arena will house both the men’s and women’s basketball teams as well as gymnastics, but the vision expands well beyond collegiate athletics.

Cross detailed plans for an entertainment district that would lure major acts to Baton Rouge. Ultimately the vision includes an area of economic development that stretches from LSU’s campus to downtown.

“It’s a place where literally Baton Rouge will gather on the weekends,” Cross said. “Whether it’s to attend concerts. Whether it’s to go to the mixed-use entertainment district that will ultimately find it’s home surrounding the arena on that 200 acre tract. It will attract investments like our sports medicine institute that will be there on campus. Additional research, clinical space, classroom space. There could be more students going there.”

Kuiper likened the project to downtown Omaha’s which received an economic boon from the construction of Creighton University’s arena and Charles Schwab Field. Now the surrounded area is full of restaurants, hotels and nightlife. The tentative target for opening is the fall of 2029.

“We want to put Baton Rouge on that map as having an incredible place where folks can go to gather, but the economic development that will impact as a result of an arena on LSU’s campus will trickle all the way down Nicholson Drive to downtown Baton Rouge as we are allowed to then reimagine what is the River Center as convention space,” Cross said.

“Potentially a new anchor hotel has been discussed as going up there at the River Center where the River Center can then become a hub of conventions that could fill the hotel and restaurant space in downtown Baton Rouge.”

Kuiper, who accepted the President and CEO role in 2024, quickly realized the potential between LSU and OLOL that has rapidly blossomed into a powerful partnership to affect change in the state of Louisiana.

The naming rights to the new arena is just the next step in the union’s growth.

“What really sealed the deal for me was the partnership with LSU,” Kuiper said. “To have two world class organizations partnered together and create exceptional care was something that was very exciting to me. We’re very thankful for the partnership with LSU. I’m very impressed. I’ve been around the block a couple of times; worked in several markets. Let me just tell you, the LSU brand is top five in sports, period.”