Doing the Dome part I: The Bayou Classic

I worked my first Superdome events this past weekend: the Bayou Classic and a Monday night Saints vs. Giants game.

For the uninitiated, the Bayou Classic is a football game between two HCBUs, Grambling State University and Southern University. The game, which is held in the Dome every year the Saturday after Thanksgiving, is sometimes referred to as The Black Superbowl.

According to some estimates the event draws 200,000 visitors to downtown New Orleans. The seating capacity of the Superdome is only 75,000 or so, if the 200,000 figure is accurate it would mean that well over half of the crowd is in town more for the party more than for the actual game. (This may or may not be true of other big sporting events in New Orleans. I really have no idea.)

I'm going to to tread very carefully here... In the week leading up to the event, I learned that most of those who work in New Orleans's tourism trade look upon Bayou Classic with deep dread. Is there an element of racism in this? Perhaps. But of all the complaints I heard, the most strident by far came from a hotel employee who was himself African American. "I've been doing this 20 years, and I don't think I can take it one more year," he said. "I'm going to call in sick."

Having heard that kind of talk all week, I was prepared for the worst. In the end, it wasn't nearly as bad as I had been led to believe. Looking back I can't remember a single passenger who was drunk, disrespectful or disorderly, which is an exceptionally good weekend's work in my profession!

There was one aspect in which the naysayers were right. It was a pretty poor weekend from a financial standpoint. For many of us in the tourist trade, tips are our bread and butter, and the Bayou Classic crowd aren't extravagant tippers by any stretch. Several of them even complained about paying what is generally considered a bare minimum price for a ride. Ahem... I'm thinking I better change the subject here before I get in over my head. There's something a bit unseemly about a white guy whining about black folk not being willing to pay him a fair wage.

All in all, I sincerely enjoyed transporting the Bayou Classic guests. A real highlight for me was the chance to share the story of my personal Grambling connection with so many of the university's students, alumni and fans. For those of you who don't know, here's the synopsis of that story: My wife and I met for the first time 24 years ago at Grambling. She was a junior at the University of Southwestern Louisiana (now U. La. Lafayette), and I was a senior at the University of Southern Mississippi. (I like to say that USL stands for the University of Super Women and USM for the University of Super Men!) We met at a conference of Chi Alpha, a Christian student organization with which we were both involved.

The Bayou Classic actually featured two separate Superdome events: an epic Battle of the Bands on Friday night and the football game on Saturday night. Most of the partying and carrying on actually happened on the first night. Game night was a bit anti-climactic with a soaking rain that probably sent a lot of would-be partiers straight from the Superdome to their hotel rooms.

At one point during the game, I ducked into a Starbucks adjacent to a hotel lobby to escape the heavy rain. The hotel concierge saw me standing there at the Starbucks counter and rushed to me with me a towel to dry myself off. "Stay in here in the lobby as long as you want," she urged. "Our doorman will keep an eye on your bike." God bless her!

The New Orleans police department unveiled a new security plan for the event -- partly in response to the Bayou Classic's reputation/history and partly in response to an infamous series of shootings this past Halloween. I read news reports that spoke of 700 plus cops on the street. Honestly, I would have guessed a much higher number. I had never seen so many police in one place before.

As the crowds spilled out of the Dome, the police kept blocking more and more streets to deal with the traffic flow and to stay on top of the security situation. I ended up feeling like a rat in ever-changing maze. After the Battle of the Bands on Friday night, I got stuck in traffic on the Superdome side of Canal St. for more than an hour -- and this just at the time when all of the pedicab action had shifted across to the French Quarter side of the street. It was frustrating of course, but I comforted myself with the thought that the lessons I was learning during this, my first Superdome event, would enable me to position myself in the thick of the action next time.