Baton Rouge Zydeco hockey brought in millions to economy, making some changes for next season

Michael Scheidt
·2 min read

BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — The Baton Rouge Zydeco hockey team brought in $18.1 million in economic impact to the city in its first season, according to the Raising Cane’s River Center general manager.

The president of the Baton Rouge Zydeco and Raising Cane’s River Center General Manager Wayne Hodes talked about the future of the hockey team during a Thursday morning news conference.

Total season attendance was 110,816, according to Baton Rouge Zydeco.

Hodes said, “The team led the league in overall attendance for the season and also the team set an all-time record for season attendance in the history of the fed, or the FPHL.”

Don Lewis, president of the Baton Rouge Zydeco said, “We got a lot of things planned for next year, to a full promotional schedule to more time for the games. There’s going to be more consistent with a 7:05 start Monday through Saturday, and then a 3:05 start on Sundays.”

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He thanked the fans, sponsors and season ticket holders.

Lewis also announced that Everett Thompson will be back next year as head coach.

Thompson said, “This is a tremendous opportunity for not only myself, but this organization to flourish in this community here.”

Thompson said part of the success starts with fan support.

“These guys are out in the community building these relationships with not only fans but the youth community. So these guys are role models,” said Thompson.

Players Scott Shorrock and Bradley Richardson will be returning for the 2024-25 season.

“As much as it’s fun for you guys to watch… it’s even more fun for us to watch,” said Shorrock.

Richardson’s dad once played for the King Fish, a minor league team that played in the city years ago.

“I heard that they were pretty special to the city a long time ago. So it’s pretty special to me and my family to be able to come back down here and kinda experience it again a second time,” said Richardson.

Shorrock said finding team leadership helped them finish the season strong.

“It seems like this year we didn’t find that until toward the end. But, that gave me a lot of confidence going into next year that we’re going to be good,” said Shorrock.

The Zydeco finished their 2023-2024 season with 15 regulation wins, 36 regulation losses and a fifth-place finish in the Continental division.

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