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It’s 6:15 p.m. on a clear, warm Saturday night in late September. More than 92,000 people—about the population of Livingston Parish—have crammed into Tiger Stadium to watch LSU’s football team play Southeastern Conference rival Mississippi State.

The Golden Band from Tigerland is just moments away from playing the first four notes of “Hold That Tiger” and fueling an already-frenzied crowd with its traditional pregame performance.

When Tiger Stadium is filled to the brim, as it is expected to be Saturday against SEC rival Alabama and its coach, Nick Saban, it becomes the fifth-largest city in the state.

On the seven or eight Saturdays each fall when that happens, there are plenty of opportunities for nonfootball fans—or football fans who don’t have a ticket—to enjoy a night on the town. Want to have a romantic dinner without waiting for a table? Want to see that popular new movie without fighting the crowds? Need to replenish your groceries and figure the shelves have been restocked?

Or do you want to be like Rosie Adams? Several miles north of the stadium, she has her pick of slot machines at Hollywood Casino Baton Rouge.

“I was just hoping,” she says, “that there would be nobody here.”

First quarter

Amid a cacophony of mechanical sounds and an array of bright lights, Adams turns the casino’s downtime into opportunity. With empty seats to each side, she doesn’t have to deal with the usual elbow-to-elbow crowd. And this is what she was banking on as she feeds more money into a hungry slot machine.

Adams slyly says she’s done “pretty good” since arriving at 4 p.m.

Several aisles over, Ethel and Earl Riles of Central, decked out in purple-and-gold shirts, are elated over the small crowd. They admit to a passion for two pastimes—LSU football and video poker. Without tickets to one passion, they turned to the other.

Behind them, the game is being shown on a flat-screen television. Mississippi State place-kicker Adam Carlson has just made a 42-yard field goal to give the Bulldogs an early 3-0 lead. The couple doesn’t notice the score. Earl Riles is on a winning streak.

“It’s going real well,” Ethel Riles says. “He’s winning enough to cover my losses.”

As Earl Riles says he’s won $1,500 in 90 minutes, LSU kicker Colt David ties the score at 3 with a 38-yard field goal.

Joel Loots, the casino’s director of strategic marketing, considers the decrease in business during an LSU home football game to be a phenomenon. With nearly 10 years in the business, Loots says he’s never seen a football game affect gambling like it does here.

For example, he says Hollywood Casino’s attendance decreased 14% the day of the Mississippi State game compared to the previous eight weeks [not including days affected by Hurricane Gustav].

“It’s obvious people take LSU very close to heart,” he says.

If LSU wins, he says fans likely will show up after the game to celebrate and gamblers who didn’t go the game will stay longer. But if the Tigers lose, he says frustrated fans usually go home.

Second quarter

Chris Suckowi and his wife, Marxa, had just watched the movie “Ghost Town.” And that’s an apt description for Bally’s Total Fitness in Perkins Rowe.

The Suckowis, who recently moved from Los Angeles, are two of just three people working out in the 30,000-square-foot facility.

“I’m not a big football fan,” Chris Suckowi says between repetitions of lifting weights “This is crazy. I went to the University of Wisconsin and thought [football] was intense.”

Just as Suckowi admits it’s nothing when compared to Baton Rouge, running back Charles Scott puts LSU ahead to stay with a 1-yard touchdown run.

In 1988, Sport magazine named Tiger Stadium “the most feared road playing site in America.” That survey supports polls by Gannett News Service in 1995, The Sporting News in 1989 and the College Football Association in 1987 that depict Tiger Stadium as the most difficult place for a visiting team to play.

After a 17-12 victory over LSU in 1979, Southern California All-American Brad Budde said, “That place makes Notre Dame look like Romper Room.” Former Alabama Coach Paul “Bear” Bryant once said, “Baton Rouge happens to be the worst place in the world for a visiting team. It’s like being in a drum.” And former Alabama coach and ESPN analyst Bill Curry said, “I’ve been here as a player in the early ’60s. I’ve been here as a coach in the ’80s. There is no place like Tiger Stadium in all of college football. I might add there is no place like it in the NFL.”

Bally’s Manager Ched Lambert says he hasn’t seen anything like it, either—especially from a business standpoint.

“All of Baton Rouge slows down, but there’s always that person out there who wants to work out or watch the game and be productive at the same time,” he says.

Before the game, the gym was crowded with people trying to squeeze in some workout time. Lambert says the facility started to empty out two hours before kickoff.

He agrees there’s a correlation between LSU winning and losing. If the Tigers lose, “you can see it in people’s faces and you can hear it over the phone. It definitely affects people on a personal level. Business could be 50% off.”

But if LSU wins? “Then it’s a celebration the whole next week,” Lambert says. “Come Sunday, they’re energetic, and it’s purple and gold all the way.”

Halftime

Part of the lore of Tiger Stadium is the tradition of playing games at night, an idea that was introduced on Oct. 3, 1931 against Spring Hill, a 35-0 victory for LSU.

Former ESPN analyst Beano Cook once said that “Dracula and LSU football are at their best after the sun goes down.” Sure enough, LSU is 208-59-3 [a 77.6 winning percentage] at night in Tiger Stadium compared to 21-24-3 [46.9%] when the sun is shining.

Just as the Tigers appear to be no fans of day games, neither is Frank McLavy, owner of McLavy & Easterly clothier on Jefferson Highway. Because of the SEC’s television contracts, LSU could play as early as 11:30 a.m. on Raycom, 2:30 p.m. on CBS or between 6 and 7 p.m. on ESPN or ESPN2.

“I hate day games,” he says. “We just as soon lock the door at 2:30. The day games are horrible for us. Most of my customers are LSU grads, and they go to the games or go watch it. They don’t come shopping, I can tell you that. There should be a law … only night games played in Tiger Stadium.”

Regardless of when LSU plays, McLavy says business suffers at most places. “You could shoot a shotgun and not hit anything.”

Valerie Gele of Prairieville can attest to that. As the Golden Band from Tigerland lines up for its halftime performance, Gele pushes her sons, 3-year-old Aiden and 2-year-old Aaron, in a double stroller through the Mall of Louisiana. With fewer shoppers than you’d find at other times, it’s an easy walk.

Gele meets up with her friend, Becky Eusey of Baton Rouge, and her children, 8-year-old Katelyn, 5-year-old Dustin and 2-year-old Brooke. Eusey says they sold their tickets to the game in order to spend the time at the mall; Gele says their husbands are home watching the game.

“I’d rather be in Tiger Stadium than with three kids,” Eusey says. And Gele adds, “Let the husbands take care of the kids? You’re almost scared to go home.”

Smaller crowds are typical for game days, says Todd Denton, the mall’s general manager. But game days also are good for retailers because of the hectic pregame surge of shoppers who will head to the stadium or go home to watch the game on TV.

“You definitely see a decrease in customer traffic during game time,” Denton says. “But we get a lot of out-of-town visitors.”

Third quarter

What’s a home game worth, economically speaking, to Baton Rouge?

Economist Loren Scott studied the economic impact of home football games in 1996-97—when capacity of Tiger Stadium was 80,000.

At that time, Scott determined a single home football game alone brings more than $4.4 million in new spending to the Baton Rouge area, with $3.65 million of that going to hotels and restaurants.

His 2001 study shows the difference between a winning season and losing is about $9.5 million; LSU had seven losing seasons in the 1990s spread over coaches Mike Archer, Curley Hallman and Gerry DiNardo. The Tigers have not had a losing season since 1999, winning SEC championships in 2001, 2003 and 2007 and BCS national championships in 2003 and 2007.

“Anytime we have a home foot-ball game, the mall, the clothiers, hotels and restaurants get a huge boost as long as it’s a night game,” Scott says. “People have time to browse around during the day. It’s very important to these retailers because there’s a huge difference in day and night games economically.”

One look inside Tiger Mania’s new location in The Boulevard, the Mall of Louisiana’s recently opened lifestyle center, confirms Scott’s statement.

The game is being played over the speaker system in the store, but the only people listening are three employees who also are counting down to the 9 p.m. closing time.

“Business dies when the game starts,” Manager Shane Norton says.

About one hour before kickoff, Norton says the crowds started to thin as those people without tickets headed to watch the game at home or at a bar or restaurant.

Before that, however, business was great. The game-day T-shirt was the hottest-selling item. There’s only one remaining, size 2X, in the store.

“This has been the best day we’ve had all year,” Norton says.

At Borders, there are just a few shoppers, no one in the coffee shop and only one woman reading. A worker announces to the store that LSU leads 17-10.

Tina Haulard of Baton Rouge is more passionate about reading than she is about sports. She’s situated comfortably in a chair, with Stephanie Meyer’s “Breaking Dawn” in her lap

“This is my time to relax,” she says.

Fourth quarter

Yolunda Taylor looks like a mother hen surrounded by her chicks, 9-year-old Caroline, 6-year-old Camille and 3-year-old Cecile, while pushing a cart down an empty aisle at Calvin’s Bocage Market on Jefferson Highway.

They are the only shoppers in the store.

“It’s very surprising,” Taylor says, grateful she didn’t have to deal with heavy traffic or a crowded store. “And parking is close.”

Even though Taylor and her husband are LSU graduates, going to games is difficult because they’re both doctors and are usually on call at different times.

“We love LSU,” Taylor says.

Her plans for the evening were disrupted when Camille, who is celebrating her birthday, announced she wanted a cake made from scratch. They are shopping for the ingredients for a cake recipe Camille found on the Internet.

The Taylors are receiving lots of help from store workers with little else to do.

“It takes two hours to make,” she says. “So we’re going to be up early in the morning.”

The store’s assistant manager, Blaine Brocato, says they were busy before the game with shoppers picking up items for tailgating. The game is also being played over the store’s speakers.

The stadium’s crowd can be heard as LSU quarterback Jarrett Lee throws a 43-yard touchdown pass to receiver Demetrius Byrd for a 34-17 lead. Mississippi State would score a late touchdown, but the Tigers remain unbeaten with a 34-24 victory.

“It is always this slow for a prime-time game,” Brocato says. “But there’s no traffic, so getting home is easy.”