On the morning after the 2014 Miss USA pageant took over downtown Baton Rouge—with Nevada’s Nia Sanchez taking the crown and Miss Lousiana USA Brittany Guidry finishing fourth overall—DDD Executive Director Davis Rhorer says he is very proud of the city. “The way the event was handled was wonderful,” Rhorer says. Downtown has been buzzing for the past two weeks with pageant-related events at the Old State Capitol, Restaurant IPO and Boudreaux & Thibodeaux’s, he says, with downtown restaurants especially seeing an uptick in sales on Sunday. “I saw so many people eating at downtown restaurants and walking over to the River Center,” he says. “That’s all by our master plan design, making downtown convenient to the visitor of our city. We’re in a transformative state in our city. We’re taking the next step.” While Rhorer says he could not estimate the total economic impact of the event on the city, or speculate how many rooms were booked across Baton Rouge, Visit Baton Rouge CEO Paul Arrigo previously estimated the pageant would fill somewhere between 3,000 and 4,000 additional hotel rooms. The event took place before a sold out Baton Rouge River Center crowd, and was aired live on NBC. Approximately 70 countries saw the broadcast, which included many shots of Baton Rouge. That kind of television exposure is key, Rhorer says. “Baton Rouge shined really bright,” he says. “It shows we can compete with anybody. The preparation was first class. Everybody handled this thing so professionally. The long-term effect is 10-fold. We can now compete in the big leagues.” —Matthew Sigur
Today’s poll question: What was your reaction to the Miss USA pageant on Sunday night?
