BATON ROUGE — LSU head coach Brian Lee would like to thank the record 1,689 fans who witnessed the LSU soccer team battle Southeastern Conference rival Ole Miss on Friday in the third-annual “Cram the Complex” promotion presented by the LSU Marketing and Promotions Department.
Friday’s attendance eclipsed the old mark of 1,421 fans who saw LSU shutout Ole Miss, 2-0, in the first home match in program history on Sept. 8, 1995.
“We certainly want to thank all the fans for coming to the game Friday and supporting our players and this program,” Lee said. “Lee De Leon and our marketing and promotions department have done a fantastic job of promoting the program this year, and that showed on Friday. It was an exciting environment for the players to play in, and we hope the fans enjoyed it and come back to support us in the future.”
Lee said he would especially like to thank the members of the Baton Rouge Soccer Association for their support and the more than 600 LSU students for attending the match in the school’s first-ever “Student Point Game.” The student section has been dubbed “The Lee-gion” by the marketing and promotions department in honor of the first-year head coach.
“The Baton Rouge Soccer Association was a huge help. Gary Buete, their director, did a great job of helping us promote the event and brought tons of Baton Rouge soccer players out to watch,” Lee said. ” Our student section was also very vocal the entire game. They add a lot to the experience and make the LSU Soccer Complex a tough place for our opponents to play.”
De Leon is in his first season working with the soccer team, and he said his staff has been working hard to make the LSU Soccer Complex one of the best places to watch a soccer match in the SEC.
“We’ve been trying to do everything possible to break the all-time attendance record at the LSU Soccer Complex this season,” De Leon said. “Since the first LSU soccer game in 1995, there hadn’t been a crowd of more than 1,000 people. Our goal from the beginning was to break that barrier. We just want to thank the fans for making that happen.”
The Tigers return to action next weekend with home matches against the Georgia Bulldogs on Friday at 7 p.m. and the 20th-ranked Tennessee Volunteers on Sunday at 1 p.m.