Sold! Cajundome to be ‘Ragin’ Cajun Catholic Dome’ for five days

After a 10-day online auction, the Cajundome will be renamed the Ragin' Cajun Catholic Dome from Feb. 17 to Feb. 21.

Our Lady of Wisdom Church and Catholic Student Center, the Ragin' Cajun Catholics organization, and The Rev. Bryce Sibley placed the largest eBay bid of $2,651, which will be donated to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Acadiana.

"The university is growing as you know it. There are so many wonderful things going on with the football team, academics and the Master Plan. It's good for us to let people know that we're part of it; we're growing with the university," said Sibley, author of The Vermilion's weekly column "An Open Mind."

The idea of auctioning off the naming rights to the Dome during the Mardi Gras holiday was adopted from the Toronto of Dominion Bank's Fleet-Center in Boston, which decided to auction off naming rights for approximately a month, while in search of a permanent sponsor. The Fleet-Center also donated the proceeds to charity.

Sibley said after a student involved in the organization suggested participating in the auction, he said he thought the timing was appropriate.

"Mardi Gras is technically a Catholic holiday—the Catholics are the ones who brought it here—so I think it will remind people of their Catholic roots as a community and get ready for Lent," said Sibley. "It has a spiritual and secular connection."

The organization also received four VIP tickets to each of the March activities at the Cajundome such as USA-MMA's Night of Champions 3, Louisiana IceGators games and the Southwest Louisiana Black Rodeo. Sibley said the organization considered raffling the tickets for fundraising, but no definite decision has been made.