Raising Cane's River Center, performing arts and convention center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States
Raising Cane's River Center is an entertainment complex in downtown Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on the banks of the Mississippi River. Opened in 1977 as the Riverside Centroplex, it contains an arena, a theater, an exhibition hall, a grand ballroom and a library. The arena seats up to 10,400 for concerts, 8,900 for sporting events and 4,500 for theater events; the theater seats up to 1,999.
Opened in 1977 as the Riverside Centroplex, the complex was built on the bank of the Mississippi in downtown Baton Rouge. It was later renamed the Baton Rouge River Center, and in 2016 Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers signed a 10-year naming rights agreement. A 2011 expansion added 10,000 square feet to the Exhibition Hall.
The River Center Theater for Performing Arts seats up to 1,999 people and is the resident home of Opera Louisiane, the Baton Rouge Ballet Theatre and the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra. The same hall also stages theatre performances and musicals, so a single address covers opera, dance, orchestra concerts and touring shows.
The complex stands on the banks of the Mississippi in downtown Baton Rouge, with the arena, exhibition hall, ballroom and theater grouped together; the exhibition hall can be joined to the arena for more than 100,000 square feet of continuous space. The theater seats up to 1,999 people. Check which venue your event uses before arriving, since each space has its own entrance and layout.
In 2016 Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers, a Baton Rouge-founded chicken restaurant chain, signed a 10-year naming rights deal, so the complex left behind the River Center name it had held since the Riverside Centroplex days. The arena has hosted minor-league teams including the Baton Rouge Kingfish (1996–2003) and, from 2023, the Baton Rouge Zydeco.
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