In an unprecedented move, Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers restaurants in the Baton Rouge area are replacing a staple of their menu with something they hope is slightly more popular: tickets to LSU men’s basketball games.

“At Raising Cane’s, we strive to make the best meal available,” Raising Cane’s founder and CEO Todd Graves said. “And while our ‘One Love’ will always be chicken, we finally realized many people would prefer anything else over coleslaw, and now we have found that something else.”

Since opening his first restaurant in 1996, Graves maintains, Raising Cane’s has focused on delivering the best meal it can to its customers, but he admits coleslaw substitutions are at an all-time high over the past five years.

“We understand if you want more fries in lieu of slaw, because the fries are great, but then some customers were asking for an extra sauce as a substitute,” explained Graves, “and other restaurants just give those away. When people started asking to substitute the coleslaw in our combos with extra napkins, we knew we had a problem.”

Other substitution options were explored, but each one required actually cooking something. Eventually, LSU Athletic Director Joe Alleva approached Graves with a unique solution.

“When people started asking to substitute the coleslaw in our combos with extra napkins, we knew we had a problem.”

“We heard Todd was looking to get out of selling coleslaw, but he needed a product that was available in the hundreds of thousands. Luckily, we had the perfect solution,” Alleva said. “Attendance at LSU men’s basketball games has not been great. People are looking for a quality product, and winning by single digits to Texas Southern does not inspire confidence.”

The Fighting Tigers are facing the heart of their basketball schedule, as well as lackluster support from a fickle fan base. By getting tickets to home games in the meals of those fair-weather fans, Alleva hopes they will feel obligated to attend.

Tickets to other LSU sporting events were considered, but nothing matched the abundance of availability and lack of popularity of LSU men’s basketball tickets.

“We considered women’s volleyball,” recalled Alleva, “but people actually want those tickets.”

If this partnership proves successful in Baton Rouge, Graves says to expect Raising Cane’s locations in other cities to also replace coleslaw on their menus with tickets to local sporting events.

“We’ve already been in talks with the Pelicans in New Orleans,” said Graves, “and they seem excited.”