Now 50 Cent Plans To Bring Pro Sports to Shreveport?
Over the last few months the City of Shreveport and business mogul Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson have been building a partnership to bring his G-Unit filming operations to the city. We now know the deal for his company to take over the old Millennium Studios in downtown Shreveport is locked in, but we're also learning about 50 Cent's bigger picture.
Not only will the G-Unit brand take on the downtown studios, they will also be looking to acquire other properties throughout the downtown area. Numerous reports say that 50 Cent and his team have toured multiple buildings through the downtown area, and could start making acquisitions soon. But the City of Shreveport is also in the mix to help G-Unit take over more real estate.
This week, the city started the process to secure a long-term agreement with G-Unit for operations of the former Stageworks building. The building is located at 400 Clyde Fant Memorial Parkway, and is the city's former expo hall. It was changed over to Stageworks, a multiuse soundstage, during the boom of filming in Shreveport. This new agreement with the city will turn possession of the property over to G-Unit.
Now, you might think that a company coming to Shreveport with the intent to produce movies and tv shows might want this former soundstage to use it in filming some filming capacity. But that's not the intent for G-Unit.
Today, Marcus E. Edwards, Shreveport's City Attorney told us:
"The first floor facility will continue to be used as a sports and entertainment event venue, and G-Unit specifically intends to host amateur and professional basketball and volleyball leagues and tournaments, amateur and professional boxing and MMA matches, seminars, conventions, auto shows, concerts and general business meetings. While discussions are on-going, G-Unit has also expressed openness regarding cooperating with the Convention Center regarding sporting events hosted jointly between the two facilities."
He added:
"While filming of sporting and entertainment events may take place at the facility, and likely will under the lease, the City is not interested in and G-Unit does not appear to be seeking the conversion of the facility into a sound stage."
So not a soundstage, but for amateur and professional basketball.
This shouldn't have been as much of a shock to us as it was. Because the City of Shreveport has actually been working to renovate the property away from a soundstage since 2022. It was announced in 2022 that they would be aiming for a sports-oriented space at the property, but that story seemed to come-and-go quickly. The plan also ended up being more expensive than planned.
Initially, the price tag was set at $4.7 million. But today the Shreveport City Attorney informed us that the final numbers were actually $6.7 million. The new roof, and some other portions of the project, are currently unfinished.
The SPAR offices have now moved to the 2nd floor of the building.
There have been some renderings shared by the G-Unit team, and it would appear that the former Stageworks building is what they have labeled as "G Stage Arena" in their rendering.
The timeline for projects in Shreveport with G-Unit isn't entirely clear yet. 50 Cent commented that filming on non-scripted shows could begin in Shreveport this summer, with scripted productions beginning in 2025.