Forgotten VHS Footage Of Shreveport’s ‘Promising Future’

"Shreveport, Louisiana, an exciting, thriving metropolitan community of 400,000. A progressive city fast becoming one of America's the top entertainment destinations.

A city of Unique Southern charm and hospitality. New vision, new energy. New opportunity. It's the NEW Shreveport...it's something special."

Does that sound like the Shreveport you know today? Well, that was the pitch for what Shreveport was in the late 1990s and early 2000s. We have the proof inside this recently uncovered video. This forgotten VHS tape is titled "Shreveport: Something Special - Make Yourself At Home", and according to a Reddit post, it was recently found at a Goodwill store.

Look at all that promise and possibility. Even people who hate living in Shreveport today would like to live in the Shreveport advertised in this video. Just look at some of the stuff we could have had that we never got...

Like the "Rivertown" concept, with restaurants, nightlife, and an amazing atmosphere. Or the future GM was set to have in the Shreveport area, and the growth promised for the Port of Caddo. All just seemed to fizzle out.

Then there are the things highlighted and promised in the video that we haven't taken care of. They Convention Center promised did come true, but it hasn't been maintained since then. With failing infrastructure inside and a deteriorating exterior. When Festival Plaza is highlighted, you can look closely and see that the elements shown are effectively all the same 20+ years later. Same ticket booths, same fences, same staging area.

Things included that we don't have anymore, like Neon Saturday Nights, the Shreveport Captains, and constant growth. There were highlights for expansions to Independence Stadium, the Shreveport Regional Airport, and Downtown Shreveport. But we don't have baseball anymore, we don't celebrate downtown anymore, and the growth has all but left.

There are various different reasons why Shreveport never achieved this promised potential, but no matter the reason, it just sucks that we never saw it.