From a N.O. resident and Saints fan

[tgrgrd00]

Don't bash on us. Tagliabue is furiously working behind the scenes to move the team to LA. We're just throwing our hats into the ring.

It's a tough go, but ultimately, it's a business. I've heard estimates of post-Katrina New Orleans having a population of 250,000. The team was originally awarded in 1967 to New Orleans. The previous census (1960) had placed them at 640,000 population. The 2000 census had them at 490,000. That's obviously not growth. The Saints were having a tough go of fielding a compe ive team with their existing revenue streams, which is why they negotiated the state subsidy. I don't believe they could survive without it, and that money could be put to MUCH better uses by the state in terms of rebuilding. Louisiana and New Orleans worrying about what the Saints are doing strikes me somewhat like a cancer patient worrying about a zit: there should be higher priorities.

Your numbers are scewed...the city of N.O. has had a population decrease since 1960...but you left out the part about the suburban areas growing at at least a greater rate than the city itself. You don't have to live in the city on N.O. to go to a Saints game. People all over the Gulf coast go to the Saints games. Why don't you tell us what the census says about these areas and there population trends? What does that say about being able to sustain a football team?

How can you question our ability to sustain a team regarding revenue streams? Nobody knows how much the Saints make except for Benson. Do you have some kind of special pass to look at his books? He will not divulge his accounting information to anyone. That is how we got in to the pos ion of using tax payer money to subsidies the team.

[tgrgrd00]

The Saints were a boarderline NFL-caliber town before Katrina.

The reality is it will be years, if ever, before they become one again.

Oh and I guess S.A. is considered a Super market caliber town all of a sudden. That is why they have to try and steal a team from a city that was just hit with a natural disaster.

[Shiner Bock Girl]

Oh and I guess S.A. is considered a Super market caliber town all of a sudden. That is why they have to try and steal a team from a city that was just hit with a natural disaster.

Maybe you should read the newest article today. You could learn from Horn's comments....And maybe you ppl need to straighten out LSU, looks like they hurt you more then we did saying they don't want the Saints there....

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/me...n.1835860c.html

[tgrgrd00]

tgrgrd00 you are a complete idiot, do you really think the City of New Orleans any time soon can financially supporrt NFL football ENTERTAINMENT? The City and its economy are a complete 180 degrees from what it was pre-Katrina. People are BARELY creeping back to their home which most of them are going to be bull dozed, do you really think the ty assed already old and now old and heavily damaged Superdome by Katrina can get fully packed with fans every home game? Let alone, afford 10 dollar beers, 5 dollar Sodas, 6 dollar hot dogs, and 20 dollar parking??? given that people can barely afford to buy a loaf of bread and a gallon of gas? Wake up boy, your Saints are marching out west to SA. Bye the way...(they're already here)

I think the city will be able to support this team. Not this season...but next season we willl be able to support this team. I live here and I see what is happening. We have traffic worse than it was before Katrina, hotels are coming back to business, there are more jobs available than every before.

We had 92,400 people at the LSU game last weekend...many of them from N.O.

The Saints may be marching to S.A. but only because they are being looted from the city.

[Marcus Bryant]

Oh and I guess S.A. is considered a Super market caliber town all of a sudden. That is why they have to try and steal a team from a city that was just hit with a natural disaster.

SA was a better NFL market than NO before Katrina. The primary reason SA hasn't ended up with a team has been because a Cowboys' game is the highest rated program in SA anytime one is on.

Look, I hope NO keeps a NFL franchise. I'd just like to see one in SA as well.

[tgrgrd00]

Maybe you should read the newest article today. You could learn from Horn's comments....And maybe you ppl need to straighten out LSU, looks like they hurt you more then we did saying they don't want the Saints there....

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/me...n.1835860c.html

LSU has legitimate concerns about the Saints playing in their stadium. I named some of them earlier in the thread.

Besides LSU and the Saints have always been compe ors in the past and Benson certainly hasn't done anything to help LSU before. The Superdome is where the Saints play and when the Superdome is ready the Saints should be back in it.

Joe horn looks like he is a little 2 faced. He has always talked about how much he loves N.O. I would be skeptical of anything the players say really. If the guy who signs their paychecks says Joe Horn likes S.A. then Joe Horn likes S.A.

[tgrgrd00]

SA was a better NFL market than NO before Katrina. The primary reason SA hasn't ended up with a team has been because a Cowboys' game is the highest rated program in SA anytime one is on.

Look, I hope NO keeps a NFL franchise. I'd just like to see one in SA as well.

Hey I agree completely.....I hope San Antonio gets 2 or 3 franchises for all I care. Just not our Saints franchise.

[Shiner Bock Girl]

What? Show me one quote where the mayor of B.R. has said anything of the sort. You are assuming that BR hates the Saints? Where do you get that from? I know plenty of people in BR that love the Saints. Don't assume.

As a matter of fact the mayor of BR has zero say in who plays at LSU and who doesn't. The atheletic director and board of supervisors at LSU decides what happens at Tiger Stadium. LSU owns Tiger Stadium (not BR) and they are trying to work on a deal to play all the Saints games there next season. There are slight problems with concession workers, police/crowd control, ticketing, etc that have hindered the process.

Your comments are way off base and completely incorrect. Stop assuming to make yourself feel better.

I couldn't be too way off with the comments LSU has been making, but here you sound like they love them.

LSU has legitimate concerns about the Saints playing in their stadium. I named some of them earlier in the thread.

Besides LSU and the Saints have always been compe ors in the past and Benson certainly hasn't done anything to help LSU before. The Superdome is where the Saints play and when the Superdome is ready the Saints should be back in it.

Joe horn looks like he is a little 2 faced. He has always talked about how much he loves N.O. I would be skeptical of anything the players say really. If the guy who signs their paychecks says Joe Horn likes S.A. then Joe Horn likes S.A.

Now here your talking like they don't like them...Which is it??? And of course Horn Loves NO, you never hate your home....But he's just tired of NOLA claiming they own them and these players obviously had enough...He didn't have to speak out, he was getting a pay check whether he spoke out or not...

[Ishta]

Maybe you should read the newest article today. You could learn from Horn's comments....And maybe you ppl need to straighten out LSU, looks like they hurt you more then we did saying they don't want the Saints there....

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/me...n.1835860c.html

The link didn't work..What was the name of the story?

[Shiner Bock Girl]

Hey I agree completely.....I hope San Antonio gets 2 or 3 franchises for all I care. Just not our Saints franchise.

I would rather start fresh also...New Name and logo....

[Shiner Bock Girl]

The link didn't work..What was the name of the story?

Nagin blasts Saints owner for trying to move team
Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS -- Mayor Ray Nagin disparaged Saints owner Tom Benson on Wednesday for working with San Antonio officials to permanently keep the NFL team in Texas.

The mayor's comments came after the departures of two top Saints executives who were supportive of keeping the Saints in Louisiana. Nagin is concerned that San Antonio officials said publicly that Benson is working with them to relocate the franchise to Texas.

"We want our Saints, we may not want the owner back," Nagin said while attending the reopening of Cafe Du Monde in the French Quarter.

"I'm ready to go to the NFL and to [commissioner Paul] Tagliabue and say, 'Give us the Cleveland plan,'" Nagin added, referring to the league awarding Cleveland an expansion team almost immediately after the Browns moved to Baltimore after the 1995 season. "Whatever the Saints want to do, you let them leave, but they can't take our logo, they can't take our name, and you give us a promise to give us a franchise when this city's back."

A Saints spokesman did not return a telephone call and e-mail seeking a response to Nagin's comments.

"For them to be openly talking to other cities about moving is disrespectful to the citizens of New Orleans, disrespectful to the Saints fans who have hung in with this franchise through 30-something years under very trying times," Nagin said.

The Saints joined the NFL in 1967. In 1986, Benson was part of an ownership group that bought the team to ensure it would stay in Louisiana. Benson eventually bought out other members of the group.

During Benson's ownership, the state of Louisiana has built him a new headquarters, including spending $6.75 million for an indoor practice field in 2003. The state also has paid for repeated improvements to the Louisiana Superdome at Benson's insistence during the past two decades.

On Monday night, Benson fired Arnold Fielkow, the team's top business executive since 2000. Fielkow had overseen a 36-game sellout streak at the Superdome and negotiated an unprecedented stadium lease that called for the state to pay Benson $187 million in direct subsidies over 10 years.

But Fielkow has said he believed the Saints needed to be leaders in New Orleans' rebuilding process after Hurricane Katrina and repeatedly praised Saints fans in Louisiana as the best and most loyal in the NFL. Fielkow has since said that stance led to his dismissal.

On Tuesday, Conrad Kowal, senior director of marketing and business development, also resigned.

Nagin called Benson's recent actions a "doggone shame."

link


Seems like Nagin sees the writing on the wall but has to say the politically correct things.

[samikeyp]

The Saints may be marching to S.A. but only because they are being looted from the city.

You can't have stolen from you something you never owned.

[samikeyp]

A report in the LSU student newspaper would seem to support Horn's claim about Baton Rouge.

According to the Reveille, LSU chancellor Sean O'Keefe expressed at a faculty senate meeting last week his displeasure about the NFL's decision to schedule games at Tiger Stadium.

"We'd rather not have the games here at all," O'Keefe was quoted as saying by the Reveille. "This is going to be a real problem, and we are not excited about the prospect."

O'Keefe called the staging of the games a "huge logistical nightmare" and said "it will not be a windfall for the university."

[Ishta]

Nagin blasts Saints owner for trying to move team
Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS -- Mayor Ray Nagin disparaged Saints owner Tom Benson on Wednesday for working with San Antonio officials to permanently keep the NFL team in Texas.

The mayor's comments came after the departures of two top Saints executives who were supportive of keeping the Saints in Louisiana. Nagin is concerned that San Antonio officials said publicly that Benson is working with them to relocate the franchise to Texas.

"We want our Saints, we may not want the owner back," Nagin said while attending the reopening of Cafe Du Monde in the French Quarter.

"I'm ready to go to the NFL and to [commissioner Paul] Tagliabue and say, 'Give us the Cleveland plan,'" Nagin added, referring to the league awarding Cleveland an expansion team almost immediately after the Browns moved to Baltimore after the 1995 season. "Whatever the Saints want to do, you let them leave, but they can't take our logo, they can't take our name, and you give us a promise to give us a franchise when this city's back."

A Saints spokesman did not return a telephone call and e-mail seeking a response to Nagin's comments.

"For them to be openly talking to other cities about moving is disrespectful to the citizens of New Orleans, disrespectful to the Saints fans who have hung in with this franchise through 30-something years under very trying times," Nagin said.

The Saints joined the NFL in 1967. In 1986, Benson was part of an ownership group that bought the team to ensure it would stay in Louisiana. Benson eventually bought out other members of the group.

During Benson's ownership, the state of Louisiana has built him a new headquarters, including spending $6.75 million for an indoor practice field in 2003. The state also has paid for repeated improvements to the Louisiana Superdome at Benson's insistence during the past two decades.

On Monday night, Benson fired Arnold Fielkow, the team's top business executive since 2000. Fielkow had overseen a 36-game sellout streak at the Superdome and negotiated an unprecedented stadium lease that called for the state to pay Benson $187 million in direct subsidies over 10 years.

But Fielkow has said he believed the Saints needed to be leaders in New Orleans' rebuilding process after Hurricane Katrina and repeatedly praised Saints fans in Louisiana as the best and most loyal in the NFL. Fielkow has since said that stance led to his dismissal.

On Tuesday, Conrad Kowal, senior director of marketing and business development, also resigned.

Nagin called Benson's recent actions a "doggone shame."

link


Seems like Nagin sees the writing on the wall but has to say the politically correct things.

Thanks I think the Saints will be here at least next year and after that.....Who knows. San Antonio would welcome them here with open arms as we have already shown.

[Shiner Bock Girl]

You can't have stolen from you something you never owned.

Exactly, they also had how many years to actually buy the team?

[samikeyp]

True. I get tgr's anger but its misdirected. You can't blame the fans in SA who go to these games and cheer their heads off. You can't come into a SA-based message board, trash the city, and expect everyone to be sympathetic and agree with you. I get you are pissed. I would be too if the situations were reversed, but to ignore the fact that steps like this were in place well before the storm hit is wrong and to ignore the possibility that Benson in iated these talks and SA is just responding is wrong also. What was Hardberger supposed to do? "No thanks Tom, we don't want a team here". If the situation were reversed, the city gov. of NO would be doing the exact same thing.

[tgrgrd00]

You can't have stolen from you something you never owned.

From wikipedia.org:

The NFL awarded the city of New Orleans an NFL franchise on 1 November 1966.

Awarded: v: Give; Bestow; Grant

[samikeyp]

The Saints joined the NFL in 1967. In 1986, Benson was part of an ownership group that bought the team to ensure it would stay in Louisiana. Benson eventually bought out other members of the group.

own
Of or belonging to oneself or itself: She makes her own clothes.

n.
That which belongs to one: I wanted a room of my own.

v. owned, own·ing, owns
v. tr.

To have or possess as property;To have control over:

[tgrgrd00]

True. I get tgr's anger but its misdirected. You can't blame the fans in SA who go to these games and cheer their heads off. You can't come into a SA-based message board, trash the city, and expect everyone to be sympathetic and agree with you. I get you are pissed. I would be too if the situations were reversed, but to ignore the fact that steps like this were in place well before the storm hit is wrong and to ignore the possibility that Benson in iated these talks and SA is just responding is wrong also. What was Hardberger supposed to do? "No thanks Tom, we don't want a team here". If the situation were reversed, the city gov. of NO would be doing the exact same thing.

I never trashed the city of S.A. and I don't expect anyone to agree with me or sympathize with me. I think S.A. is a great city and the people are probably some of the best in the country after the way they helped out immediately after the storm. Unfortunately that immediate help has turned in to a hinderance 2 months later.

I beleive that steps were in place before Katrina to keep the team in N.O. Just read a few pages back in this thread and see the stadium plans and deals that are/were in the works.

I don't know what Hardberger was supposed to do...he could say lets wait till the end of the season at least...or lets wait till N.O. can come up with their offer after they recover from the storm. But that would be asking probably a little too much because then the chances of getting the franchise would be less possible.

[tgrgrd00]

The Saints joined the NFL in 1967. In 1986, Benson was part of an ownership group that bought the team to ensure it would stay in Louisiana. Benson eventually bought out other members of the group.

You forgot to bold the part about they allowed them to purchase the team with the agreement to ensure the Saints would stay in Louisiana.

That is the only way this group was allowed to purchase the team...they had to stay in LA because the franchise was awarded to N.O.

[Marcus Bryant]

Local governments do not own NFL franchises. Fairly basic. A franchise can be awarded to a certain locale, but ownership is whatever en y or individuals who put up the jack to buy and operate the team. In addition that ownership can move the team, if they are so allowed.

[samikeyp]

The Saints joined the NFL in 1967. In 1986, Benson was part of an ownership group that bought the team to ensure it would stay in Louisiana. Benson eventually bought out other members of the group.

You ignored the bolded part about buying out the other members of the group. That group was desgined to keep the team in NO. The group is now gone, Benson is the sole owner and can do what he feels is best for the franchise.

[Marcus Bryant]

Let's be honest here. The league cannot/won't stop Benson from moving his team. If he doesn't win out among the owners he'll win in court.

What is likely going to happen is that Benson does as he wants with the team and the NFL puts another franchise in New Orleans. I think the league doesn't have a choice. They could turn an awful PR situation into a major plus if the league is seen as sticking with the city and trying to help its redevelopment.

Also, it's not like a NFL franchise is a hard thing to sell nowadays. The league could command a fairly hefty price for a new franchise. In addition, the state of Louisiana has shown it's willing to step in and subsidize a team in New Orleans. The state could come up with a plan for a new development featuring a state of the art stadium facility as well as hotels and what not else. So the NFL doesn't abandon New Orleans, SA lands a NFL franchise ( yeah), avoids the 'stealing/looting' moniker nonsense and everyone's happy.

Perhaps I'm off, but that's how I'm reading the situation.

[tgrgrd00]

Local governments do not own NFL franchises. Fairly basic. A franchise can be awarded to a certain locale, but ownership is whatever en y or individuals who put up the jack to buy and operate the team. In addition that ownership can move the team, if they are so allowed.

Less Green Bay.

[samikeyp]

Less Green Bay.

very true. I am surprised more cities haven't done that.