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I'm talking about now.
Reason why the NFL is so touch and go with SA hosting the games is because they're using their study from 1999 to judge the city now. Since 1999, we've added almost half a million people.
San Antonio Leaders from the past are the ones to blame. The foundation was set by McCombs and Cisneros and then ing died.
An NFL team would've paid for itself long ago.
I'm talking about now.
Reason why the NFL is so touch and go with SA hosting the games is because they're using their study from 1999 to judge the city now. Since 1999, we've added almost half a million people.
It seems that most citizens of SA are getting on the same sheet of music.
San Antonio has plenty of support for a football team.
Bud, Toyota, SBC, Valero, Washington Mut, SSFCU..........................
To easy.
Well, many places do not get this kind of an aud ion. If this works out, then it could prove the NFL viable in San Antonio. I sitll doubt it, but we'll see what happens.
Well I think they are getting at least four games.
It will be fun to watch in person, even if it's just temporary.
NEW: Saints tickets go on sale Wednesday morning
Web Posted: 09/13/2005 03:28 PM CDT
Tom Orsborn
Express-News Staff Writer
The New Orleans Saints announced today that tickets for their three games at the Alamodome this season will go on sale at 10 a.m. Wednesday.
Those interested in buying tickets should call the Saints at (210) 208-9520 or TicketMaster at (800) 877-0898.
Tickets are also available at the Alamodome box office and online at neworleanssaints.com and ticketmaster.com.
Prices for individual game tickets range from $30 to $125. Group packages range from $28 to $123. Tickets can also be bought in three-game packs ranging from $75 to $360.
The three games in San Antonio are Oct. 2 against Buffalo, Oct. 16 against Atlanta and Dec. 24 against Detroit. The Saints also will play four home games in Baton Rouge, La.
A portion of the revenue from ticket sales will go to the New Orleans Saints Hurricane Katrina Relief Fund.
Saints a feel-good story for now, but future not bright for their fans
By TIM DAHLBERG, AP Sports Columnist
September 13, 2005
The New Orleans Saints gave the NFL just what it wanted Sunday -- a feel-good story to warm the hearts and wrap the flag around. The team with no home won one for people with no homes.
Saints fans cheered as they watched on big screens in shelters across the country, and for a few hours, at least, everyone had something to smile about.
If this were a Hollywood movie, the Saints would go on to win the Super Bowl, the parade down Bourbon Street would spark the city's rebuilding effort, and the team that saved New Orleans would become as much of an ins ution as Mardi Gras.
Unfortunately, this is real life. And that leaves the future of the Saints almost as murky as the water that still covers much of the city.
The most immediate part of that future begins Monday night when the Saints travel to New York to play the Giants for a ``home'' game in front of some 78,000 fans who won't be cheering for running back Deuce McAllister and don't have a clue who Wayne Gandy is (for the record, he's an offensive lineman).
The only home field advantage in the Meadowlands belongs to Saints owner Tom Benson. He's the guy who, thanks to the NFL, will pocket the receipts from a large paying crowd made up almost entirely of Giants' season ticket holders.
The Giants can probably use an extra home game to help calm Eli Manning down, but there was really no logistical reason why the Saints couldn't have hosted the game in San Antonio. Because oddsmakers usually figure the home team advantage is worth three points, the Saints went from possible 3-point favorites to 3-point underdogs by having to travel to New York.
``As a football coach that is not the best thing for this team,'' Saints coach Jim Haslett said of the move to New York.
In reality, the Saints will have only three games they can legitimately consider home games all season. The team is based now in San Antonio and, other than the three games now scheduled for the Alamodome, New Orleans will travel to every game.
(True, four of those games will be in Baton Rouge, La., where the crowd will be cheering for the Saints. But the team will have to travel there to play, and it will be an unfamiliar atmosphere for both teams.)
For a team that had trouble winning even in normal cir stances, giving away points almost every week isn't exactly a recipe for playoff contention. But what Saints fans should fear most is what comes after this year.
The Superdome is likely history, no matter how cosmetic the damage is to the team's former home. Benson wanted a new stadium long before Katrina hit, and there's no way he's going to willingly go back to a building that is now symbolic of so much human misery.
A new stadium is also out of the question. Imagine, when much of the city needs rebuilding, the outcry if someone suggests spending hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer money to build a football stadium for an owner that really doesn't want to be there anyway?
It was just four years ago that Louisiana agreed to pay the Saints some $2 million a home game just to keep them in New Orleans. But even that deal was in trouble before the hurricane because, with tourism lagging, the state couldn't find enough money to put in Benson's pockets.
Under the deal, Benson would have to repay the $81 million he's already gotten if he took the team elsewhere. But all bets are off now because Benson could claim that he isn't obligated to stay in New Orleans when there no longer is a proper place to play.
Benson has given New Orleans every reason to be nervous about the future of the team. He kept silent for two weeks, then said little when questioned Monday.
``We're not going to worry about that today,'' he said.
Contrast that with New Orleans Hornets owner George Shinn, who was basically run out of Charlotte by angry fans but now seems to have found things to his liking in the Big Easy. Shinn needs a new temporary home for his NBA team, too, but says he plans to be back.
``Our objective is not to abandon ship here or to get out of dodge,'' Shinn told The Times-Picayune the other day. ``Our plan is to hope and pray New Orleans rebuilds.''
Benson's immediate plan, meanwhile, seems to be gauging the ability of San Antonio, where he has a home and business interests, to support a team.
If not, there's always Los Angeles, though that might mean he has to sell the Saints because the NFL would prefer local ownership. That shouldn't be a major hardship since Benson said earlier this year he had been offered $1 billion for the team.
On Sunday, the Saints gave the displaced residents of New Orleans some relief from the despair invading their lives. Sports may not help them find a new home or job, but if ever a city needed a team to do well, this was the time.
Unfortunately, they may not have long to enjoy it.
Because the next sound you hear will be these Saints marching out.
Tim Dahlberg is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at [email protected]
They really should have let them play here against the giants...im a huge cowboys fan but i wouldnt mind if the Saints won the superbowl
Is basing a NFL franchise in San Antonio going to lead to a large increase in the TV ratings for the NFL? No. You don't need to put a 3rd team in Texas to convince Texans to watch more football or more Texans to watch NFL football, as it were.
Again, the 2nd (or 1st, I forget) largest media market in the US does not have a NFL franchise. The valuation of a team in LA is going to be significantly more than for a team in SA. Perhaps a guy like Benson or McCombs is civic minded enough to leave hundreds of million$ on the table in order to bring a 2nd major pro sports franchise to South Texas, but I am somewhat skeptical of that.
What satdium is a team in LA going to play in?
Exactly. Which is a major reason why they don't have an NFL team anymore nor have had one since and the future isn't as certain for a LA team in the short term.
They could just play in the Colosseum until they get a new place built. Of course plans for a new one would have to be in place before a team moved in, but an interim venue is not a huge deal. The new stadium would depend on which government was willing to play ball with the NFL. Carson seemed to be the closest last time around; who knows who could be next?What satdium is a team in LA going to play in?
Youre completely looking at this from the wrong direction.
The NFL certainly wants a franchise in LA in the worst way, but they want the startup franchise fee to come out of LA. Benson will not be allowed to move the Saints to LA because the NFL wants to make 500+ mill off franchise fees.
Otherwise they are going to get lesser dollars from a lesser market.
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