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."
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Seems like Nagin sees the writing on the wall but has to say the politically correct things.
This dumb needs to shut the up.
What was disrespectful to the citizens of New Orleans was you cramming their asses in a Superdome for 4 days without power or food.
This dumb disrespected his entire city when he did nothing with all those buses that flooded.
This guy is a piece of crap grade A.
Benson Rules
Go SaS go.. go SaS go.. gooooooo go gogo
Just wait till we shock the league by winning the Superbowl...
That's the real reason Jerry Jones .. I mean the league does not want us keeping the team.
Mr. Nagin has alot of other issues he should be worried about.
stupid School Bus Nagin, does he really think his city can financially support an NFL team after what happened? Even given the extensive damage of the Superdome?
first funny thing you've ever said!
Stupid comment.
Nagins burning his bridges with Benson. Remember, Benson hasnt officially come out and said anything. Nagin has basically told Benson to go to . Im sure that will give Benson an incentive to stay. Nagin shoulda said something along the lines of "Im dissapointed about the rumors", "I have faith that Benson will do the right thing", "I look forward to negotiating with Benson in the future", regardless of what he may be feeling.
But then again, after seeing him immediatly after Katrina, you could never say hes the brightest bulb around.
Benson is playing it perfectly. He can come out after all the whining from Nagin and the other Louisiana trash and say "I was going to come back, but after seeing all the assholes I would be coming back to, that."
Someone needs to tell Nagin it's going to take 10 years to rebuild NO, people aren't going to have money laying around for football. What a dumbass.
Word. I heard someone say that the daytime population of NO is ~200,000, but at night, it's about 70,000 after the people returning for possessions and insurance claims go back to their outlying hotels for curfew. That's about 1/7 of 2000 census population. Another way of looking at it is that IF the Superdome were playable, each and every person would have to buy season tickets and go to every game to fill the dome.Someone needs to tell Nagin it's going to take 10 years to rebuild NO, people aren't going to have money laying around for football. What a dumbass.
Benson is handeling it perfectly on his end.
He has actually said nothing on the situation.
However he's using our mayor as his mouth piece to get his point across.
Your right Aggie, hes getting the State, the city and the politicians to turn against him without having to take the actual blame
I like Nagin. He's has had to face something no other mayor has faced. I'm not a big fan of couch potato critics who think they know what he should have done. Especially the bus thing.
I don't think what he's saying is stupid by any means. Our Mayor is an old school tough Texas talker who doesn't have very much tact. But if the Saints relocate here permanently he will be well liked by a lot of San Antonians, anyway. I'd like to see the Saints here like many. But use a little political tact already............
General Sam Houston - 2 weeks before the battle of the Alamo
"What is it about that place, people run there at every i'll wind?" In reference to San Antonio De Bexar.
LOL it's like he predicted Katrina...
Actually, for someone who ran as a political outsider/businessman, it's quite stupid. Benson is making a business decision, and Nagin is pouting like a child.I don't think what he's saying is stupid by any means.
hey gameFace, remember 9/11? You know, a guy named Rudy Giuliani? He had no idea 9/11 was going to happen, School Bus Nagin knew days ahead of the Hurrican threat, he made no arrangement before the storm for the people who couldnt get out.I like Nagin. He's has had to face something no other mayor has faced
If you're Mayor of New Orleans, of course you rip Benson and then demand that the NFL not leave your city.
Doesn't mean he's right, but that's what he's gotta do.
I don't compare them directly. 9-11 was a group of individuals who attacked an entire country. I don't want to play that down. Although wounded emotionally the city was still able to operate. NO suffered the loss of lives, infrastructure, utilities, etc as a result of a natural disaster. Apples and oranges. Houston didn't exactly solve the problem of evacuation. People ran out of gas and were stranded. It's fortunate Rita didn't strike there. So I lay off Nagin, their citizens and Saints fans for feeling the way they do.
Resistance is Futile....
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