The 2005 Home of the New Awlins Saints will be . . .

Baton Rogue . . . I'm sure the NFL & Saints are chatting with LSU officials right now to make this happen . . . Superdome is going to need a lot of roof repair before it will be ready for bizness again. I guess this speeds up plans for . .

1) The State of LA/City of Nola to scrounge up some bucks to a) renovate the Superdome or b) build a new Stadium O-R

2) Saints owner to say 'Screw it!!!!' and move the team to SAN ANTONIO (which is where the owner lives I think) or move to LOS ANGELES.

THE BOTTOM LINE: Funny a state that relies so much on tourism money to keep the state going is going to sputter out of gas quickly. This storm is going to kill their tourism business big time, which prevents them from continuting to pay those ridiculs state subsidies that keep the Hornets & Saints in town, which prevents them from seriously thinking about coming up with a plan to even try to finance a new Saints stadium in town. I guess we'll see the LA SAINTS playing at a refurbished LA COLISEUM in 2006 or 07 at the latest, right ? ?

 

They could probably have that Dome fixed in a week or two, but the city will take some time to put back in shape to accomodate game day.

 

it will take longer than that, it needs a new roof I would say at least a month and a half to put on a new roof

 

with 50-80% of the city under water i think it may be a while before a game is played there.

 

that Superdome was awfully ugly before all this happened, too.

 

the vision has been revealed, rather than an aesthetically pleasing football stadium, they built a disaster shelter that looks like a big oil tank.

 

I saw footage on TV of a highrise hotel with absolutely NO windows on the north side. There is no way they play in New Orleans til at least mid-season, if at all.

 

as per this article, the Saints have already contacted the alamodome...

Saints' contingency plans include San Antonio
Web Posted: 08/29/2005 04:55 PM CDT

Tom Orsborn
Express-News Staff Writer


The Alamodome will keep Sept. 18 vacant should the New Orleans Saints decide to move their home opener against the New York Giants to San Antonio, a city official said today.

“We would love to have them,” Alamodome director Mike Abington said. “We certainly don’t wish them the misfortune that would force them to come here. But if that is the case, we would love to have them and a lot of our citizens would love to watch them.”

San Antonio has never hosted a regular-season NFL game.

Saints officials called Abington after learning Hurricane Katrina had ripped two holes in the curved roof of the Louisiana Superdome, the Saints home.

Each hole measured about 15 to 20 feet long and 4 to 5 feet wide, Superdome and government emergency officials estimated.

The Saints flew to San Jose on Sunday to prepare for their Thursday night preseason game against the Oakland Raiders.

Abington said the Saints official said the team plans to practice next week in Charlotte, N.C., where the club will open the regular season on Sept. 11 against the Carolina Panthers.

The Saints practiced in San Antonio for three days last September after fleeing New Orleans ahead of Hurricane Ivan.

Saints owner Tom Benson, a New Orleans native, was once one of San Antonio’s biggest car dealers. He still owns a ranch in the Hill Country and often attends Mass at the University of the Incarnate Word.

In addition to speaking to Abington, the Saints also called the Marriott Rivercenter to ask about availability.

 

Nice scoop there, sds.

 

I hope all this does not translate into some emotional performance against us in the opener where they play over their heads and beat us.