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View Full Version : Will the Saints move to another city permanently?



CShine
9/1/2005, 01:40 PM
Those who has been following the Saints for a long time may be aware that they've threatened to move in the recent past, and that the contract they have to stay in New Orleans requires the state of Louisiana to pay several million dollars to the team every year. Just this year a 15 million dollar payment was due from the state on July 5th. The state announced it was 9 million short and asked owner Tom Benson to allow them to defer some of the cost till later. He refused and suggested that he might take the team elsewhere if the payment was not made on time. Ultimately, the state caved in and borrowed the money to meet the deadline.

With the state faced with disaster recovery costs that will undoubtably be gargantuan and the Superdome facing repairs that could run into the millions, it's hard to believe that the stadium will be restored any time soon given the much higher priority that will obviously be placed on getting state dollars to areas of much greater need. It's even harder to imagine that a state already strapped for cash before Katrina would now be willing to cough up ANOTHER multi-million dollar payment to the Saints for next year.

When Benson threatened to move the team, one of the cities that was said to be high on his list was San Antonio. Unsurprisingly, the team is now "temporarily" headquartered there. Might that stay become permanent? One of the previous arguments against that move was that the Alamodome was inferior to the Superdome. That's no longer the case. Given the possibility that the state of Louisiana may be unwilling to meet its future contractual obligations to the Saints and that the restoration of the Superdome is likely to be low on their list of priorities, might Benson decide that it's in his best long-term interest to take the team to another city for good? The more I think about it the more it seems like the Saints have already played their last home game in Louisiana.

mrowl
9/1/2005, 02:32 PM
answer - yes...

the news is now that the superdome may not be repair-able, money wise....

GottaHavePride
9/1/2005, 09:02 PM
A friend of mine from LA says the rumor he heard said Los Angeles. Either way, it'll be years before N.O.'s economy has recovered enoguh to support an NFL team.

jdsooner
9/2/2005, 01:14 AM
I think the Saints may be gone for good. While that might seem trivial at a time like this, it means that millions of dollars would be gone from the New Orleans economy at a critical time. I lived in New Orleans for two years and most of my ex-in-laws still live there. I do not think that New Orleans will ever recover from this tragedy.

I still remember going to a Saints game against the Dolphins in the 80s. The Saints won, but a brash young second string qb almost led Miami back to victory. His name was Dan Marino and he became the starter the next Sunday.

GDC
9/11/2005, 02:58 PM
I have been a Saints fan since the early 70s. My second grade buddies picked them for me out of one of those DX gas station NFL stamp albums since I didn't have a favorite team at the time. San Antonio Saints is kind of redundant, isn't it?

OklahomaTrombone
9/11/2005, 03:40 PM
San Antonio Sans

Paperclip
9/11/2005, 04:10 PM
San Antonio Sans

heh

scotplum
9/12/2005, 10:21 AM
The more I think about it the more it seems like the Saints have already played their last home game in Louisiana.

I believe the Saints will be playing 3 games at LSU stadium this year so technically, they will still have some games in Louisiana. I do see what you were saying though.

yermom
9/12/2005, 02:22 PM
if they make millions of dollars, wouldn't it make sense to pay them millions of dollars?

especially if they are winning :D