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.
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.