Effect of Hurricane Katrina on the New Orleans Saints

After Hurricane Katrina devastated the city of New Orleans on August 29, 2005 and caused extensive damage to the Louisiana Superdome, the New Orleans Saints were not able to play any home games there for the entire 2005 NFL season. After practicing for approximately a week in San Jose, California, where they had evacuated in conjunction with a pre-season game against the Oakland Raiders, the team set up temporary headquarters and arranged for practice facilities in San Antonio, Texas, where owner Tom Benson started his car dealership empire. The league then announced that although the Saints' first home game on September 18 against the New York Giants would be played at Giants Stadium at 7:30 p.m. EDT on September 19, other home games would be split between Tiger Stadium at LSU in Baton Rouge, Louisiana (80 miles/130 km from New Orleans), and the Alamodome in San Antonio (540 miles/869 km from New Orleans); offices and practice would remain in San Antonio throughout the season. Various media reports in the San Antonio Express-News indicated the owner and government officials in San Antonio were working behind the scenes concerning a possible permanent relocation to San Antonio. San Antonio Mayor Phil Hardberger has pushed a strong verbal campaign to pursue the Saints. Other officials, including Texas Governor Rick Perry, had indicated they would also support a relocation to San Antonio, including using funding to upgrade the Alamodome, or possibly build a new stadium. Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, whose team currently has San Antonio as part of their territory rights, also supported an NFL team moving to San Antonio. However, the NFL and commissioner Paul Tagliabue are in favor of keeping the franchise in New Orleans, or at least delaying a decision on a potential relocation. Other rumors say that the NFL prefers to move the team to Los Angeles, or even prefers to expand to Toronto instead, as both cities are over twice the size as San Antonio.

Many fans in Louisiana were angered and felt that Hardberger and Perry were taking advantage of New Orleans' misfortunes to try to steal the Saints. Benson's actions also drew the anger of New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, who called Benson's actions shameful and disrespectful to New Orleans fans who have supported the team for nearly four decades of mostly losing seasons. San Antonio officials, on the other hand, countered that Benson may have no choice—New Orleans may never fully recover as a viable location for an NFL franchise, and they are simply giving the franchise an option to relocate and remain economically viable, in this case to a city in which Benson already lives and has business interests. Benson indicated in his open letter to the Gulf Coast that San Antonio officials are only doing what any city seeking a franchise would do—recruit the franchise.

Prospective relocation controversy

On October 21, 2005, Benson issued a statement saying that he has not made any decision about the future of the Saints [http://www.nola.com/sports/t-p/index.ssf?/base/sports-20/1129961793235820.xml] . However, the "San Antonio Express-News" reported that sources close to the Saints' organization said that Benson planned to void his lease agreement with New Orleans by declaring the Louisiana Superdome unusable [ [http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/stories/MYSA102105.01A.FBN_saints_lead.1d44511b.html MySA.com: KENS 5: Sports ] ] .

NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue met with Benson and Louisiana governor Kathleen Blanco at the Saints' first home game in Baton Rouge on October 30 against the Miami Dolphins. After the meeting, he stopped just short of making a formal commitment to keep the Saints in New Orleans. Said Tagliabue: "The Saints are Louisiana's team and have been since the late '60s when my predecessor Pete Rozelle welcomed them to the league as New Orleans' team and Louisiana's team. Our focus continues to be on having the Saints in Louisiana." He dispelled rumors that have the Saints relocating to Los Angeles. Tagliabue will form an eight-owner advisory committee to help decide the team's future [ [http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2208747 ESPN - Tagliabue, state working to keep Saints in Louisiana - NFL ] ] . Benson left the game with five minutes left in the fourth quarter. While leaving the stadium, a WWL-TV camera crew recorded him leaving the stadium. Benson angrily pushed the camera away and then got into an argument with a fan. Video of the altercation was obtained by WWL-TV [ [http://www.wwltv.com/perl/common/video/wmPlayer.pl?title=www.wwltv.com/1031benson.wmv Video Player ] ] . Three days later, Benson issued a statement that he would no longer go to Baton Rouge for Saints home games because he felt he and his family were in danger from abuse at the game [ [http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=ap-benson-saintsgames&prov=ap&type=lgns Yahoo! Sports - Sports News, Scores, Rumors, Fantasy Games, and more ] ] ,

The following day, Benson had also agreed with Louisiana state officials to extend his opt out clause with the Superdome and Louisiana because of the disaster until January 2007. Reports speculate this buys Benson time to see how the situation unfolds without having to make a decision now.

In the midst of the Katrina relocation controversy, several groups of investors have approached Benson with offers to buy the team and keep them in Louisiana, the most notable group being one led by FOX Sports analyst and former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Terry Bradshaw, who is a Louisiana native [http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-4/113169397889570.xml] . However, Benson has expressed that he has no intentions of selling the team and plans to eventually hand down ownership to his granddaughter, Saints owner/executive Rita Benson LeBlanc. Benson spoke to press following an NFL owners' meeting on November 15, at which he reiterated that the team is not for sale, but also stated that other NFL owners, along with Tagliabue, were working with him to keep the team in New Orleans [ [http://www.dailynews.com/sports/ci_3220782 LA Daily News - Benson gets support from NFL brothers ] ] .

On December 5, Tagliabue met with Benson and New Orleans officials to tour the city and assess the viability of playing in New Orleans in 2006. On January 11, 2006, at a press conference in New Orleans, Tagliabue announced that the Saints will likely play all eight home games at the Superdome [ [http://www.wwltv.com/sports/saints/stories/WWL011106tpsaints.6963c34e.html News for New Orleans, Louisiana | Saints | News for New Orleans, Louisiana | wwltv.com ] ] . Superdome officials said January 12 that the Dome will be ready by September 1, 2006 [ [http://www.wwltv.com/local/stories/WWL011206tpdome.6f695475.html News for New Orleans, Louisiana | Local News | News for New Orleans, Louisiana | wwltv.com ] ] . The NFL announced on February 5, 2006, that the Superdome would reopen on September 24 when the Saints host the Atlanta Falcons [ [http://www.neworleanssaints.com/newsroomarticle.cfm?articleid=2292 New Orleans Saints - 404 ] ] .

However, Tagliabue said the team's preseason games would likely be played elsewhere in the region. He also said that the Saints and the NFL were committed to New Orleans for the long haul.

Starting in the fall of 2006, the Saints returned to playing all of their regular home games of the 2006 season in New Orleans at the Superdome.

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