Hey did you hear? The NFL saved New Orleans!

If the NFL were to make an ironclad, granite-carved guarantee to never -- EVER -- move the Saints out of New Orleans, it would be a bigger deal.

Hey, in addition to the Superdome being a fully taxpayer-funded facility when it was built in the first place, it has now been renovated from the foundation pilings up, AGAIN at taxpayer expense.

It should be a federal law that ANY professional sports franchise playing in a facility constructed by taxpayer funds (in any shape or form, including governmentally-backed bonds) can never, EVER move the franchise -- except to another facility, constructed entirely at its own expense, within 10 miles of the first taxpayer-funded facility -- without the league in which the franchise competes immediately granting the host city a new expansion team, the owners of which being allowed to select any single player they choose from all remaining franchises in the league, and being totally exempt from any salary-cap regulations for the first 10 years of the new franchise's existence.

Hey, you want to eat from the taxpayer tree, you get to swallow the poison apple.

 

Oddly enough, the more the NFL hypes how much the Saints mean to New Orleans, the harder it gets for Benson to move the franchise. I wonder if his fellow owners would prefer to keep the LA bonanza for another club member (or applicant) they find more congenial.

 

c'mon thats a pretty pathetic shot at the nfl. the return of the saints IS a big deal for the city, simply for the fact that it is the first major sporting event in the city in a year, and, also, the game is something that happened before Katrina and now for the first time in 13 months will be happening again. the N.O. residents are certainly not going to forget their struggles just because the saints are back playing, but it will bring public attention again to the plight of N.O.. the nfl and, for that matter, the nba will only help the residents rebuild their city.

 

Hasn't the NBA all but decided to move the Hornets to Seattle when the Sonics move to Oklahoma City in (or around) 2009?

 

Ray Nagin, and Mr. NFL, Peter King himself, have:

"Psychologically, the Saints mean everything to this community right now," Nagin said. "We need them now more than ever -- at least until we get back on our feet,'' so that the psyche of the city doesn't crumble. He went on to say the city needed the Saints, who were rumored to be relocating to San Antonio or Los Angeles, to stay "for at least two years. Two years minimum. We'll have enough of our infrastructure and people back by then.''

BYH, I agree with you...

 

let the Saints leave in 2010 and have the Superdome host the Super Bowl every other year. The city'd get almost as much NFL benefit.

 

byh, why do you hate america?

 

A first division Mexican soccer league team would be a much better choice for Los Angeles than an NFL team.

They'd probably have no problem with the current condition of the Coliseum, sell out, and have kick-ass ratings.

I don't understand why this hasn't happened.

 

About those "atrocities"

Reports of anarchy at Superdome overstated

 

Authorities say nothing happened? I feel so much better! No one involved with Katrina clean-up ever lied about anything!

 

Do you have any idea how many live were saved because of that building?