New Orleans awarded Super Bowl XLVII

the fact that everything's walking distance (or short cab rides) is one of the things that makes New Orleans such a great place to have the game

 

You could say that for any city that used taxpayer money to build or renovate arenas.

 

A couple of points here:

1. The city and state figure to get back at least dollar-for-dollar, if not more, in tourist money what they put into the Superdome renovations. Super Bowls and BCS National Championships bring hordes of tourists to the city and that adds up to major money.

2. Having the Saints and the Superdome (and to a lesser extent the Hornets) are what validates New Orleans as a, "major-league," city, both in their own minds and in the minds of the country at large. With the Saints and the Dome, they can at least project the illusion that they're players in the same class as Houston or Atlanta. Without them, they're just Savannah or Charleston, charming little Southern cities that can be easily ignored.

 

Not to mention the Grambling-Southern weekend and the other events the Dome & arena host throughout the year.

I won't argue that New Orleans has a lot of problems that could be at least addressed with the money that went into fixing the Dome.

However, as long as the culture of corruption in that city and state remains unchanged that money would never have a hope of being spent in a way that would actually fix any of the problems it could be allocated to address.