Any one hear of anything from the NFL regarding the Saints?
I suspect they will get a new home for the duration of this season and probably next.
I know with riots, the insanity, Fats Domino is missing and will we ever be able to get shitfaced on Bourbon Street again? T
Thinking about the football season is just insane, but returning to some sense of normalcy is vital.
I heard a blurb on the news today about that. Apparently the NFL announced that the Saints will play all of their home games in Texas. Where specifically, I do not recall.
Perhaps they were referring to this, in which case they don’t yet know where they’re gonna play.
There’s an article on nfl.com saying they have moved practice operations to San Antonio, Texas, and they are not certain whether the Superdome will be ready for the Saints’ home opener.
I imagine they could play in the Alamo Dome in San Antonio. In the alternative, they could temporarily use a college stadium in Houston or Arkansas.
More:
Kinda fits with the City of Angels theme.
I thought they were going to play at the Alamodome in San Antonio?
The nice thing to do would be play them in Tiger Stadium. Baton Rouge will not have an empty house/apartment for at least 6 months and we all need anything we can get to get our minds off of the disaster. Quite a few Baton Rouge citizens are season ticket holders as, obviously, are the New Orleaneans that will be staying here.
I don’t know Louisiana geography well, but couldn’t they play at LSU or another large college stadium? Yes, the Sat --> Sun transfer could be difficult, and some of the college towns may not be able to support the incoming fans…
But I’d think it would be terribly important for the N.O. Saints to try and play in Louisiana this season, lost profits be damned.
If the play in Anaheim Stadium, they could change the name to the Los Angeles Saints of New Orleans & Anaheim
I laughed at this probably more than I should have, given the circumstances.
LSU makes the most sense, of course, but has quite a number of difficulties. After that, I’d think San Antonio would be the choice that would make the most sense.
I love the way the NFL keeps saying they’re unsure if the Saints can play in the Superdome. Uh, let’s see. It’s surrounded by water, filled with refugees, there is no power, no water, no sewer, and it has a newly retractable roof. Geez, Paul, do we have to draw you a picture or are you spending all your time watching ESPN instead of CNN?
The most recent article I’ve seen states that
For regular season ‘home’ games, the Alamodome and LSU have been tossed around.
I don’t see why they’re fixated on Giants Stadium. There’s got to be twenty stadiums in North America that don’t already have NFL teams in them that you could ramp up for NFL contests pretty quick. The Alamodome. The L.A. Coliseum. Any number of university stadia. Shit, the SkyDome.
They could convert Wrigley Field and play there. Lord knows the effing Cubs aren’t using it for anything important.
I wouldn’t necessarily call it fixated – they’re playing the Giants that weekend anyway, and it sounds like it’s just for the one game. But from my link:
What about the Astrodome? What are they going to do with the refugees that are living there?
There is the Silverdome up here that is currently only hosting truck pulls, fairs and roller blading.
I say the either ship some refugees up here ( Michiganders have big hearts and love to cook.)
I think the Saints should play in LA. For moral. For the people.
I bet they make it to the Superbowl this year becasue of the emotional UUUMMPHF that will be behind them all season.
No major team currently plays at the Astrodome. The Oilers headed for Tennessee and the Astros moved to Minute Maid park. Might be one of the smaller leagues still using it for all I know.
I agree that playing in Louisiana would be a good public relations move. The whole ticket sales angle for the Saints is screwed this year no matter what so they might as well get what good they can. It’s for damn sure that New Orleans is going to have other problems more important than putting up a new stadium for the Saints in the future.
Yeah, the basic idea (or one of the many) is to just have the Saints play 16 away games, and as a result all their opponents would get 9 home games in 2005. There are numerous problems with this idea, of course, but the main one is that the very first home game they have on the schedule is against the Giants, whose stadium is being used that weekend by the Jets, so right off the bat it’s problematic.
As far as playing Monday night, that’s quite possible, actually. This year is the first year (or is it next year?) with a “flex” MNF schedule later in the season; if a week 10 MNF game ends up being between two 3-6 teams, they can switch it for a more meaningful game. And the turnaround isn’t much of an issue; last year (or the year before) the Giants hosted one of their annual Saturday games late in the season, and the Jets hosted two days later on MNF, so it can be done.
Saturday, however, would be bad in that the NFL has always avoided Saturdays like the plague so as not to step on the toes of NCAA football, who in turn try to avoid Friday nights to avoid stepping on the toes of local highschool games. Then again, this would be special circumstances, much like the Dolphins / Titans game (I think) last season that got rescheduled to a Saturday due to a natural disaster…another hurricane, I believe. (The NCAA conflict is the reason that game was not broadcast live; it was tape delayed until Sunday, where it was broadcast in its original slot, despite the fact it was day-old news at that point.)