I hope the Saints can play somewhere in Louisiana, or at least in the South, such as at the Liberty Bowl in Memphis or at Legion Field in Birmingham AL.
Looking a bit down the road, I wonder where they’re going to play the Sugar Bowl game this season.
That begins next season. However, I’d love it if the league decided to jigger around the schedule and put the Giants/Saints game on MNF.
Using my super predicting powers I predict :
The Saints will play home games somewhere in Texas.
The Saints will have a good season, resulting in the playoffs and potentially into the SB.
People will question them winning as many as they do, blame a conspiracy.
-----End predictions.----
I really hope that Benson does not use this opportunity to move the Saints for good, he would quickly become the most depised owner of an NFL team in history. Even worse then Art Modell and Al Davis combined.
Why not use the Citrus Bowl in Orlando. Up to 70,000 seats and pretty much unused.
They’d sell a lot of seats not just from locals but from opposing teams fans seeing the game and vacationing all at once.
I like the idea of bringing refugees to the Silverdome. It is pretty much unused and will be except for its last event, practice field for the Super Bowl. Bring them up! The biggest problem they might face here is getting fat from all the food that we’d bring in.
Lets face facts. New Orleans is out of the NFL picture for a couple of years at least. The Superdome isn’t in playing condition, and what with all of the other rebuilding that needs to be done in the city, I doubt it will be a priority. I think the NFL should relocate the Saints to LA by next year BUT with an absolute commitment to return to New Orleans when the city and stadium are rebuilt (it might actually be an excellent chance for the city to build a new stadium, depending on how badly the dome has been damaged). The Saints name and colors should be reserved for the city of New Orleans, and the NFL should make it crystal clear that it WILL come back when the city is in shape to support it again. “We’ll be back when you are” might be a good slogan. If it means a league with 33 teams…I can live with that.
Wait, are you saying the team should move to Los Angeles (or wherever) but adopt a new name and colors while it plays there? Then why not just move the team and give New Orleans an expansion franchise (that happens to be called the Saints) at some point in the future?
That is exactly what I am saying. The Saints go become the LA whatevers, and as soon as it’s feasable, the NFL expands back into NO. Notice I said 33 teams?
I don’t know, Dave. That seems like an awful slap in the face, especially considering that the Saints have started to get good and New Orleans supported them all those years they sucked.
“Hey, your city just got punched out by massive flooding, so out of the goodness of our hearts we’re going to take away your football team on top of everything else. Don’t worry, in a few years when you’re back on your feet we’ll let you have a crappy expansion team.”
They’re the New Orleans Saints. It doesn’t matter that they’ll have to play their “home” games somewhere else for a while.
Cite? :dubious:
I can’t see that happening, as it would take months to get uniforms, etc. They’re going to be the “Saints” in 2005.
The other problem with LA is that I doubt people will come out for a team that is 1) not really theirs and 2) not all that good. When the Saints only draw 20,000, it’s going to be hard to make a case for putting a team there permanently.
First of all, I said LA in 2006, not this year. Second, I just don’t see New Orleans being a viable place for an NFL team for at least 3-5 years, does it make sense for the Saints to be wandering in the desert for that long? Third, as far as “crappy expansion teams” go, Jacksonville’s been to the Championship game, and Carolina’s been to the Super Bowl, all in the first 10 or so years of each team’s existence. Have the Saints ever done that well? Finally, while I can see the “slap in the face” aspect that you are talking about, I think it really could be limited by guaranteeing that New Orleans will still have the Saints when they are able to support them again.
This is all pie in the sky stuff, but I bet if it does take 3-5 years for the city to get back to having the infrastructure, facility and population base to support a team, I bet that they wind up in LA anyway. That really would be screwing New Orleans, and I’d hate to see it happen without a guarantee in place that the Saints will be back. The NFL should be sure to give New Orleans at least as strong a package as the blow job they gave Cleveland when the Browns moved.
Dave, the only part of your post I take issue is your statement about what a good deal Cleveland got from the NFL. In fact, the NFL gave Cleveland the back of its hand in exchange for a lot of free money. Details here
The NFL was the recipient of the “blowjob” in Cleveland, not the giver. I certainly hope the NFL does better by the people of Louisiana, who have sufferred such huges losses, than it did by the people of Cleveland, who after all only lost a football team. Perhaps the hurricane will reduce the cutthroat tendencies of the NFL and its owners, but personally I doubt it. One should always keep a firm grasp on one’s wallet when dealing with Tagliabue and his minions.
This strikes me as funny, as I was reading this thread, I thought to myself, “I hope they do come to L.A., I would definetly go to a few games, and I don’t even like football”.
They are playnig the “home” opener against the Giants at Giant Stadium.
Agreed. The Panthers and Jaguars both came into the league as expansion franchises with every advantage given to them, and both made the Conference Championship in their second year of existence, losing to the Packers and Patriots respectively. Contrast that with the uphill struggle that has faced the Texans and Browns. The league does not hand out competitive teams to expansion franchises any longer.
And I’d hate to see 33 teams…the league structure is perfect at 32.
I’m going to have to take issue with your castigation of the Browns. I don’t particularly care that the Browns haven’t been very good-blame that on ownership and management. When the old Browns left for Charm City, however, the city of Cleveland got rid of an owner they detested, were guaranteed a new team w/i 3 years, got to keep their ugly uniforms, name, records and traditions (Johnny Unitas is enshrined in the Hall of Fame as an Indianapolis Colt. That’s a travesty), and the NFL even contributed towards the financing of the new team. That’s a blow job friends, pure and simple. If you’d have offered us that deal in 1984, we’d have driven ole’ drunken Bob Irsay to Indianapolis ourselves.
As for the fact that they haven’t been very good since they came back…what do you expect, they’re the BROWNS for God’s sake.