Da Business of Da Saints

From their emotion-charged return to Da Dome last September to the NFC Championship loss to the Chicago Bears in January, this past NFL season was the best evah for Da Saints. That means we now must endure the dance between the state of Louisiana and the owner of the New Orleans Saints, Tom Benson. This is always a painful time for New Orleanians, because, well, the owner of Da Saints is pretty much an asshole who is very difficult to do business with.

OK, I know, a city that has an asshole as the owner of a major sports franchise is not unique. A number of cities can lay claim to such a distinction. The difference is that, while many owners say and do things that often drive their teams' fans to drink, Tom Benson has made it clear that he has little desire to associate himself with New Orleans. The feeling is mutual when it comes to Mayor Nagin and a large portion of Da Saints' fan base. But it's more than mere personality issues that make negotiating the future of Da Saints problematic. The biggest stumbling block is that Tom Benson's public statements since the storm have crossed from aggressive negotiation tactics to outright distortions of the truth.

Take the notion that New Orleans can't support Da Saints economically. This tired meme gets trotted out by anyone and everyone who doesn't understand the metro area. So-called "analysts" point to the loss of half the population of Orleans Parish as support for the no-support argument, but they fail to mention that the population increases of the surrounding parishes have offset the losses in the city. The reason support for Da Saints has been lukewarm is because Benson has repeatedly put a mediocre-to-poor product on the field every season for the last decade. Now that the club is putting a quality product on the field, community interest is more than there. Benson has sold out all 137 of the luxury suites in Da Dome for the 2007 season, and has a waiting list of over 25K looking to purchase season tickets.

The disconnect between the "analysts" and the reality of very serious economic support for Da Saints is simple: The money is in the suburbs. It's a cold fact, but the people who didn't come back to the city after the storm weren't the people who were going to buy individual season tickets, much less luxury suites. Mr. Benson knew this, but he wants to leave town, so he's willing to play the lie along.

Then there's the issue of a new stadium. Benson regularly claims that Da Dome isn't up to snuff and that the city and state should build him a new place for the team to play. Once again, Benson isn't telling the truth. The NFL average for luxury suites is 120 per stadium; Da Dome has 137. What moves Benson from the category of bald-face lying is the fact that he wanted to move the team to the Alamodome in San Antonio. That facility has 38 suites, and would cost between $50-$136million to expand that number to 60, still less than half the number that were sold out in New Orleans.

Still, if there ever was a good time to convince the voters of Louisiana that it was time to build a new football facility, it's right now. A one-time tax/bond issue to finance new construction would probably even sail past die-hard, anti-tax Republicans this fall. If the stadium could be built in 3 years, Fletcher Mackel of WDSU-TV thinks that the city would be a shoe-in for a 2012 Super Bowl.

Putting more money into Tom Benson's pocket is not a sufficient reason for Louisiana to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on a stadium, but the significant economic impact of hosting the Super Bowl would be. A new stadium would also force Benson to agree to a long-term agreement with the state to keep the team here. Given the extent to which Benson negotiates in bad faith, it would be appropriate to craft such an agreement with penalties sufficient to essentially pay for the stadium should he try to break the lease. That would make it possible for the state to put together a package attractive to investors in a new franchise.

Corporate welfare deals to the owners of sports teams run contrary to just about everything I believe in, but sometimes corporate welfare is an investment as well as a gift. In a city whose economic base is tourism, a successful NFL franchise generates a lot of free publicity and advertising. New Orleans needs success stories, and Da Saints riding high right now. Even if it means helping out someone as obnoxious as Tom Benson, the greater good is served.

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