What about Joe Horn?Originally Posted by Cool Hand Clyde
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What about Joe Horn?
The saints have a very basic problem. You can't fire the owner. Until that happens, you can count on them remaining losers.Originally Posted by Cool Hand Clyde
Won't they at least send Aaron Brooks and Boo Williams to LA?
Haslett can drive the van
On a different note, I doubt San Antonio could support the Saints very well. I got a chance last month to tour the Spurs new facility with one of their VPs, and he kept talking about all they had to do to try to bring people in because of their small market. Their tickets are much cheaper than many NBA teams. And an NFL franchise needs a significantly larger crowd (though admitedly not as often)
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Lure of L.A. may draw Saints
NFL wants a team there by '08 season
Sunday, November 21, 2004 By Jeff Duncan
Staff writer
The National Football League loves Los Angeles, possibly even more than Los Angeles loves the NFL.
With its burgeoning economy, massive population and limitless corporate assets, the Los Angeles market is the golden goose that escaped the NFL farmhouse. And even after two NFL teams left after being unable to succeed in Los Angeles, the league is more committed than ever to put a franchise there.
Its determination is proven by its willingness to pay to build a new stadium itself and then get repaid by whoever owns the new Los Angeles team.
"The NFL is dead serious," said Dean Bonham of The Bonham Group, a Denver-based sports and entertainment marketing firm. "In my opinion, there will absolutely be the announcement of a team in Los Angles within the next two to three years. My guess is they are not going to rest until they get a team back in there."
The New Orleans Saints quite possibly could be that team.
When Saints owner Tom Benson last week outlined the need for a long-term financial agreement to keep his team in New Orleans through 2020, he never mentioned Los Angeles. But when he said, "I don't want to move, and I don't want to sell," he essentially referred to the two things NFL observers predict would happen if an existing franchise is relocated to the West Coast.
Candidates for relocation
League analysts say that if the Saints are not able to reach a long-term deal with the state of Louisiana, Benson most likely would sell the team to a Los Angeles buyer because the NFL prefers local ownership.
The Saints are considered among four teams that could move, all of them with unresolved stadium issues.
The Saints play in the aging Superdome which, despite being a beloved building in New Orleans since it opened in 1975, has been passed by in terms of revenue-producing amenities found in modern NFL stadiums.
The Saints also have early "out" clauses in the contract the club signed with the state in 2001, which make it easier to relocate the Saints than Indianapolis, Minnesota or San Diego, the other teams seeking new or renovated stadiums. Of those four, New Orleans is the smallest market and has the weakest corporate base.
"I would have to think that New Orleans, if not at the top of the list, has got to be second in terms of most likely candidates for relocation," Bonham said.
Before leaving, the Saints would have to reimburse the state the $81 million it paid them during the first five years of the contract signed in 2001. But to the deep-pocketed owners interested in bringing a team West, that would hardly be a deterrent.
"It's simply a cost of acquisition," said Marc Ganis, president of Sportscorp Ltd., a Chicago consulting firm that works closely with the league on business matters. "Eighty-one million dollars is not an insignificant amount of money, but it's also not a high enough number to prevent a deal. If the community wants the team, it will happen."
L.A. story
Los Angeles, a market with a population of more than 15 million, has been without an NFL team since before the 1995 season, when the Raiders left Los Angeles for Oakland and the Rams left Anaheim for St. Louis.
Over the years, the league has flirted with the idea of returning to L.A. but has never fully committed because of the area's unsettled stadium and ownership situations. The league tried unsuccessfully in the past to get a new Los Angeles stadium partially funded by taxpayers, a model it has used repeatedly in a stadium-building boom over the past 15 years.
The impetus changed in May when NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue told the league's team owners that he wants a team in L.A. by the 2008 season. While league executives recently have said they might have to push their time-
table back a year or two, the intention remains clear.
"The NFL is more serious than ever about getting a team back in L.A.," NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said.
The first step in the process is to identify a stadium site. Four projects are known to be under consideration: the Los Angeles Coliseum, the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, or new stadium sites in Carson and Anaheim. The Coliseum is considered to be the front-runner, in part because it is further along in the process than the others. The Coliseum has a completed environmental-impact report and architectural plans for a major renovation.
Construction costs for each of the four sites is estimated at $500 million. But in a change in approach that settles the question of who would pay for a new stadium, NFL executives have said the league will pay to get it built. The cost would then be passed along to the team owner. Revenue from a future Super Bowl or multiple Super Bowls could be used to offset the cost.
The NFL wants to settle on a site by May, Aiello said.
After that, a major decision will be made: The league will decide whether to relocate an existing team to L.A. or add an expansion club. Teams with un settled long-term arrangements, potentially the Saints if negotiations prove fruitless, are likely targets for relocation.
Yet if the existing franchises are able to resolve their local issues, observers say expansion is attractive to some owners because it would ensure a lucrative payment to league owners. The Houston Texans, for example, paid $700 million to join the NFL in 2002.
Some experts think an expansion fee in the lucrative Los Angeles market could soar as high as $1 billion. That would mean a $31.25 million windfall per team. Still, that might not be enough to offset the annual $3.3 million dilution to the shared revenue pool created by a 33rd team.
"The owners do not want to share another slice of the national revenues," Ganis said. "It doesn't take very long before that would cost you as much as the expansion fee that you gained."
Expansion also would leave the NFL with an imbalanced total of 33 teams. While the NFL has had an odd number of teams in the past, coaches and executives like the current 32-team league, divided evenly into two conferences and eight divisions.
"In my conversations with owners, I have picked up a tremendous resistance to expansion," Ganis said.
If an existing team relocates, it likely would be forced to sell to a new owner.
Several ownership groups have been identified in Los Angeles. Larry Ellison, the Bay Area billionaire who founded computer software giant Oracle Corp., is a leading prospect.
New England Patriots' owner Robert Kraft, who serves on a league committee studying options in Los Angeles, told the Los Angeles Times last month, "We've been wrestling with this since I came into the league. We've been talking about it. And now it looks like things really have a chance of happening."
For all its benefits, Ganis said, L.A. "is not a slam-dunk market in terms of being a great football town like Chicago or Dallas."
The competition for the entertainment dollar is steep. The University of Southern California and UCLA own powerful college football programs that annually average 60,000 to 80,000 fans a game. The market also is home to two Major League Baseball teams, two National Basketball Association teams and two National Hockey League franchises. There also is the attraction of golf courses, beaches and mountains.
"I have my doubts," Ganis said. "But ultimately, I think a team will be successful there because the league is doing it right this time."
Major decision looms
Only Saints owner Tom Benson knows how viable the team is as a relocation prospect. He has maintained his loyalty to the city for years and said Wednesday he wants to keep his team here.
League insiders say Benson almost certainly would have to sell the team instead of move it. Because of past failures in L.A., the league is taking a hands-on approach to the market and that strong local ownership is part of the plan.
Some team officials think Benson would sell the team only as a last resort. Invigorated by his recent marriage to the former Gayle Bird, Benson is more active with the team than ever. It's a big reason why he's so eager to sign a long-term contract with the state.
Benson has pushed for a long-term deal since 2001, when the Legislature approved $186.5 million in incentives and payments to the Saints to keep them in the Dome through 2010. The deal includes inducements and revenue guarantees that started at $12.5 million annually and rise to $23.5 million in 2008. But the revenue streams intended to cover those payments have fallen short of estimates, which last summer forced the state to take $7 million from an economic development fund to make this year's $15 million payment.
Benson has lobbied for a new stadium for three years. But in an indication that he recognizes the lack of public and political support for such a big-ticket item in economically challenged Louisiana, Saints officials on Wednesday said the club could remain competitive in an overhauled Superdome as long as the state continues to supplement them with annual guaranteed payments. The team set a Feb. 1 deadline to reach a long-term deal.
Gov. Kathleen Blanco has consistently said she supports renovating the Superdome, which is owned by the state, and wants to keep the Saints in New Orleans. But she said there are major areas to be negotiated, such as what the team will contribute to the renovations and the annual subsidies.
The current lease agreement allows the Saints to leave after the 2005 season by paying back the $81 million they received during the first four years of the agreement.
The state can opt out of the deal after 2007 if officials don't want to guarantee the $23.5 million annual inducements that begin in 2008.
The other possibility is default. If the state does not come up with the money for the annual payment by July 5, it could be placed in default. If the default is not addressed within 75 days, the team would be free to move without repaying any of the money it already has received from the state.
"New Orleans is a prime candidate to relocate because they can get out of their lease and they play in the 42nd-largest market," Ganis said.
He added, "As lovely as New Orleans is, it is relatively insignificant in the big picture."
A Super site
New Orleans' greatest assets are Benson's loyalty to the region and its history as an excellent Super Bowl site. The city has hosted nine Super Bowls, and it always has gotten high marks from owners and fans because it is almost perfect for hosting major sporting events: Plenty of hotels and Bourbon Street are all within walking distance of the Superdome.
As legendary sportswriter Will McDonough put it at Super Bowl XXXVI in 2002 in New Orleans, "This is the place they ought to hold this game every year."
And while New Orleans, with a relatively weak corporate base, would be a longshot to attract an NFL team if it didn't have one already, Benson has been able to run a financially successful operation.
"The best thing New Orleans has going for it is Tom Benson," Ganis said. "He's committed to New Orleans."
The Saints are like a major corporation to New Orleans, particularly with the city's economy built on the hospitality industry. The franchise has an annual economic impact of $402 million to the state, according to a 2002 report by University of New Orleans economist Tim Ryan. The economic impact of a Super Bowl is estimated at more than $100 million.
Saints officials think Benson can land the 2009 or 2010 Super Bowl and another game before 2020 if a long-term deal to keep the team in New Orleans can be worked out. In terms of economic impact, two Super Bowls would more than pay for the proposed Superdome renovation, estimated to cost about $170 million.
It puts New Orleans and Louisiana in a tough spot. The state can't compete with Los Angeles in terms of financial resources, yet can it afford the economic hit of letting the team leave?
"An NFL franchise is an extraordinarily valuable asset in any community, and certainly that's true in a smaller community like New Orleans," Bonham said. "I'm guessing that the city and state is going to do everything possible to try to save the team. But at the end of the day, it just may not be possible. If it's not, Los Angeles would be an incredible market that would provide a very high level of upside potential for a new owner or the existing owner. It's a difficult issue for the city of New Orleans, the state of Louisiana and the New Orleans Saints."
. . . . . . .
Jeff Duncan can be reached at jduncan@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3405
You should see the economic "assumptions" of the NewStar/ULM analysis of the economic impact on Monroe of ULM football and why it is so important to Monroe for ULM to stay 1A.
"First, assume that 20,000 people attend all games.
Second, assume that they all get 1 hotel room each.
Third, assume they all order filet mignon at Canards with an appropriate wine choice and cocktails.
Fourth, assume they stay for 4 nights, eating at Canards each night while their car engines are rebuilt at local repair shops.
Fifth, make sure the answer comes up with lots of cash in the Monroe economy if 1 through 4 don't do it."
(yes this is an exaggeration, but not much of one. I think the actual estimated attendance figure to be used was 5,000 out of towners plus 10,000 locals.)
I agree 100%
Benson is such a lousy owner. He doesn't care if they win or not (sound familiar?). If they are going to be an embarrassment to the state and a financial drain - hit the road.
You've missed some pretty good fights!
Just watch Dawgbitten's avatar for a few minues and you'll pretty much see all you need to see.
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