NEW: NFL continues to eye Alamodome for Saints games
08/31/2005 12:40 PM CDT
Tom Orsborn
Express-News Staff Writer
With their storm-damaged stadium surrounded by water and home to as many as 20,000 evacuees from Hurricane Katrina, the New Orleans Saints continue to search for a site for their home games this season.
The NFL and the team are in discussions with city officials about playing the Saints’ Sept. 18 home opener against the New York Giants at the Alamodome, but it is not clear yet whether the 65,000-seat building can clear enough dates to accommodate the rest of the Saints’ eight-game home schedule.
“I’ve continuously communicated to the Saints that we have the ability to host those games if desired,” City Councilman Roger O. Flores said today. “If the people of New Orleans and the ownership want their team to continue to play games relatively close to (Louisiana), we have the ability to do that. We would be happy to offer what we have.”
The league and the Saints are also in talks with LSU, which is about 80 miles north of New Orleans in Baton Rouge.
Houston’s Reliant Stadium, home of the Houston Texans, is also under consideration.
“We’re exploring a number of options that could include moving the game,” league spokesman Brian McCarthy said. “But right now, we’re still continuing to monitor the situation.”
The Saints have decided to move their base of operations to San Antonio for at least the next week.
The team is scheduled to arrive in San Antonio early Friday morning after playing at Oakland Thursday night in their preseason finale.
Water continues to rise in New Orleans two days after Katrina battered at least five Gulf Coast states.
Eighty percent of New Orleans is under water after five breaks in the city’s levee system sent water pouring into the streets of the Big Easy.
One option under consideration by the NFL is to play the Sept. 18 game at the Alamodome and play the rest of the games at Tiger Stadium.
But LSU Chancellor Sean O'Keefe indicated that the school wants no part of sports while evacuees occupy the campus.
“LSU is a primary evacuation site,” he said, “and we are not going to conduct any activities that could deter from our mission of assisting in the recovery mission.”
New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin said today that Doug Thornton, a regional vice president for the company that manages the Superdome, told him it will be “very, very difficult” for the Saints to play home games there this season. League officials pointed out that New Orleans has just one home game in September and were holding out hope the schedule might allow repairs by the season's second month.
The Saints are considering several sites in San Antonio for practice, including the San Antonio School District’s Spring Sports Complex.
“I’m expecting them to work out at our place for at least a week or maybe longer,” SASD athletic director Gil Garza. “We told them they can stay here as long as they needed to.”
SBR Top-Rated Sportsbooks
Saints
Reply With Quote
