Amidst the complications for New Orleans and Louisiana arising from Hurricane Katrina, I am worried about one perhaps frivolous development: the location of the New Orleans NFL franchise. I am not alone in thinking about this, and as such this diary is not a unique thought in the end.
The NFL appears set to have the Saints play their home games in San Antonio, roughly 550 miles from New Orleans. The Saints have moved their operations there. Notably, San Anyonio was selected instead of Baton Rouge, 60 miles from New Orleans, where LSU has a 65,000 seat stadium ostensibly available on Sundays.
Why would the NFL relocate the Saints to San Antonio, instead of Baton Rouge?
It's no secret the NFL wants the Saints to move to Los Angeles. The league obviously cares less about the Saints fans than about this move.
New Orleans is perhaps the third-smallest NFL market (Green Bay and Indianapolis are likely smaller).
The Saints' owner, Tom Benson, has threatened to leave New Orleans if they didn't get a new taxpayer-financed stadium. The Saints are the only NFL team to receive a direct cash subsidy from the taxpayers, of $15 million/year. Obviously the Saints are important to Louisiana for this Robin Hood-in-Reverse payment to be made.
It will soon be clear whether the Republican-controlled NFL is prepared to stab New Orleans in the back. If the games are moved to San Antonio, then NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue will be foresaking the Saints fans for a sterile transition year or two prior to relocating to Los Angeles. In so doing, Tagliabue will also be dredging up the next "musical chair" franchise location, San Antonio. After all, the NFL's stadium blackmail cannot function without a franchise-less city to threaten with, and with Los Angeles out of the picture it needs a San Antonio.
I truly hope the NFL does the right thing and keeps the Saints in New Orleans long term by locating them in Baton Rouge in the neat-term. There should be a limit to our willingness to tolerate Republican predation. Moving the Saints would be akin to moving the New York Commodity Exchange after 9/11- nobody would have stood for that. If the NFL stabs New Orleans in the back, then I will personally organize a boycott of the NFL.