I disagree that money is the only way to influence management and as long as the checks keep coming they will feel unaffected. Because the way revenue is shared, even if the dome is empty, or filled with visiting fans, they will still get 95% of the revenue they ever got so if it was that way, nothing would ever matter. Plus the revenue goes up every year so even in an off year it would just go up less.

I think another powerful factor is a sense of social status to which most people are always striving for what someone else a little better off has and pitying what someone a little below their status has. The more the team loses, the more the glory of the past fades, the more the Superdome on Sunday is not a place to see and be seen, the more the social status of Gayle Benson, Dennis Lauska or whatever it is, etc will slip. They probably deeply value being the toast of town and guests of honor at every gala and swaree they attend, and a lot of that is because of the Saints status. Sure, the charities they write checks to will fawn over them even if the team is 0-17, but the other guests at the gala will start to lose interest and give them the cold shoulder if the team they preside over becomes an embarrassment not a point of pride to the city. And even the charities may start to act different. No matter how rich you are, you can't write a mind blowing check to everyones. So the charities she does not write a mind blowing check to may still fawn over her because even a more modest donation will help them raise other funds if she or team personnel are guests of honor at fundraising events. But that stops working if the team is a loser and doesn't draw at fundraising events, suddenly she is just another name unless she writes everyone the mind blowing check. She will probably notice that, as will top front office execs. Their social status will slip, and they probably won't like that. It is my hope that eventually Gayle Benson will try to find somebody to fix this, just to get that sort of stuff back again.