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NEW ORLEANS -- The New Orleans Saints announced they are moving their 2024 training camp to the University of California, Irvine due to construction of their new cafeteria.

The Saints began renovating their cafeteria and weight room in 2023. The Saints received an F-minus on the NFL Players Association report card in 2023 for their food services/nutrition, which was tied for 30th and ranked in last place in the NFL. They also received an F in 2024 on their food/cafeteria grade, ranking 30th for that year.

"Currently, [owner Gayle Benson] and our organization have invested in the construction of a new cafeteria, that when completed, will be among the finest in the National Football League. The scope of this project makes it difficult to host training camp on-site in 2024, given the extensive needs for our team to prepare for the regular season," Saints general manager Mickey Loomis said in a news release Friday.

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K Major

Nice.

Maybe it will benefit players overall health.

BakoSaint

There are also probably much better doctors in Irvine than the Saints doctors in New Orleans. The team and/or Ram, Jordan, etc should get some second opinions. Maybe a Saints doctor left a scalpel in Payton Turner's knee and the doctors there would find it.

neugey

The old cafeteria must indeed suck hard if this is the timetable needed to replace it!

leilung

It's pretty much a disgrace that you are based in one of the best places to eat in America, but your team has the worst cafe. C'mon man!

BakoSaint

I wouldn't be surprised if for some teams, the company that runs stadium concessions takes the front office out to one of those great restaurants, gets them drunk, and convinces them that Aramark or Sodexo or whatever is an excellent choice to feed their millionaire players since they are servicing the stadium anyway, and the synergies will be amazing.

AsylumGuido

It was planned a year ago. This is old news. The plan was to do all the work this offseason so the facility would be ready for the regular season.

AsylumGuido

The grade was low not because of food quality, from what I have heard, but because they didn't serve a third meal in the evening. I believe they were one of two teams that didn't provide the third meal. Given a choice at the end of the day where would you want to eat as a player? The cafeteria at work or anywhere in the greater New Orleans area? But several players, I suppose, would have preferred the cafeteria. Go figure.

At least they don't charge their players to eat there like the Cardinals. LOL!

WW_Who_Dat

Don’t worry be Happy.

https://youtube.com/shorts/-0snSKhTO...d3aObuKgAh7tCo

BakoSaint

As Flau'jae Johnson said after the Tigers victory over UCLA yesterday "I be in the gym." For players looking to give 110%, its good to have the option for dinner in the cafeteria, not because they prefer it, but because they are always working to be better and its hard to work out, practice solo drills, and watch tape somewhere out of the way.

Also, it does not make sense that an F grade could be based on a feature most players don't use, as it would not be an F if an equal number of B's and C's were averaged in. Probably there are a lot of complaints ranging from hours to food quality, decor, maybe the dishwashing machine is getting old and missing spots and the fridge sometimes overheats on warm days.