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Saints | Blanco optimistic team will stay in New Orleans
Tue, 13 Feb 2007 08:02:14 -0800

Ed Anderson, of the New Orleans Times-Picayune, reports Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco remains optimistic on keeping the New Orleans Saints in the State of Louisiana in the future. "Our people are in talks," Blanco said. "I think we are going to get a consensus (for the Saints) to stay at least through 2010," the year the existing contract tying the Saints to the Superdome expires. That contract allows the Saints to opt out of the deal by March 31, but the team would have to repay about $70 million the state has provided for a practice facility and annual inducements to the team.
http://www.kffl.com/hotw/nfl


Blanco has faith the Saints will stay
New contract talks in play soon, she says
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
By Ed Anderson
BATON ROUGE -- Gov. Kathleen Blanco said Monday that her aides have been in touch with New Orleans Saints officials about resuming negotiations on a new contract to keep the National Football League team in Louisiana.

"Our people are in talks," Blanco said, declining to elaborate. "I think we are going to get a consensus (for the Saints) to stay at least through 2010," the year the existing contract tying the Saints to the Superdome expires. That contract allows the Saints to opt out of the deal by March 31, but the team would have to repay about $70 million the state has provided for a practice facility and annual inducements to the team.

Blanco said she is optimistic the Saints will not cancel the contract next month.

"We are hoping that they don't," Blanco said. "I feel like discussions are leading them to staying until at least 2010."

Saints officials declined to comment on the talks. Spokesman Greg Bensel said the team will not have anything to say "until there is something to report; right now, there is nothing to report."

Tim Coulon, the Blanco-appointed chairman of the Superdome Commission, deferred comment to the governor. Blanco met with reporters after giving the Louisiana Recovery Authority an update on her recent trip to Washington, D.C., to seek more federal aid for hurricane recovery.

Blanco said the repairs to the Superdome after Hurricane Katrina -- including a new roof and improvements to seating areas, scoreboards and lighting -- has made the stadium "adequate" for the team for the foreseeable future.

Blanco did not address the prospects for a new stadium, which the Saints had pushed before Katrina. In the past Blanco has opposed building a new stadium. On Monday she said she would be willing to discuss using some state money to help finance some amenities near the Superdome, such as making space available for retail shops or a tailgating park.

She said such additions near the Dome "would be the next level of comfort" for football fans. "I am open to that kind of discussion, but I don't know what kind of obligation they would be looking for from us," Blanco said.

Blanco would not say how much the state would be willing to commit.

"We are not going to enhance the money" in the existing 10-year, $186.5 million contract, which includes annual cash payments to the team and construction of a $6.7 million practice facility.

The existing contact was reached between Saints owner Tom Benson and then-Gov. Mike Foster in 2001. Blanco has criticized it as too generous.

The state has the right to cancel the contract after the 2007 season or by March 2008. The state is on the hook for $20 million after the next football season and $23.5 million after each of the next three years.
http://www.nola.com/saints/t-p/index...xml&coll=1