New Orleans Saints 'missing 1200' ticket holders will get a chance for another seat By James Varney, The Times-Picayune May 04, 2010, 8:44AM

In a surprise move, the New Orleans Saints began making relocation offers Monday to season ticket holders displaced by renovations to the Superdome.

Members of a group that calls itself "the missing 1200," which is comprised of the former occupants of the upper deck sections lost to a new press box that will be constructed above the Saints sideline, said they had been told in late April that it would be two to three weeks before new packages might become available.

Instead, the phone rang Monday.

"I got a call today with a relocation offer, and I said, 'How long do I have?' and they said I had to decide by the end of the day," displaced Saints fan Jeff Maumus said.

Some of the packages started around $1,700 a seat, a world far removed from the $330 per seat tickets members of the missing 1200 enjoyed during the Saints' championship run in 2009. Fans expected a price increase, something in the neighborhood of $430, but instead corner upper deck seats were offered to Maumus for $550.

In an e-mail to the missing 1200 members, Ross Louis, a Xavier professor and temporarily ousted season ticket holder, outlined what had been offered to season ticket holders from Section 641.

"Ticket holders were offered multiple options (e.g., 1st offer was made at $820 per season ticket in Section 615, followed by $400 per season ticket in Section 649 when first offer was rejected)," Louis wrote.

Ticket holders were generally given 24 hours to respond, according to Louis.

Maumus said it was an easy call. The alternative might have been not watching the Saints in the Superdome this fall. The neighborhood won't be what it used to be, he sighed, but he'll be in that number.