Why can't it ever be easy to be a Saints fan?
 

The Mississippi option is a viable on 08, but not very probable to me. THere\'s been lots of talk about it and I fully agree that it is a possibility. That move wouldn\'t hurt me too much.

Of course it will never happen. Benson isn\'t going to be the first owner ever to move a team out of a major metropolitan area to a basically \"rural\" area. You think NO is a small market, Mississippi is NO market. :)

I mean, other than the casinos and some shipping (far less than the port of NO), name a business in Mississippi. What would they be? The Jackson Saints? The Gulfport Saints? I doubt it. That won\'t happen.

Why can't it ever be easy to be a Saints fan?
 

Rural. If you call a population of over a half-million rural, then we\'re rural. This is one of the fastest growing areas in the U.S. We have one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country. Very low taxes. Not to mention 26-miles of beach.

We have many big companies here on the coast. MGM, Triton, Halter Marine, Nothrup Grummen. Then we have Keesler Air Force Base, Stennis Space Center(NASA) Then up the road we have the new Nissan Factory. We have more foutune 500- companies in Mississippi than what Louisiana has.

And the new stadium would only be about 30 minutes from New Orleans.

Take a trip down here, WhoDat. I\'ll be glad to show you around.... :D

Why can't it ever be easy to be a Saints fan?
 

Billy, I was in Long Beach less than a month ago. I know that area very very well. You have ZERO fortune 500 companies BASED on the Gulf Coast. New Orleans has one left. Louisiana has just as many Fortune 500s REPRESENTED in the state... in fact, I\'m pretty sure it has more.

C\'mon Billy, I love the gulf coast. If the Saints are going to move, that\'s where I would want it to be. However, you\'re fooling yourself if you think it\'s a market worthy of national attention right now. Orleans Parish (NO proper) has about 250,000 MORE people in it alone than that half million number you mention that is spread from Bay St. Louis to Biloxi. There are close to 2.5 million people within an hour or so of the Super Dome. Are there that many in near Gulfport? ;)

Look Billy, I\'m not trying to knock your home state, but let\'s be real. Depending on how you measure it, New Orleans is either the first or second busiest port in the COUNTRY. It is also ALWAYS in the top three tourist destinations in the COUNTRY. Sure, southern MS is on the up and up, but economically speaking it\'s going to be a while before you guys catch NO, and that\'s assuming the NO economy continues to decline.

Why can't it ever be easy to be a Saints fan?
 

You might want to rethink your thoughts on there being ZERO fortune 500 companies here on the coast, WhoDat. Here\'s a link to Northrop Grumman Corporation.

http://www.northgrum.com/

Then there is MGM\'s Beau Rivage. New Orleans Casino cannot even come close to matching this one.

http://www.beaurivage.com/

Another foutune 500 copany here is General Dynamics.

http://www.generaldynamics.com/

No we can\'t compete on a lot of levels with New Orleans. However, I think they would receive more corporate support here than in New Orleans. These casions would be all over it. And we got 10 times the casions here than what New Orleans has got.

[Edited on 27/5/2004 by GumboBC]

Why can't it ever be easy to be a Saints fan?
 

???

Why can't it ever be easy to be a Saints fan?
 

St. Louis seemed like a dead end , til Georgia Frontandrearee put it back on the map .

I do not think Benson would go for the Los Angeles market with all the past failure in it , he might go for a market he could get what he wants in and expand it . Mississippi keeps him in the region and allows him to feed off the existing fan base . He has done a lot of advertising in the region already and has a superstar from the state to draw in some locals .

My prediction is : If Blanco gives Benson the cold shoulder and Mississippi offers Benson a stadium , Benson Boogies on over to Mississippi .

Why can't it ever be easy to be a Saints fan?
 

No one denies that Canada sucks....I like it here.

Why can't it ever be easy to be a Saints fan?
 

Man, sometimes I think you have a hard time understanding simple concepts Billy. There are ZERO Fortune 500 companies BASED - that means that they have their CORPORATE HEADQUARTERS there - in Mississippi. ZERO.

I\'ll try to explain this further so that you understand. Let\'s use your Nissan plant as an example. Nissan is a big corporation. They have a plant in MS. They may have a big 10 story office building there too full of Nissan employees. Let\'s assume that they do. This means that they are REPRESENTED in the state, not HEADQUARTERED there.

Or we can use your example from http://www.northgrum.com/who_we_are/sector_main.html

Corporate Offices:

Northrop Grumman Corporation
Corporate Headquarters
1840 Century Park East
Los Angeles, California 90067-2199
(310) 553-6262

Northrop\'s Ship Sector is Based in MS. 45% of the countries gasoline crosses the Huey P Long bridge in NO. So what?

You see Billy - Entergy is HEADQUARTERED in NO. So like I said. NO 1, MS 0.


[Edited on 28/5/2004 by WhoDat]

Why can't it ever be easy to be a Saints fan?
 

WhoDat --

OK, I\'ll give you that. But, does a fortune 500 company have to be BASED somewhere to support the Saints?? I don\'t see that having a lot to do with it.

I see many of those companies I listed supporting our hockey team here. There\'s little doubt in my mind that IF the Saints were to move here that those companies would support them.

I can promise you that the casinos would be the first ones to step up to the plate with support. The Casinos here are marketing this place big time and if there were 70,000 people coming to the coast to see the Saints it would definantly grab their attention.

[Edited on 28/5/2004 by GumboBC]

Why can't it ever be easy to be a Saints fan?
 

Not really the point Billy. The point is the size of the economy and the number of businesses able and willing to support the team. The Fortune 500 test is only really a litmus test for the size of the economy. For example, NO has one FF company based there and I think less than 10 with offices still in the city (although that number may be higher if the oil co\'s still have offices there).

Chicago, on the other hand, has 480+ of the 500 with offices in the city. Point? The economy here is MUCH MUCH larger. There are more BILLIONAIRES in Chicago than there are MILLIONAIRES in New Orleans... or at least that stat was true 7 years ago. That may have changed by now, but you get the point. The economy here can support a football team, two baseball teams, a hockey team, a basketball team, 75 college and university programs (there\'s 40 in the downtown area alone), a soccer team, and still not even be closed to being burdened. NO can barely support a football team, basketball team, and a triple A baseball team. Southern MS cannot support any professional franchise right now... well, maybe Soccer. That\'s the point.

Let me put it to you another way: There are almost as many people in Chicago proper than there are in the STATE of MS. There are more in the metropolitan area than in LA and MS COMBINED. NO has more people in Orleans Parish than there are along the entire coast of MS.

Billy, there is a reason that there are no teams outside of metropolitan areas. Today, that\'s probably a minimum of a million to 1.5 million people in one place.