KillerSaint3632

Since I have heard about Gov. Blanco's desicion to look into making a new staduim, I thought that this would be a good opportunity to say what I would do if I were the one ot design it. Here goes:

First off, it would be open-air. I have nothing against the Superdome, but I regret never having the opportuntiy to visit old Tulane Staduim. I have heard stories from other Saints fans about how intimate that staduim was compared to the Dome.I would want to make it open-air secondly becuase I feel as though it would be more manageable with the budget I would be working with.

Then, I would make the seating more comfortable in the mid and upper level parts. This is a major problem with the current staduim, sometimes I feel as though I am sittting on a rock whenever I go to a game. Also I would more luxury boxes and try to make it seem very family oriented .

Third, I would design the staduim after the Houston Texans staduim but make it less high-tech and more durable. Personally I dont see Houston;s staduim lasting 25 years or longer simply because they sacrifice quality for quantity.and I want this new staduim to last as long as the Superdome has .

Fourth, I would make sure that I worked with the team on the location. I have heard reports that some people want to put he new staduim on the riverfront. Thats fine, but If the time came up I would nt want people coming to a game on the river if a hurricane was coming to New Orleans. I would put it outside of New Orleans, possibly Metaire or Kenner. It were does us a lot of good not to put he staduim in a rough part of New Olreans . Examples are thold Memorial Staduim in Baltimore whre the Colts and the Ravens played.

So there you have it, everyone. I know I'm not a designer or an architect, I am jsut suggesting these things as improvements compared to the current staduim we play in. Thank You

dberce1

I would put it in my backyard, for free tickets.

Puddinhead

I really don\'t want to seem contrary or anything, but my opinions seem to conflict with yours on most of the points you made. LOL

An open-air stadium would definately be less expensive, but you\'re bucking a thirty-year tradition of New Orleans football fans sitting in air-conditioned comfort to watch their games. First half of the season you\'ll be telling fans who\'ve gotten used to dressing up nicely to break out the T-shirts and shorts and still sit in sweat-dampened misery. Second half of the season you tell them to sit in our fairly frequent winter weather of 50 degrees and light rain. It would take a while for the tradition of sitting outside in terrible weather to watch a game (like they\'ve always done in most other cities) to be embraced by the fans. Oh...and I don\'t remember anything \"intimate\" about Tulane Stadium. It was a big old bowl with rusting steel and cracking concrete and masonry, and wooden bench seating that splintered in your butt. The steel deck construction on the upper level sucked in the heat from the afternoon sun in September and just radiated it back up at you from below, so you sort of baked all over like a really expensive convection oven.

You\'re pretty much going to get a lot harder seats than the Superdome seating if you go with an open-air stadium. There\'s only so much you can do with a seat and still expect it to stand up to the weather for any length of time, which doesn\'t make for allowing much in the line of padding. More luxury boxes is a given, but forget about the \"family orientation\". There aren\'t a whole lot of families in New Orleans now who can afford the NFL experience as a family outing, and since the whole idea of a new stadium os to generate more revenue for the team, prices for everything will be considerably higher. The NFL is interested in having your family see it\'s games, all right...on television. For filling the stadiums they\'re more interested in young unattached males who don\'t have dependants to spend money on, and corporate entities who can buy blocks of tickets.

I\'ve only seen Reliant from the outside, so I can\'t really speak toward it\'s durability.

As for stadium location.....the hurricane bit\'s kind of a moot point. If a real hurricane\'s threatening the city, they won\'t be playing an NFL game that day. Besides, the land right along the River is the highest land (generally speaking) in the New Orleans area anyway. Putting a new stadium outside the actual city would be the worst mistake in the world, and just the opposite of what every other city in the country is doing now. Everywhere else they\'re abandoning the stadiums in the suburbs and doing all they can to build the new venues downtown. Again...they\'re not trying to make things convenient for little suburban families of four to go to the stadium, because they\'re plannng on pricing them right out of the picture anyway. The real audience the NFL\'s now shooting for wants to be in the middle of everything...the four-star hotel rooms, the fine restaurants, the nightlife for the night before the game. The league wants to make the NFL experience a whole weekend for those attending games--more time to siphon a little more cash out of the fans. Besides..one of the main reasons New Orleans has gotten so many Superbowls is that the Dome is within walking distance or a very short cab ride of everything the league wants, particularly a huge number of higher tier hotel rooms, meeting spaces, and restaurants. Also, as anyone knows...there is absolutely NOWHERE in Metairie or Kenner where the roads and infrastructure exist to get a large number of people into and out of one particular location in anything close to a timely fashion, and practically no public transportation other than up and down the biggest of the major thouroughfares.

BlackandBlue

Went to the Tech/Rice game a few years ago. Reliant is the jewel of the NFL, that is, until Jerry starts building a new stadium for the Cowboys.
I\'ve not ever seen anything that can even come close to comparing to Reliant- it is amazing. I sat on a couch and was able to view the game. From what I remember, there are no crowded pathways, the internal walkways that surround the stadium are filled with restaurants and shops, and are still wide enough to hypothetically have 50 men lined up side by side, shoulder to shoulder. Bars and lounges are out in the open, and all over the place. Everything was clean, and I swear it still had that new car smell.

The waiting drove me mad....
I don't want to hear from those that know...
Everything has changed, absolutely nothing's changed

Eddie is a....draftnik?

Saint.tastic

The first thing I would do is lower the price of those $10 hotdogs and $15 beers. Oh yea I would also have a lounge chair on the 50 yard line for myself.

Boccal

I agree with you Puddinhead, Since I do go to a few games a year I sure don\'t want to have to sit out in the elements to watch the game. Last year I went to The Falcons game and it was storming out side but it was nice and pleasent in the Dome. So I would just have to go for the eye candy stadium that looked good and was comfortible and had a well built base around it that you could upgrade as needed