If it was all about the money we wouldn't have overpaid 10-15 players over the last 10 years, and grossly over-paid several more.

Actually, no offense, but if you were trying to make the team slightly LESS profitable, and worth less, as a franchise, because of the uncertainty around the team's ownership future, well that is one of the tools you could use to do that. Overpaying certain players within the salary cap, or making boneheaded cap or free agent moves, it makes no difference to Benson financially, one way or the other, it's all under the cap. He pays the cap, the cap is fixed, no matter how badly or well it's spent, that doesn't affect Benson's pockets.

Overpaying certain players and producing a losing product, on the field, that seems to have really cratered in the last year or so -- that impacts the profitability of the team to sell merch, food, rights, the suites in the Dome to fatcats, its overall success, and hence its overall money value. As a franchise.


Again, this is just something I'm kinda running up the flagpole, to see what I think, and what other people think. But if the team is making less money, that makes the value go down, of the whole team overall, and in theory that definitely benefits Benson in his theoretical efforts to switch things around in the trust, for other assets of "equal" value. Something to think about.

The problem with that theory, the Saints are not a standalone corporation. They are part of the NFL conglomerate, and more importantly, part of revenue sharing among all teams in the NFL, so the overall value of the franchise is tied to the entire NFL. "Hey, I am going to devalue my franchise so I can leave the team to my wife", I don't think would sit well with the other owners. Nor would he be able to devalue the franchise enough to allow him to make any swap. Even the Jaguars, who just lose, play to half empty stadiums, and have London lingering over their heads, are worth around 1.45 billion, to the Saints 1.5 billion (as per Forbes )

There is also the matter of asset "value"; it could mean not only the face value of the asset at a particular point in time, but its potential earnings over time, liquidity, market stability, etc. Loose analogy, but would you swap $100.00 worth of gold with $100.00 worth of plastic bottles?

And lets not forget, Benson is trying to swap the assets with promissory notes, not actual assets. He doesn't even have the face value of the current assets within the trusts to make the swap. So actually, the more the franchise is worth, and the higher the profitability outlook, the better it is for Benson's request he be allowed to swap assets with promissory notes.

Well I'm not sure I even buy this myself, but it could be that all this time he is quietly trying to downvalue the team, as he is heading in to the lawsuit. If the value of the team declines or tanks (even just temporarily), it makes his swap of assets out of the trusts make a lot more sense... It was only when the team value was astronomically high that the Rita camp had a problem with the substitution of the trust assets. The trust agreements contain a provision requiring the trustee to ensure that any assets changed, are exchanged for assets of equal value. That was the initial sticking point all along. The value of the swap.

Is the team worth $556 million or 1.1 billion? That is the question. I'm no expert but I'd say the QB, GM and coach are on thin ice, the next year's season ticket sellout is in jeopardy, merchandise sales are at a lull (no stars on the team, plus anybody really want to buy a Brees jersey, that doesn't already have one by now?), and the overall value of the team is potentially dropping, by the week. It will bounce back of course but this could come down to being all about the appraisal.

Next year's season ticket sell out isn't in jeopardy. There is still a 50,000 person waiting list. A couple bad seasons isn't going to erase that. Even in the early 80's and mid 90's there was still 60,000 people attending Saints games and that ain't changing anytime soon.