Papa Voodoo

I thought it was Tagliabue who had major inluence in keeping the Saints in New Orleans.

How Paul Tagliabue and the NFL helped save the Saints and the Superdome | NOLA.com

"Question: When you got down here, you were very committed to playing a certain amount of games, at least half of the games in Louisiana. Why?

Tagliabue: "Well, I think right from Day One, when we had those meetings in early September with Sean O'Keefe and others, it was clear to me that we had to play a majority of the home games in Louisiana if we could, that there was a lot of symbolism attached to that. If all of sudden we were playing one or two games -- which would have been viewed as token -- in Louisiana and playing five or six games in San Antonio or anywhere else, people would have started to read very negative messages into that type of schedule. I felt it was critical that four of the seven (home games), one way or the other, had to be played in Louisiana. We came out of that meeting in September with that agreement in place."

Question: At the time, how confident were you that New Orleans could support the Saints? Were you receiving information that indicated the recovery was going in a positive direction, or were you strictly taking a leap of faith?

Tagliabue: I think you've got to separate the two things that you refer to. The first issue was keeping the team there. The second issue was could they be supported in the long term. While we were emphatic that the team was going to stay there, we had no idea whether they could be supported in the long term. But it was the right thing to do, so that's what we did."