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Don’t expect Saints to bolt for Texas in the near future

New Orleans

The San Antonio Saints. It does have a bit of a ring to it, but we’re told there is little to no chance that Saints owner Tom Benson will be moving the team to Texas any time soon. Benson shocked some when he abruptly walked away from Superdome lease talks with the state of Louisiana last month, and only a few days later, one of Benson’s attorney’s, Stanley Rosenberg, told a San Antonio newspaper that he believed Benson would like to move the team near the city where he has a home. Benson and the state have reached an impasse over the team’s lease agreement with the Superdome, but we’re told SMG, the company that operates the stadium, isn’t taking the saber-rattling from Benson seriously, telling reporters, “This is what NFL teams do.� Rosenberg claims Benson has received interest in buying the team, with one bid at more than $1 billion. The Saints can legally break their current lease, which runs through 2010, after the 2005 season by repaying the $81 million the team received from the state during the first four years of the deal, which was signed in 2001. Although San Antonio may be just a bargaining ploy, a more realistic option down the road could be the Los Angeles area, which is nearly guaranteed to get an NFL team by the end of the decade.

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