tiggerpolice

Saints owner Tom Benson has not said why he is now ready to return to his seat at the bargaining table with the governor, but it could be because the fans are not returning to theirs in the Superdome.

When he broke off talks with the state in April, Benson said he would wait until the post-season before resuming negotiations. Part of what´s happened, or not happened, since then is seen at the box office, where season ticket sales are running 20,000 below the highs of just a few years ago.

Besides resisting increased ticket prices, fans might also be registering their displeasure with the owner and his demands for continued taxpayer support. Benson´s unpopularity is finally rubbing off on the team, and the illogical fan support demonstrated through the worst of years that never seem to get better. Despite the franchise´s marketing slogan for the coming season--"Faith!"--the fans seem to be losing theirs.

If attendance dips even an average of 10,000 per game, the loss of ticket, concession and parking revenue could easily top $750,000 per game, or $6 million for the season.

Starting the season with a string of wins--talk about faith!--could restore ticket revenue. Short of that, Benson needs to end his standoff and ink a long-term contract to keep the team in New Orleans in order to improve his battered public image and increase fan support.

Another reason for Benson´s pushing up his negotiating timetable is that he has a time-sensitive bargaining chip to deal. The 2010 Super Bowl, which seemed to be lost to New York in the spring, is back on the table after a proposed stadium complex in Manhattan fell through. Because Super Bowls only go to cities with long-term stadium deals, Benson needs to act before the National Football League rewards some other town.

That´s about all the leverage he has. The threat of his moving the team has been exposed as an idle one, as San Antonio leaders dismissed any notion of subsidizing the Saints the way Louisiana does. Los Angeles, without an NFL team, may appear to be the Promised Land, but Benson, like Moses, couldn´t lead the team there because of the league´s strong preference for local ownership. He can always sell the club for $600 million or so, but then he would no longer be a NFL owner--just a rich, or richer, old man.

He might as well restart talks now because waiting any longer is not going to get him a better deal. Consider the other side of the table. Gov. Kathleen Blanco has proposed a $174 million renovation of the Superdome and wants Benson to put up $40 million. He has counter-offered a 10 percent participation, $17.5 million. When the improvements are complete, Blanco wants to cut the subsidy payments, which will reach $23.5 million per year for 2009-11, to $9.5 million per year through 2025, with a 2 percent annual increase. Benson doesn´t want his payments reduced.

Blanco has the advantage, if you can call it that, of representing a Legislature and voting public that are fairly hostile toward giving the Saints anything. The Legislature, which must ratify and fund any contract she signs, is the bad cop to her not-so-bad one.

Blanco is hardly sitting comfortably, as many think her re-election prospects could ride on how the Saints matter is resolved. She will pay a price outside New Orleans if she is thought to give away too much. Losing the Saints would devastate her in the city, which accounted for her margin of victory in 2003, but gain her little credit with voters in the rest of the state, who would assume she was not smart or tough enough to cut the deal.

Benson has introduced some drama to the Saints´ pre-season, which, given the team´s performance in its first outing, is deflating expectations already. Success at the bargaining table could be all that makes up for what is going to happen, or not happen, on the field.


http://www.bayoubuzz.com/articles.aspx?aid=4771