| | Thirteen months after Hurricane Katrina roared ashore and ripped through New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, the New Orleans Saints will return to their home -- the Superdome.
National television will broadcast the Saints' return to the city when they play the Atlanta Falcons on Monday Night Football. The game will be seen as an important part in the city's revitalization. However, the city may be far from able to support an NFL team.
If the Saints hope to remain in New Orleans, their fate may well be decided by cities like Shreveport and Jackson, Miss.
Sections of New Orleans are still destroyed and some of the city's population hasn't returned, and may not ever. To pull fans into the Superdome, the Saints will employ a different marketing strategy than previous years.
With guidance from the NFL, the Saints plan on building stronger ties across the region, stretching from Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and northern portions of Louisiana -- like Shreveport-Bossier City.
"The region that the Saints rely on to support the team is going to have to be geographically expanded simply because the population base and the wealth of greater New Orleans is going to shrink," said Gary Roberts, director of Tulane's sports law program.
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| | Posted 4/18/2006 12:30 PM - 31 Views - 4 eProps - 2 comments
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