SuperBowl!

So New Orleans will host the 2013 Super Bowl.  That’s great news, since it means that the Saints and the state reached an agreement to keep the team in New Orleans until 2025.

The last time I was in New Orleans during the Super Bowl was in 1997.  Jamie and I marched up and down Bourbon Street chanting “DITKA AND SAINTS IN NINETY-EIGHT.”   I’m pretty sure that Jamie, a Rams fan, was laughing at the Saints, but I believed.  What a fool I was.

Even better, this Super Bowl will fall on Bacchus weekend.

superbowllogo

Let’s hope they redesign that logo.  I like the idea, but the execution is awful.  “A Perfect Ten”?  Yes, I know it’s the city’s 10th SuperBowl.  It’s still dumb.  The street sign looks like a license plate.

Here’s a little bit of JazzFest for you

I’m not a JazzFest purist.  Sure, I’m not a huge fan of Dave Matthews Band playing all the time, but I know the good times to be had by acts likes Bon Jovi.  Lionel Ritchie taught me how to love the hit makers at JazzFest.

Bon Jovi taught this guy, who rocked out for the entire show:

He was just as much fun to watch as Ritchie Sambora’s talk box solos.

In your face, San Antonio and Los Angeles

The Saints and the state worked out a deal to keep the Saints in Louisiana until 2025.  No more talk of the Los Angeles Saints or San Antonio Saints.  It seems like not too long ago, we were convinced that the team was leaving.  I was considering what to do if they left: become a Lions fan or an Eagles fan.

New Orleans Saints and Louisiana work out a deal for team to stay at Superdome through 2025

After more than a year of negotiating, the Saints say they have reached a tentative agreement with the state that will keep the NFL franchise in New Orleans through 2025, remove the need for a new stadium by upgrading the Superdome and resurrect an abandoned section of the Central Business District with a refurbished office tower and a new sports entertainment district.

This still has to be approved by the legislature, so it’s not done yet.

Basically, Benson buys the empty office building next to the Superdome and rents it to the state at a higher-than-normal rate.  He also buys New Orleans Centre and its parking garage, and reopens it.  The state pays to remodel the Dome for more luxury boxes.  Most importantly, the deal puts the state’s obligations to pay the Saints on a yearly basis on a sliding scale.  If the team makes more than $12 million in a year, the state pays nothing.  They won’t pay more than $6 million a year.  Right now, everything is paid for by the state.

So yeah, Benson got a sweet deal.  But the state does too.  They pay out less money and the Saints assume part of the risk of operating an NFL team.  And hopefully, there will be a revitalization of that area of the CBD as state agencies move their employees there.

I walked down by the Dome the other day, and there is no one out there except the folks coming out of the LSU clinic in New Orleans Centre.  Just a few blocks south on Poydras, there were office workers every where.

Hopefully the state legislature approves the deal, considering that they like to complain about anything related to spending money on New Orleans or the Saints.

Seriously?!

From this morning’s Times-Picayune:

Charges reduced against trio arrested in Mardi Gras shooting

Prosecutors have dropped the attempted-murder case against the three men arrested in the Mardi Gras shooting of seven people, opting for lesser charges against two of them.

You may remember that Leslie and my mom and dad were on the scene when this happened on Mardi Gras day.  My mom is so proud of Leslie for knocking her down when the shots started.

Way to go DA Cannizzaro.  The city makes the national news for a shootout on St. Charles during our biggest day of the year, and you reduce the charges.  “Yeah, it’s ok.  Shit on just about the only thing New Orleans has going for it these days.  No big deal.  Never mind that you shot 7 people including a toddler.”  Talk about sending a message to criminals.

Gotta keep the brand out there.