So where will the Saints play Ball?

The following post came about from a discussion on message board. I just took the idea the next step....

The Mayor of New Orleans is saying that it might be 3-4 months before people can return to New Orleans. So where will the Saints play?

NFL.com has an interesting article that mentions several possibilities including Baton Rouge, Houston, San Antonio, Birmingham, Shreveport and other places.

If I were the Governor of Louisiana, I would get on the phone with Tom Benson, owner of the Saints and ask him to help me play let's make a deal with mayors in surrounding cities. The State of Louisiana needs cities and organizations to assume care for their refugees. Surrounding cities need tourists and attendees for their empty stadiums. What not play tit for tat?

"If you take 5,000-25,000 of my refugees and I'll give you 1, 3 or even 4 Saints home games." That's a good financial and PR deal for just about everyone. This may in fact have already happened in Houston. The city of Houston has taken all of the 25,000 or so refugees from the SuperDome and will be housing them in the mostly vacant AstroDome until things stabilize in New Orleans. They've also opened Houston area public schools to New Orleans children who are staying in the AstroDome.

Looking at the Saints and Houston Texans schedules there are 4 weeks during the season where the Saints have a home game and the Texans are on the road. Could a 4 game deal have already been struck?

LSU's Tiger Stadium would also make sense for a few games. Baton Rouge is the staging center for much of the NOLA relief effort. So an early season game might not make sense. Why not consider shipping a game to the Liberty Bowl in Memphis, to Texas Stadium in Dallas or elsewhere in exchange for dumping (for lack of a bette word) refugees?

[Click on the Donate Now Logo to contribute to the American Red Cross]

There are an estimated 1 million refugees. They've got to go somewhere.

Just an idea.

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