New Orleans Marches On With Superdome Repairs

He is helping to get a Web site, SaveOurSaints.com, fully operational and said he has rented a plane that will fly above Louisiana State's Tiger Stadium before Sunday's game carrying a banner with a message for NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue. According to Foster, the banner will read: "Tagliabue, SOS: Save Our New Orleans Saints."

Foster said some Saints fans in the region will boycott Sunday's game because of their contempt for Benson. But that, in his view, is counterproductive. He will attend the game because he thinks a strong turnout will show the NFL that there is plenty of support for the Saints returning to New Orleans.

"You have some fans who are not going to go, just to show how they feel," Foster said in a telephone interview. "But I'm going. I'm going to give Mr. Benson the benefit of the doubt. . . . If Mr. Benson is a man of his word, he'll be back. . . . Unless somebody has a spare billion dollars sitting around, Mr. Benson is going to be our owner. So why alienate him any further? We want to show him and show the league that we want the Saints back."

Benson's open letter was published on Wednesday in the New Orleans Times-Picayune. Benson said he would like to return the franchise to New Orleans but cannot be certain that he will do so because of economic and stadium issues as the city recovers from Katrina. "No decision has been made about the future of the team," Benson's letter said, "because no decision has been made about the future of New Orleans."

There have been reports that Benson is interested in keeping the club in San Antonio, its current home. Three NFL sources, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the deliberations, said the league might allow the Saints to remain in San Antonio next season, with an eye toward a future move to Los Angeles, if New Orleans cannot rebuild and properly support the club.

The league would have to approve any relocation by a three-quarters vote of the owners, and the NFL clearly covets a return to Los Angeles, the nation's second-largest television market. But first, New Orleans gets to make its case. Blanco, Benson and Tagliabue are to participate in talks this weekend in Baton Rouge. Tagliabue was instrumental in making sure the Saints play more games this season in Baton Rouge (four) than in San Antonio (three).

Even before Katrina struck, Benson had said he would consider his options after the season. It appeared the Saints would have to repay the state $81 million in subsidies to escape their Superdome lease. But they could be freed from that obligation under a clause in the lease if the facility is deemed unusable.

The Saints have until Nov. 27 to exercise that clause, Coulon said. The state, according to Coulon, would contest such a move, contending it can fulfill its obligations by providing an alternate venue -- like Baton Rouge -- until the Superdome is ready.

The Saints already have taken steps to void their lease at their training facility in the New Orleans area, contending it was damaged when it was occupied by federal relief workers. Coulon said the facility does not appear to be significantly damaged.

Coulon said there's been no recent dialogue between the state and the team. Benson recently fired Arnold Fielkow, a Saints executive who had dealt extensively with the state and was a strong advocate of the club being fully committed to New Orleans. Coulon said a legal confrontation over the lease is possible, but avoidable, if the Saints amicably negotiate a deal to return to New Orleans.

"It can be worked out," said Coulon. "When you have people sitting around a table who want to work things out, it lends itself to reaching a consensus. We haven't had that chance yet."

But emotions are running high. Benson is a villain in New Orleans. A taped-up refrigerator with rotten contents was left on a sidewalk and spray-painted with the warning: "Do not open. Benson inside."

San Antonio Mayor Phil Hardberger drew the ire of many in the Gulf Coast by reportedly calling ticket sales for the Saints games in Baton Rouge a "disaster."

Said Foster: "At first I was angry. Then I was hurt. You spend your life with this team. I've been watching them since I was a kid. Then the mayor of San Antonio is calling us a disaster. When he called Baton Rouge a disaster, he called all of us in the Gulf South a disaster. And we don't appreciate it."

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin called Benson's flirtation with San Antonio disrespectful to the citizens of New Orleans. Benson fired back in his letter, saying: "Comments from our current mayor are made without a single phone call being placed to our team to check on our plans or to get the facts. If the Saints and Tom Benson were as important to the city as the mayor of our city has claimed in the recent past, why such harsh comments, when a simple phone call could have saved him from embarrassment[?]"

Scalise said he doesn't think the NFL will want to be viewed as allowing Benson to flee from the post-Katrina New Orleans. But eventually, he added, the ability of New Orleans to keep the Saints will, as with other businesses, depend on economic considerations.

"Maybe it's negotiating," he said of Benson's approach. "Maybe it's positioning. I don't want to get into the personalities. There are businesses that are making decisions to leave, and there are businesses that are trying to stay. We need to be doing everything we can to give people a reason to want to come back."

Staff writer Leonard Shapiro contributed to this report from Washington.