City of New Orleans owes Saints/Hornets $27.5 million
Wasn’t Hurricane Katrina enough?
In a situation that just seems patently unfair, the City of New Orleans is arguably in danger of losing their two sports teams; the New Orleans Saints and the Charlotte Hornets. Details from NOLA,
The board that runs the Superdome and New Orleans Arena is expected to run a $27.5 million shortfall in the fiscal year starting July 1, in large part because of the subsidy the state owes the New Orleans Saints and Hornets, according to a senior executive of the firm that operates the two facilities.
The state owes the Saints $23.5 million this year and next year to play in the Dome as well as $10.4 million in other contractual inducements, like concessions and parking revenues. The 2010 budget also calls for the Superdome Commission to pay the Hornets $7.16 million in inducements plus about $4.2 million in revenues from parking and concessions.
The consequence to the city for not paying up? The Saints and Hornets are allowed to relocate out of the city without any repercussions. Granted, the current economic climate combined with the Saints and Hornets stating that they want to remain in N.O. are a plus, but the city is probably not looking to take any chances. Unfortunately, the city is strapped for cash, as evidenced by this classic line by Doug Thornton of SMG (the group that manages the Super Dome)
“We had a good year last year…” “There are not enough monster truck shows in the universe to make up the projected shortfall.”
The subsidy in question is a city paid subsidy to the two sports teams to keep them in the city of New Orleans. For information’s sake, the Saints Operating Income in 2008 was about $21.5 million and the Hornets came in at about $13 million.
Uh, the deal with the Saints was signed 10 years ago, which sounds like 7 years of wasted citizens taxpayer dollars, but, to each his own, right?
Good luck New Orleans.
NOLA.com — Payments for New Orleans Saints and Hornets short $27.5 million for next year
Category: Basketball, Football
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