2021-09-09 07:00:00
New Orleans Saints players run onto the field at the Alamodome for an NFL game against the Detroit Lions in San Antonio on Dec. 24, 2005. The Lions won 13-12. The Saints played three games in San Antonio following Hurricane Katrina.
ERIC GAY/AP
San Antonio experienced a big sports year in 2005. Not only did the Spurs win another NBA championship, the city hosted the New Orleans Saints in the Alamodome that year for part of the NFL season as the city recovered from Hurricane Katrina.
The Alamo City seemed like the perfect home away from home for the Saints after thousands of hurricane evacuees made their way to San Antonio to escape the storm’s devastation.
But in the eyes of many fans, San Antonio tried to steal the Saints as the Big Easy struggled to recover.
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It was a four-month saga replete with wishful thinking, intense emotions, grand overtures and a brief moment when owner Tom Benson, a wealthy businessman with strong ties to San Antonio, was so afraid of outraged Louisiana fans that he refused to attend split-season games in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Mariachi performer, Heribeto Vargas, performs before a game against the Buffalo Bills and the New Orleans Saints on October 2, 2005, in San Antonio.
Ronald Martinez/Getty Images
A refrigerator abandoned after Hurricane Katrina reads “Tom Benson Liar” found in the Gentilly neighborhood in New Orleans on Oct. 24, 2005.
BILL NEWS/AP
San Antonio agreed to house the Saints for part of the season after the Category 5 hurricane ripped holes in the roof of the Superdome and caused billions of dollars of damage across the Gulf Coast.
Saints fans show their disdain for the team’s owner Tom Benson during the game against Chicago in Baton Rouge on Nov. 6, 2005. Fans were angry that Benson considered moving the team to San Antonio.
JOHN DAVENPORT/SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS
New Orleans Saints quarterback Aaron Brooks spikes the ball after a touchdown as fans celebrate during a game against the Buffalo Bills Sunday on Oct. 2, 2005, at the Alamodome.
GLORIA FERNIZ/SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS
New Orleans Saints players warm up on Sept. 5, 2005 at the San Antonio Independent School District Spring Sports Complex.
BAHRAM MARK SOBHANI/SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS
Wade Anderson paints the “T” of the word “Saints” on the windows above the South entrance to the Alamodome on Sept. 20, 2005.
HELEN L. MONTOYA/SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS
The Saints played three well-attended games at the Alamodome before an admiring audience.
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San Antonio officials, most notably then-Mayor Phil Hardberger, were adamant about gaining full custody of the team as the city slathered the Alamodome with black, white and gold paint representing the Saints colors.
For months, city officials and business leaders choreographed a dance, hoping to advance the city as a permanent candidate for an NFL franchise. Talk show and internet chatter debated whether San Antonio was a gracious benefactor or a conniving scoundrel.
Many Saints fans reacted with fury, accusing the city and Benson of attempting to loot their home team.
The NFL, meanwhile, did not want to give the appearance of abandoning New Orleans while the city attempted to rebuild.
The Saints ended the abysmal 3-13 season with a league plan to return the team to the Superdome. As for San Antonio, it never received the NFL team it had hoped for.
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Fears over the Saints’ future in New Orleans came long before Katrina. The city had to borrow money for two years to make its annual payment to the Saints under the lease negotiated with the state of Louisiana. Rumors swirled that Benson was considering moving the team west, perhaps to Los Angeles.
With Bensen’s strong personal and business interests in San Antonio, specifically his car dealership empire, fans were especially weary.
Talk of moving the Saints in the wake of Katrina angered then-New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, who called it a shameful act of disrespect to fans who had supported the franchise for nearly four decades.
New Orleans Saints owner Tom Benson, center, answers reporters’ questions while leaving Louisiana State University’s Tiger Stadium after a news conference.
BILL FEIG/AP
Then-mayor Phil Hardberger, center, surrounded by city, county and emergency officials speaks on Sept. 1, 2005, about plans to house evacuees from New Orleans in San Antonio.
KIN MAN HUI/SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS
The chairman of the LSU Board of Supervisors, Bernand Boudreux, directed his wrath at Hardberger, who triggered tempers when he said San Antonio intended to push for permanent relocation of the Saints.
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“It’s inappropriate for the mayor of San Antonio to attempt to pirate the Saints in the middle of the Hurricane Katrina disaster,” said Boudreux, who negotiated the contract for the Saints to play four games that season at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge.
Bensen gave few indications publicly of his decision about the team’s future in New Orleans. However, the Express-News discovered that he had planned to void the Saints’ lease agreement with the Superdome by declaring the facility unusable.
Bensen faced further criticism after he fired Arnold Fielkow, the team’s top business executive, who wanted to keep the team in Louisiana.
The Louisiana Superdome sits in the foreground as floodwaters from Hurricane Katrina continue to recede on Sept. 11, 2005, in New Orleans.
DAVID J. PHILLIP/AP
The Saints were under contract at the Superdome through 2010, however certain provisions allowed them to opt out before a fall 2005 deadline. Benson met with then-NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue and then-Gov. Kathleen Blanco during the Saints’ first Louisiana game.
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Tagliabue reportedly urged Benson to keep the team in New Orleans.
After the Saints lost 21-6 to the Miami Dolphins, Bensen and his family were besieged by irate fans. He panicked and shoved a television camera out of his way.
Benson later told Tagliabue that he wouldn’t return to a Saints game in Louisiana. He called the trip to Baton Rouge “a total disaster” and insisted that he and his family were “in danger” after they left the game. He said that his family could have been “injured or killed.”
Daniel Bana holds a welcome sign for the New Orleans Saints as they host the Buffalo Bills in their first game at the Alamodome in San Antonio on Oct. 2, 2005.
ERIC GAY/AP
San Antonio’s last attempt to woo the Saints was when a crowd of more than 60,000 fans packed into the Alamodome for the third time in three months.
But by the end of the 2005 season, Benson and Tagliabue had reached an agreement to return the displaced team to Louisiana. The league was reportedly ready to help the Saints financially, a key concern of Benson, who feared that the city would not be able to sustain the team economically.
Fans wait in line to buy tickets for New Orleans Saints football games at the Alamodome in San Antonio on Sept. 14, 2005.
ERIC GAY/AP
The opening kickoff between the Buffalo Bills and the New Orleans Saints on October 2, 2005, in San Antonio.
Ronald Martinez/Getty Images
Calling San Antonio a ”growing and changing market,” Tagliabue made it clear the city earned points with the NFL by hosting the displaced team. An average of 62,666 fans watched the three games at the 65,000-seat Alamodome.
”The sense I have is if we ever get around to considering expansion in the NFL, San Antonio would be on anyone’s short list,” Tagliabue said.
As for the players, the 16-week saga was chaotic. They shuffled between three headquarters, three practice facilities, a few parking lot walk-throughs and a circus-tent weight room.
Express-News sports columnist Mike Finger, who had covered much of the controversy, summed it up like this:
“For the angry, it was a chance to vent. For the inquisitive, it was a chance to ask questions. For the homesick, it was a chance to give thanks.
“And although some left with scowls of frustration, and others left with sighs of relief, there was one thing all of the Saints could agree on about the announcement of their impending return to Louisiana.
That it was, at last, a chance to move on.”
Information from the Express-News and Houston Chronicle archives was used in this report.
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