Saints Avoid Public Backlash With Community Unlike the Chiefs With $11.4 Million Investment

The New Orleans Saints will be hosting the Super Bowl in the Caesars Stadium this season. However, just like the Kansas City Chiefs, the team has been facing some monetary issues with the construction, in which the Louisiana Stadium and Exposition District (LSED) is also involved. But after a long back and forth after a “wonderful conversation” between both parties, things might finally resolve.

As for the Kansas City Chiefs, Clark Hunt was ready to pay an amount of about $300 million towards the renovation of Arrowhead. Still, residents of Jackson County declined to contribute the taxes they paid to the government to go to the development of Arrowhead. But this case with the Saints is slightly different because they have been accused of falling behind the payment. But there’s more to it than what appears on the surface.

The New Orleans Saints are finally on amicable terms with LSED

Adam Schefter took to X and shared the crux of the news, “Saints made an $11.4 million payment toward Superdome renovations Friday, diffusing a public standoff between the NFL club and state officials who oversee the stadium that will host the next Super Bowl,” as reported by Associated Press. But this payment came after a lot of distrust among both parties.

Reportedly, Dennis Lauscha, the Saints President wanted to see “material progress,” and when the state couldn’t fulfill their demands, and withheld the payments that were supposed to be made towards the renovation. Lauscha answered some questions on the Saints website and stood firm on the fact that “As of late of last week, sufficient progress was not made and the Saints reached out to tell them, yet again, that payments would not be made until significant progress on the lease was accomplished.”

However, The LSED’s side of the story is a bit different. Initially, the New Orleans team was prepared to pay given that they received the appropriated “documentation” of the deliverables, however, the government body said that it “did not understand” what documents the Saints were demanding because the Saints never disputed renovation-related invoices.

Also, ASM Global, the company that is being paid to look after the Superdome, told the club that they “wanted to discuss rolling back some of the rights granted to the team in the current lease.” These rights include the revenue from naming rights deals and advertisement space. This was shocking to the Saints’ management because some of these “rights” were “fundamental” to the deal between both parties.

“Given that threat, we told ASM and the LSED that we would have no choice but to hold up construction payments until they agreed to live up to the commitments they made to preserving our rights.” However, everything seems to be falling into place after the Saints owner Gayle Benson had a chat with Gov. Jeff Landry as confirmed by an LSED attorney later.

The Saints just paid $11.4 million after the feud went public and now everyone is trying to resolve the matter amicably. But as it stands, the Saints still have to pay $41 million of $58 million towards the renovation. The team has committed to spending about $200 million in renovations. So for now, there seem to be no problems between both parties.

But the Saints are not the only ones who are facing problems with the renovation of their stadium. It’s also the Kansas City Chiefs and now there are rumors that the Chiefs might also be in a few problems as their stadium requires about $800 million to fix, of which the Hunt family is willing to pay $300 million for.

The Kansas City Chiefs conundrum

A while ago there was a petition to direct sales taxes and revenue toward the development of the GEHA field, however, 58% of the voters denied that motion. Now, Clark Hunt might be forced to move to a different location because of the impasse that this motion has reached. However, the common consensus is that neither Clark Hunt nor the fans want the Chiefs to move out of state. The Chiefs NFL games are responsible for generating huge revenues and driving traffic from other towns, which also results in the city gaining some monetary benefits.

However, the NFL season is about to start in a couple of months and Clark Hunt faces a “sense of urgency” to find a solution in due time. “I do feel very much a sense of urgency, and we will approach it from a broader perspective going forward because time is short for us at this point. So, we need to see what other options are out there for us,” said Hunt.

The option that Hunt is talking about might include building a new billion-dollar facility for the team but outside Missouri. Not only this, but the Kansas City Royals are also in the same boat as their football counterpart. There is an emotional connection that the fans and the team have with Arrowhead Stadium and though they don’t want to move out, circumstances can force their hand.

“We were obviously very focused on GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium, obviously it’s a special place for our fanbase and I believe it could be a special place for our fanbase for another 25 years with the right renovation,” Hunt said. “But we’re just going to have to be open-minded in how we approach this. “That may involve a new stadium, and it could be an open-air stadium or it could be a dome stadium.”

Coming back to the New Orleans situation, the Caesars Superdome renovation involved overhauls of stadium entrances, concourses, and kitchens; installation of soaring new escalators; and the replacement of older ramps with staircases and elevators, most of which have been accomplished. The 50-year-old stadium might have a new face by the team 2024 season begins. Safe to say that, unlike the Saints, the Chiefs haven’t been able to work things out with the government.