Saints Marching In: First Post-Katrina NFL Home Game Draws Wide Media Interest

By: Joe Strupp Rivaling the media interest of the eight Super Bowls that have been played in the Louisiana Superdome, Monday night's game there between the New Orleans Saints and Atlanta Falcons -- the first home Saints game since Hurricane Katrina -- is one of the biggest news events in the city since the hurricane itself.

More than 1,000 credentials have been issued for the game, including at least one from Arab broadcaster Al-Jazeera, according to the Times-Picayune. "This is a world story, an international story," Superdome spokesman Bob Curl told E&P. "We have had media visitors from 11 different countries in the past week."

It marks the first Saints game at the Superdome since Katrina turned the building into an emergency shelter, and much of it got wrecked more than a year ago. Media demand has been so great that the Superdome has had to open a media center in the neighboring New Orleans Arena, a first for an NFL game there. In addition, dozens of reporters will have to cover the game from the arena via television, something that was not even required during the past Super Bowls, Curl said.

"For a Super Bowl, they usually build auxiliary media locations in the dome," he said. "But there is not the space for that because it is a regular season game and it is sold out."

The Superdome and the Saints are also having to provide information about the stadium itself, as well as tours of the post-hurricane repairs, that are never needed for routine football games, Curl said. "It is a different kind of coverage, a different kind of crowd," he said. "The interest is much more of a story than just a home opener. This is a lifetime memory."

That is also the view at the Times-Picayune, which plans to send 24 credentialed staffers to the game, including 11 photo department employees, said Sports Editor Doug Tatum. He said only 11 people are usually sent to each home Saints contest. Two staffers from NOLA.com, the paper's Web site, also plan to report live from the dome during the game, a first.

"This is on a whole different level than a regular game," Tatum said. "Because there are more stories. Just the excitement in the community is bigger than a Super Bowl or Final Four because those do not involve New Orleans teams."

The Times-Picayune plans to expand its Sunday sports section this week to 34 pages, up from the usual 18-20-page report during football season. "Advertisers have really gotten behind it," Tatum said.