More on Saints' sellout; Question regarding T-P article

An article by Jimmy Smith of the Times-Picayune today reiterated the sellout of the Saints' 2006 season tickets at the Superdome, with new quotes from Tom Benson - and a paragraph of questionable information.

A few more quotes from Tommy Boy were mentioned, and are reproduced below:

"This is news we're very proud of; that the whole community can be proud of. We're officially sold out for the first time in the history of the Saints for the entire season. We're now competing on that basis with places like New York, San Francisco, Chicago. This is just tremendous. People in New York and other places can't hardly believe what the people of this whole area have done."

"I want to thank our fans for making this happen. I'm so proud to be able to make this announcement. I look forward to a great 2006 season."

"I believe what's happened now is a lot of people are living as far away as Baton Rouge and Lafayette. Maybe they lived closer before. I think those people are involved in doing this. I think the people in what I call the Gulf South, they wanted to show the world . . . this is their way of saying, 'We're here. We're alive. We're not sitting back on our butts. We're alive.'"

"It's not just Jefferson Parish or Orleans Parish. We're out now 150, 200 miles with people supporting us. Now we're all one community. It used to be New Orleans against everybody else."

"We're going to show the world. People think we haven't been doing anything down here."

Got to give the man a lot of credit - he's saying all the right things, and whether propped up by the NFL powers-that-be or not, he deserves a pat on the back.

HOWEVER, one paragraph in the Times-Picayune article gave me hesitation - because it's blatantly incorrect. The paragraph reads as follows:

"Tuesday's announcement is the culmination in the resurgence of a franchise that announced in mid-February that it was returning to New Orleans for the duration of its Superdome lease, which runs through 2010."

No such announcement ever took place. No such statement has been made. Trust me, if it had, it would have been trumpeted all over this site - and a lot of others, such as saintsreport.com (the most informative Saints site out there).

There would have been no question about the team's commitment to the city, or whether it might relocate after the 2006 season via the lease's revised $61 million exit clause.

Did I miss something? Did we all?

In any event, the sellout news is outstanding, and Monday should be a day for the ages in New Orleans.

Wear your black and gold, and show that united support of the Saints.

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Email me at saintsdoggle@yahoo.com.