Saints-Cowboys game could mean a publicity boon
The New Orleans Saints and Dallas Cowboys’ preseason game at Independence Stadium on Aug. 21 will be a rare treat for local football fans — the opportunity to see an NFL game in their backyard.
Shreveport officials offered Independence Stadium to the Saints for their regular-season games shortly after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and the Saints’ home, the Superdome. The Saints ended up playing their regular-season games in San Antonio and Baton Rouge, but Shreveport’s courting and hard work — much from Mayor Keith Hightower and his CAO Ken Antee — didn’t go unnoticed.
"Let’s make Shreveport the showcase worldwide on ESPN and Monday Night Football," Mayor Keith Hightower said in announcing the PR opportunity. "What more can we ask for?"
Indeed, this is a prime(time) vehicle for the city to show its progress. A sellout of Independence Stadium is needed to maximize the energy potential communicated to the television audience — to make the event more telegenic than pockets of empty seats would — and hopefully it won’t take much cajoling to do it.
Major professional sports teams have visited Shreveport and Bossier City previously, but none will do for the area what the NFL will do with one game. The San Francisco Giants faced their Double-A farm team the Shreveport Captains in exhibition games at Fair Grounds Field in 1989 and 1992. Most recently, the New Orleans Hornets played an exhibition game against the NBA champion San Antonio Spurs at the CenturyTel Center in October. Even the NHL stopped in Bossier City when the Atlanta Thrashers played the Nashville Predators for an exhibition game in 2002.
The Saints certainly could use some goodwill in this corner of the state. From a state policy standpoint, many Louisianans north of Interstate 10 resent the millions in state dollars committed to keeping owner Tom Benson appeased and in New Orleans as he flirted with a dash to San Antonio or Los Angeles. From a fan base, the Saints always have had trouble wresting attention away from the more successful franchise in Dallas, which has long claimed widespread local support.
Said Benson when the game was formally announced, "This is the start of the rebuilding of a program that’s very important to our state … It’s important that this is successful to show the country that Louisiana is back."
Northwest Louisiana continues to carve out a national image that this is part of Louisiana that is fully operational. Consider the publicity that is already being generated by the filming of TV shows and feature length movies in the area. The first out of the box was this week’s premier of the FX show "Thief," in which Shreveport doubles for New Orleans.
About a week shy of the anniversary of Katrina’s landfall, the Saints-Cowboys tilt will help tell a nation Louisiana is bouncing back and that Shreveport is not a battered Gulf locale but an inland point of prosperity and promise — an exciting place to live, work and play.
