Saints' Success Helping Team Earn Fans Throughout Louisiana

Saints' Popularity Has Extended Beyond New Orleans This Season

The Saints' success this season has "accomplished what the team's marketing gurus could not: Turn the Saints from a team that had belonged almost exclusively to the New Orleans region into a statewide and regional draw," according to Jan Moller of the New Orleans TIMES-PICAYUNE. The surge in interest is "notable in large part because of the apathy that preceded it." In '05, the Saints, displaced from the Superdome after Hurricane Katrina, "struggled through a 3-13 nightmare of a season while playing their home games in front of 50,000 empty seats at LSU's Tiger Stadium." At that time, the "prospects of the Saints being embraced by Baton Rouge, much less the rest of Louisiana, seemed remote." But Saints VP/Marketing & Business Development Ben Hales said that about 30% of the team's season-ticket holders now "hail from outside the New Orleans region." Former Lake Charles American Press editor Jim Beam "pegs the team's resurgence in southwest Louisiana to the 2006 season, and the shared experience of loss and rejuvenation that binds that region to New Orleans." But Moller notes there is "also a more practical reason for the team's popularity in Lake Charles: television." Until a few years ago, the Fox affiliate in Lake Charles, KVHP, "often showed Cowboys games on Sundays, largely because the station also served areas of east Texas." But that "changed earlier this decade, when a new Fox station popped up in southeast Texas." Meanwhile, Shreveport's KMSS-Fox GM Paula Hayward said that the Cowboys "drew slightly higher ratings than the Saints in November, the most recent ratings period." KMSS twice this year "asked its viewers to vote on" whether the station should show the Cowboys or Saints when there was a direct conflict. The first vote was "won by the Saints," but the Cowboys "won by a narrow margin" the second time (New Orleans TIMES-PICAYUNE, 2/4).

CATCHING THE FEVER: In Louisiana, Jeff Matthews noted business "has been brisk in several sectors -- including food and beverage, advertising and apparel -- in connection with the Saints' best season in their long-suffering history." Susan Broussard, Store Dir for an Albertson's location in Alexandria, Louisiana, said, "It's like the perfect storm. We're not even sure how to prepare for this. Louisiana has never experienced anything like having our team in the Super Bowl. It's new to us." Matthews noted Albertson's will have employees "working around the clock as the weekend gets closer to meet expected demand," while the Academy Sports & Outdoors in Alexandria is planning a "late-night opening if the Saints win" (Alexandria TOWN TALK, 2/3).