Saints President Dennis Lauscha said that the team has "'cutting edge' changes in mind" for renovations to the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, adding that the "goal is for work to be at least under way by the time the current lease expires" in '25, according to the New Orleans ADVOCATE. Lauscha said that he "doesn't have many specifics" regarding Superdome renovations. But he said the Saints "just finished a renovation process" that started in '06 and culminated "with the new video boards" the team put in. He said that the work "would likely be done primarily between seasons," although the events regularly slated for the Superdome could "complicate scheduling." Lauscha added that any funds "would likely consist of a state, team and NFL funding component, but it's too early in the process for anything but 'ballpark' figures." The recent Superdome renovations totaled $39.5M, $25M of which "were covered" by Saints Owner Tom Benson. Meanwhile, Lauscha said having a new stadium is "certainly the ace in the hole" for cities landing Super Bowls. He said the Saints renovations will "significantly help the fan experience which, when you combine that with the finances, really makes a compelling case that we should be back in the regular rotation." On what renovations might include, Lauscha said, "Some of the preliminary discussions that we’ve had right now are some very large changes to egress and ingress and moving people around concourses. If we can reshape some of the concourses and we can reshape some of the pedestrian waves and vertical movement throughout the building. ... One of the biggest questions we get is, ‘Can you do something about making the concourses wider?’ We’re certainly going to try to address that in this stage" (THEADVOCATE.com, 5/31).
