NEW ORLEANS — UPDATE: Later Friday afternoon, the Saints confirmed an $11.4 million payment for the money the LSED said the team owed for ongoing renovations made to the Caesars Superdome.
The weeklong publicly-aired dispute between the New Orleans Saints and the Louisiana Stadium and Exposition District comes down to one overriding issue – progress towards a long-term lease for the team in the stadium, New Orleans Saints and Pelicans President Dennis Lauscha said in a question and answer the team posted to its web site Friday.
The public awareness of any issue began earlier this week when the LSED, the state board appointed by the governor to manage the Superdome and the Smoothie King Center, said the Saints were behind on their share of payments to the group for the most recent overhaul of the nearly half a century-old Central Business District centerpiece.
Since then the two sides have had dueling press releases that included the Saints saying they were waiting for documentation and the LSED saying it needed specifics on what documentation the Saints wanted.
Lauscha contends the documentation doesn’t revolve around the work being done on the dome, but rather on a longer term lease for the team.
“In December, as noted previously, the LSED was informed that material progress toward a long-term lease had to be made or payments would be stopped,” Lauscha said in the Q&A.
Lauscha says recent back and forth between the two entities raised some concerns for the team on what the LSED wished to change some of the team’s rights with regards to the stadium.
“Beginning in December, however, we started receiving indications from the LSED and ASM (ASM Global is the management company of the Superdome facility and its campus) that they wanted to discuss rolling back some of the rights granted to the team in the current lease,” said Lauscha.
The Saints, according to Lauscha, originally agreed to fund $150 million of an estimated $450 million in upgrades, improvements and infrastructure. Then, as the costs increased to an estimated $550 million for all of the work, the Saints said their share increased to $183 million.
Lauscha contends the team had been making payments, with the last one being on March 28, 2024 for $25.1 million.
He said that recently the LSED told them there is agreement on 85 to 90 percent of the longer lease proposal and Lauscha said the team wanted documentation by May 20 of what the differences were on the other 10-15 percent so work could be done towards working them out.
He said the LSED missed the deadline.
“If the issues are what they have vaguely referenced, we feel we could knock out an agreement in an afternoon and make a payment the next day. We can't resolve issues they won't share with us, nor can we be expected to negotiate against ourselves," Lauscha said.
The NFL is concerned about progress being halted on the renovations, which are supposed to be done in time for the Saints season and the NFL’s 2025 Super Bowl, but agrees the Saints need to conclude a long term agreement.
Lauscha said Governor Jeff Landry spoke to Saints Owner Gayle Benson Thursday night and that an attorney for the LSED reached out shortly after to try to arrange a meeting.
“We welcome that,” said Lauscha.
The LSED said it would not have new comment Friday and referred to its May 22nd meeting minutes on the subject.