Yahoo Finance Saints respond to New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell, reignite battle to host fans at Superdome
The New Orleans Saints won’t take no for an answer. Dismayed by Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s decision to not allow fans at the Superdome, the Saints took to Twitter on Thursday to try and plead their case.
The Saints sent out two tweets. The first attempted to refute one of Cantrell’s reasons for not allowing the Saints to host fans at 25 percent capacity in 2020.
Setting the record straight:
Since Week 1, there have been 33 NFL games played with fans.
Of those games, 10 were played with fans in domed or enclosed stadiums:
Week 2:
DAL & INDY
Week 3:
INDY
Week 4:
HOU & DAL
Week 5:
atl, HOU & DAL
Week 6:
Indy & DAL— New Orleans Saints (@Saints) October 15, 2020
In the second tweet, the Saints claimed those games did not result in any coronavirus outbreaks.
Furthermore, the Saints and Cardinals have played with a limited capacity under the roof. In NO instances have there been any reporting of COVID clusters or outbreaks in these situations OR any situations in stadiums with fans present
— New Orleans Saints (@Saints) October 15, 2020
The Saints have pushed to host fans at 25 percent capacity in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, but Cantrell has denied those requests. Cantrell reportedly doesn’t want to provide any business with a special exemption, according to nola.com.
Saints looking to play games at Tiger Stadium
The Saints have reached a point where they are willing to play home games elsewhere in order to host fans. The Saints reportedly met with LSU to discuss whether the Saints could use Tiger Stadium for home games in 2020. Team vice president of communications Greg Bensel expressed frustration with Cantrell, telling ESPN’s Adam Schefter the team wants to host games at the Superdome, but the city won’t allow it.
Cantrell responded to Bensel’s comments, explaining why she has denied the team’s request to host fans.
At present, no NFL stadium in the country with a fixed-roof facility is allowing such an exception. We will continue to monitor the public health data, but cannot set an artificial timeline for how and when conditions may allow for the kind of special exemption being requested.
— Mayor LaToya Cantrell (@mayorcantrell) October 13, 2020
With Thursday’s tweets, the Saints are likely looking to win the battle of public perception. Tweets telling Cantrell she’s wrong probably won’t help the Saints’ case, so the team could be looking to turn fans against Cantrell.
Whether that’s the correct strategy remains to be seen. Cantrell is ultimately going to do what she believes will keep New Orleans citizens safe.
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