Letters to the Editor: Rick Caruso didn’t waste $104 million on a stadium
Posted:
May 10, 2013 at 12:13 a.m.
By Rich Cipollone – The Palm Beaches Daily
Last week, I was a guest on Rick Caruso’s “Sports Radio 101” program on New Orleans’ WWL-AM 1230 (he is on CBS Sports Radio). Caruso is considered to be the best sports guy in New Orleans and was a former NFL player. Caruso has covered the NFL for over two decades and is a very respected writer and commentator with knowledge of the New Orleans Saints, the NFL and NFL.
Caruso was the first person to report two days after Hurricane Katrina on the plans for a proposed New Orleans stadium for the Saints. He was quite surprised to find out the city of New Orleans planned to spend more than $104 million to build the stadium. After checking into the numbers of the estimated costs, Caruso was quite surprised to find out the city was planning to spend more than $104 million to build the stadium. He also checked into the estimated cost of the Louisiana Superdome and learned that it would cost over five times as much to construct the stadium at the Superdome. The city and the Saints spent a fortune to build a stadium they no longer could use.
The reason for the Superdome not being built was because New Orleans is far away from the Louisiana Superdome. The Saints could not afford to build a $7 million bond issue to fund the project. Caruso did have all of New Orleans to blame for not building the stadium. He blamed the French Quarter for not being able to bring the public into the stadium to enjoy the stadium while raising money for it. It is easy to point fingers at other people while ignoring the elephant in the room, New Orleans’ inability to build a new stadium.
Caruso also pointed out that he didn’t realize how much the construction of the stadium