Posted 10/12/2005 2:58 PM     Updated 10/12/2005 4:22 PM


PHOTO GALLERIES
NFL WEEK 6

Saints pushing Saban angle for first LSU game
BATON ROUGE — The marketing plan for the first-ever New Orleans Saints' regular-season football game in Tiger Stadium has called an audible.

The organization will be pushing the Nick Saban angle as much as the Saints' angle, which has a definite downward slope of late.

The Saints, who play former Louisiana State University coach Nick Saban's Miami Dolphins on Oct. 30 in LSU's Tiger Stadium, are coming off their second-worst loss in a bleak history. The Saints (2-3) lost 52-3 at 0-4 Green Bay on Sunday. Monday, the team learned that franchise tailback Deuce McAllister will be lost for the season because of a knee injury suffered at Green Bay.

New Orleans "hosts" Atlanta (3-2) on Sunday at the Alamodome in San Antonio where the Saints have moved their offices in light of Hurricane Katrina's destruction of their home at the Louisiana Superdome. They will play two more "home" games in San Antonio this season and three more in Tiger Stadium after the Miami game — Chicago on Nov. 6, Tampa Bay and former LSU receiver Michael Clayton on Dec. 4 and Carolina and Breaux Bridge, La., quarterback Jake Delhomme on Dec. 18.

The Saints drew over 58,000 fans to the Alamodome for their victory over Buffalo on Oct. 2 and expect a sellout for the Falcons game Sunday. But the Alamodome seats only 65,000 and has only 38 suites as compared with a 92,400 capacity and 70 suites at Tiger Stadium. San Antonio has been lobbying for an NFL team for years.

Only 30,000 tickets have been sold so far for the Saints-Dolphins game in Tiger Stadium after its announcement on Sept. 12 by NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue.

The Saints are not attempting to sell all 92,400 seats in Tiger Stadium. The organization will be selling only 79,000 seats and will not use the new west upper deck. The club is also selling tickets cheaper than those in San Antonio.

"We're excited to be here," said Saints vice president of administration Arnold Fielkow. "This decision to play in Louisiana at LSU is certainly the right decision. We think it's going to be awfully exciting to come in here and play at one of the finest college football facilities in the entire country."

Saban guided LSU to the 2003 Bowl Championship Series national championship while posting the best five-year record in LSU history at 48-16. Saban was 30-5 in Tiger Stadium, including the first undefeated season in the stadium since 1972 last year.

"I think it's awesome that the Saints are playing here," said LSU graduate student Nathan Manning of Calgary, in Canada. "There are so many displaced New Orleans people around here, I think there should be a great atmosphere. I've never been to a Saints game."

LSU wide receiver Dwayne Bowe, who is a native of Miami, plans to go to the Saints-Dolphins game. He has not been to an NFL game since watching the Dolphins when he was a kid in Miami. But he doesn't plan on buying a ticket.

"I might call coach Saban and see what he can do," said Bowe, whom Saban personally recruited out of Norland High School.

LSU safety Jessie Daniels of Breaux Bridge said he plans on finding Saban and telling him hello, but he's not interested in any of the Saints games.

"I don't like the NFL," he said. "I just like to watch college football. I'd play in the NFL, but I don't like to watch it."

Tickets have been on sale since Sept. 26. The team moved 10,000 tickets in the past week.

"We think we're going to have a great crowd, we really do," Fielkow told The Associated Press. "We have almost three weeks and we're going to give this everything we can. We think it's very important to have a good crowd and make a good impression."

The Associated Press contributed to this report