The New Orleans Saints could be moving their home games to allow fans to return to the stands.
As first reported by Adam Schefter and later confirmed, the Saints are looking to host future home games at Tiger Stadium, pointing to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and local government restrictions as a reason for considering alternate sites.
“We can confirm that our game operations staff is meeting with LSU officials today to discuss potentially hosting future Saints home games at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge,” Saints VP of communications Greg Bensel said in a statement obtained by NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero. “LSU has been gracious and enthusiastic regarding hosting our future games and we very much appreciate their partnership. We have also discussed the possibility of moving our home games to LSU with the NFL and they are aware of our exploring this option. Obviously, our overwhelming preference is to play our games in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome with partial fan attendance but there has been no indication from the city on when, or if, this might be approved.”
LSU is currently allowing 25 percent capacity at Tiger Stadium.
New Orleans mayor LaToya Cantrell responded to the reports the following statement regarding the news of potential Saints games at LSU.
“While the Saints’ request for a special exception to the city’s COVID-19 guidelines remains under consideration, allowing 20K people in an indoor space presents significant public health concerns. 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.”