The Campaign
The push to bring a professional sports team to the City of New Orleans hit full steam when then Mayor Chep Morrison created a Major League Sports Committee in the 1950s. The goal was to attract any professional sports team, and Morrison had his eye on a baseball franchise, but the National Football League had more attraction. Football was lobbied for fiercely by businessman Dave Dixon who would become the chairman of the Municipal Sports Commission under Mayor Vic Schiro.
Initial plans called for a multi-purpose arena to be built on a 125-acre tract of land in New Orleans East called the "Kratter Tract" which had been donated by Marvin Kratter. This location provided ample space for extra ammentities favored by Mayor Schiro, such as parking for 20,000 cars and an amuseument park. The involvement of Governer John McKeithen and the New Orleans Chamber of Commerce changed these plans however, with a strong case for a downtown location to revitalize a lagging Centeral Business District being presented instead.
The move to bring in an NFL team was fraught with controversy, particularly surrounding race in the post Civil Rights Act South. Issues of integration were still paramount, and the 1965 American Football League All-Star game was boycotted by African American players in response to the treatment they recieved in New Orleans. That was a catalyst for the city leadership to work toward smoothing the appearance of race relations. It was a formal endorsement by the NAACP and other leaders in the community who saw the advantage of integrated professional sports, which led to National Football League Commissioner Pete Rozelle awarding the New Orleans Saints franchise to the city on Novemeber 1, 1966, All-Saints Day. C.C. Dejoie Jr, editor of the Louisiana Weekly and Norman Francis of Xavier University would become part owners of the franchise, the first African American NFL owners in history.
On November 8, 1966, Louisana voters passed a ballot measure to fund the creation of a new stadium. Despite this, ground would not be broken on the project until August 12th, 1971, and it would not be completed until August 3rd of 1975. The project, facing scrutity and concern, put out a promotional booklet in 1970 to reinvigorate positive opinions of the Superdome project and its downtown location. Meanwhile, the Saints played thier games at Tulane Stadium.
Finally, the Superdome would open over a decade from its initial proposal. The construction was well documented, and when the arena finally opened in 1975 there was much pomp and circumstance to mark the occation, including concerts by the Allman Brothers Band and Marshall Tucker Band on August 3rd. The first Saints game, a pre-season loss to the Houston Oilers, was played August 6th.
