News and information from the New Orleans area
Posts tagged Super Bowl
Election Day, Parades, Super Bowl Eve
015 years
New Orleans is an old town, with a wild and varied history. New Orleans is old enough to have survived French & Spanish rule, the Battle of New Orleans, Northern Occupation under the despot Butler, carpetbaggers, Jim Crow Hurricane Katrina, etc. Now comes the Eve before the Super Bowl, the first time the franchise has ever reached the NFL Pinnacle Game. Post Katrina, New Orleans has again remade itself via the Who Dat Nation, the wildest group of NFL fans in the history of the NFL bar none. Now it’s the whole nation, thanks to Good Morning America, CNN, and other national media picking up this Who Dat Story. New Orleans is the birthplace of the Who Dat Nation, but America is making the Who Dat Saints their team. Here’s a picture from the Who Dat Super Bowl Kick Off Parade honoring the late Buddy Diliberto, who claimed when the Saints make the Super Bowl, he’ll put on a dress. Buddy didn’t make it, but 1,000’s of New Orleanians did it for Buddy! Who Dat!! Who Dat!! Go Saints!! Happy Mardi Gras!!
Who Dat Super Bowl Kick Off Parade
Biggest Weekend Since….
015 years
This weekend features 3 major events: the Super Bowl featuring our own long suffering New Orleans Saints; the end of a horrible, terrible political era- the primary election to get rid of Mayor Ray Nagin; the beginning of the 10 big days of Carnival- Major parades commence mostly every day right through Mardi Gras Day, Tuesday, February 16.
WHO DAT!! NEW ORLEANS SAINTS
Enough’s been written about New Orleans Saints first appearance in the Super Bowl. It’s been 43 years since the Saints were formed, and the Crescent City has suffered through decades of bad teams, starting with the original owner, John Mecum, Jr., who never understood the game of professional football very well. Finally Tom Benson, who made his money in San Antonio, Texas selling cars, bought the team from Mecum. A new era began, but the Saints still took a couple of decades to reach 2010, the year the Saints shook off shackles, real or imagined, and made it to the Big Game in Miami.
Mayor Ray Nagin has been the worst mayor in decades. He was the mayor of record when Hurricane Katrina hit on August 30, 2005. His actions over the last few years have retarded New Orleans recovery. Good riddance to Mayor Ray Nagin. The election on Saturday will start the process of getting rid of this miserable politician.
Horrible NOLA Mayor Ray Nagin
Last but not least, it’s the first big weekend of Carnival 2010. Parades roll throughout the New Orleans Metro Area. Due to the Super Bowl, some parades have changed starting times, one has cancelled, and at least one has switched days.
Krewe of Bacchus' Bacchusaurus passes Gallier Hall
New Orleans, Not Miami, Filling Up for Super Bowl
015 years
Hotels in the French Quarter report an upswing in bookings of around 15% as New Orleans Saints fans from around the globe head to New Orleans instead of Miami, site of Super Bowl 44. According to some of the major bar owners in the Quarter, win or lose, they expect Quarter traffic to mirror the crowd the last few days before Fat Tuesday. That would just about fill up all rooms by Fat Tuesday.
The French Quarter streets are heavily decorated in the team colors, and Saints fever has struck region wide. Everyone downtown is wearing black & gold beads.
Police will increase their coverage in the French Quarter this weekend, adding approximately 600 officers, police spokesman Bob Young said. That’s about the number the city would deploy if New Orleans were hosting the game.
Saints Mania throughout New Orleans is at an all time high, crossing every economic strata. After 43 years of marching around the desert, we finally have arrived at the promised land- the Super Bowl. Win or lose, there will be big party in New Orleans Super Bowl night to celebrate our Saints Super Bowl Appearance.
It’s amazingly ironic that super native son Peyton Manning, Indianapolis Super Quarterback, scion of legendary Old Miss and Saints Quarterback Archie Manning and brother of New York Giants Quarterback Eli Manning, is the Saint’s key adversary against our own Super Quarterback, Drew Brees. Peyton, like his two brothers Cooper and Eli, all attended Newman High School on Jefferson Avenue uptown. They all grew up uptown, as Archie remained in New Orleans after his football career ended. That’s as New Orleans as it gets. So it’s one Super New Orleanian, Drew Brees against another Super New Orleanian, Peyton Manning. Fireworks are expected! The Super Shoot Out of Super New Orleanians!!
Bobby Hebert in Drag at Who Dat Parade UPI
Carnival Parade Krewes Move to Avoid Super Bowl
015 years
by NewOrleansMusicMan
in Mardi Gras
From WDSU.com
More Carnival Parades Move To Avoid Super Bowl
Alla Moves To Saturday; Carrollton, King Arthur Roll Early
NEW ORLEANS — More Carnival krewes are making changes to their plans for Super Bowl Sunday, with parades moving dates and times to avoid rolling during the big game.
WDSU has learned that Alla will move its parade from Sunday, Feb. 7, to Saturday, Feb. 6, and will follow the Choctaw and Adonis parades on the Westbank.
In addition, the Carrollton and King Arthur parades schedule to roll uptown that Sunday will start one hour earlier — beginning at 11 a.m. — to accommodate the Super Bowl.
These are the latest changes caused by football’s biggest game, which is looking more and more like it may include the New Orleans Saints.
Jefferson Parish’s “Family Gras” event, which was scheduled for that entire weekend, has been canceled for this year. The krewe of Rhea canceled its parade because of the game, and Centurions moved its parade to the Friday before Mardi Gras.
Citing Super Bowl, Rhea scrubs its 2010 parade in Metairie
215 years
by NewOrleansMusicMan
in Mardi Gras
By Mark Waller, The Times-Picayune
November 11, 2009, 7:20PM
Not wanting to compete with the biggest game in football, and potentially the biggest game in New Orleans Saints history, Metairie’s Krewe of Rhea has canceled its 2010 Carnival parade on Feb. 7, Super Bowl Sunday.
Rhea captain Anna Marie Soto said Wednesday that krewe members concluded turnout would be low, whether the now 8-0 Saints are in the game or not. They expect turnout to be zero if the Saints are indeed playing.
“That would’ve affected our riders and people coming in the street,” Soto said. “If the Saints get in the playoffs and in the Super Bowl, we wouldn’t have anybody out there.”
Rhea normally rolls in the early afternoon two Sundays before Mardi Gras and has been parading on Veterans Memorial Boulevard since 1969. Soto said she worked with Jefferson Parish officials to find another date in 2010, but the only options were evening time slots that didn’t appeal to krewe members because the parade attracts entire families with children.
“We really just have to sit out this year,” Soto said, adding that members didn’t want to risk spending the money to produce the parade only to find the streets and floats sparsely occupied.
Another Metairie krewe that has long paraded immediately after Rhea, the Krewe of Centurians, anticipated the Super Bowl conflict and switched its 2010 date a year ago, said captain Norman Bourgeois Jr. Centurians moved forward five days to Friday, Feb. 12, partly because of the game and partly because the krewe was already interested in making the move, Bourgeois said.
By parading on Friday night of Carnival’s final weekend instead of the preceding weekend, he said, the krewe hopes to increase member participation and crowd sizes and boost that day’s Friday’s Carnival activities in Metairie, which Bourgeois described as inconsistent in recent years.
“It’s been a long time since we’ve had a really good parade on Friday,” to compete with the offerings in New Orleans, he said.
New Orleans officials have not heard any concerns from krewes scheduled for Feb. 7 about competing with the Super Bowl, said James Ross, spokesman for Mayor Ray Nagin.
While the Super Bowl was part of the decision for Centurions, Bourgeois said, krewe officials had no idea at the time they sought their date change that the Saints would be making an historic run.
But the team’s bright prospects halfway through the regular season seem to validate the decision, he said.
“I don’t think anybody would want to miss that opportunity” to watch the Saints’ first Super Bowl, Bourgeois said. “We’ve got to dream.”
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