Super bowls to Michael Jordan, Muhammad Ali in “Last Resort”, the Superdome saw everything – Blogging Sole

New Orleans – Spring 1982. Sixteen seconds to play in the NCAA final, and a lean first year student from Caroline du Nord buries a rider who offers a championship and changes his life.

He introduced himself to New Orleans that week as Mike Jordan. He left like Michael.

At that time, the sprawling steel building which provided the scene when Jordan arrived in the national conscience – the seven -year -old Louisiana superdome – was used to grasp the theater taking place within its walls. In November 1980, when the seconds moved away at the end of the eighth round of the world’s mid-world weight championship, the boxer Roberto Durán, tired of chasing the sugar Ray Leonard around the ring, agitated his glove at the referee and staggered at his corner. “No Más, no más”, mumbled Durán. It was the first time that world champion voluntarily conceded the title in 16 years.

Two years earlier, the same stadium witnessed the last of the 56 professional victories of Muhammad Ali, a unanimous decision on Leon Spinks who brought back the title of WBA heavyweights.

Pete Maravich took the break here. The Keith Smart sweater won Indiana the title here. Chris Webber called a dead time that he did not have here.

In 1978, the place welcomed the first Super Bowl at first. Thirty-five years later, the lights died in another. Tom Brady won his first here; Brady’s idol Joe Montana won his last here.

In 1981, the Rolling Stones occurred in front of 87,500 – then a record crowd for a indoor concert. The Pope visited. Presidents too.

But for the native New Orleans, nothing will correspond to the night of Botté de Botté by Steve Gleason has helped to make a city feel full again.

Not after the devastation formulated when Hurricane Katrina touched earth on August 29, 2005. While the dikes broke and the parishes were flooded, the Superdome became “a last resort refuge” for displaced citizens. Thousands of people have piled up inside with nowhere else to turn. Plumbing failed. Air conditioning failed. Vicious winds have taken off the roof parts. Urine grouped on the ground. Blood has stained the walls. A man would have jumped when he died of a stadium balcony.

A city has been left in shock, its marked citizens, its iconic beaten stadium.

Twelve months later, the Superdome was restored and, with him, New Orleans. Doug Thornton, executive president of ASM Global, the company which runs the stadium, watched fans of saints exceed the doors at the night of opening at home with tears flowing on their cheeks. “They never thought they could come back,” he said now.

What followed was such a symbolic moment that the team erected a statue to commemorate it.

After forcing Atlanta Falcons to a three-past-out on the first possession of the match, Gleason set up to block an attempted withdrawal of Michael Koenen. The teammate of the Saints, Curtis Delloatch, recovered the ball while driving in the goals area for a touch of New Orleans who launched a Cathartic celebration. “I have never been in a stronger stadium than that,” Mike Tirico d’Espn later told NFL Films.

The eighth Super Bowl of the Superdome arrives on Sunday; No other stadium has welcomed more than six. It is a testimony of the rarest sporting places, the one that resisted the test of time despite a multitude of factors fighting against its longevity, including architectural progress and the worst nature mother. More than that, in the middle of the era of advanced stadiums of several billion dollars, fewer and fewer NFL franchises call the city center.

The saints always do it. And that’s how New Orleans prefers it.

“I spent half of my life in this building,” explains Thornton, whose office for 28 years has been inside the Superdome Caesars since renowned. “We have always joked by saying that New Orleans considered the superdome as its living room. This is where we look at our children graduated from the school. This is where we meet for the Holy Games. For monster truck rallies. For all these major events, we organize each year like the Sugar Bowl.

“People worship this place.”

Macie Washington takes care of the Walk-ons bar with a few pies of stadium houses. New Orleans without superdome? Thought persists in his mind for a few moments. She will use herself. She never considered it.

“Everything that happens in the dome, we feel it here,” she says. “It’s the heart of our city.”

Consider similar places erected at the same time, during what was then a new wave of American ingenuity: the Houston astrodome (opened in 1965, closed in 2008), Pontiac Silverdome de Detroit (opened in 1975, closed in 2013 ); Kingdome de Seattle (opened in 1976, closed in 2000); MINNEAPOLIS METRODOME (opened in 1982, closed in 2013), RCA Dome of Indianapolis (opened in 1984, closed in 2008). All except the astrodome were shaved.

The superdome is still held and, in part thanks to a recent facelift of $ 557 million which was spread over four seasons of the NFL, will have a different look for the Super Bowl Lix. According to Jay Cicero, president and chief executive officer of Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation. “If it is not proof that they want to stay there, I don’t know what it is.”

Cicero does not mean that the stay in New Orleans. He means staying in the superdome.

“To continue to plan and finance renovations in the stadium rather than demolish it and build a new one from zero?” Cicero continues. “This explains how important it is for New Orleans.”

Thornton says that the original price for the building in 1967 was around $ 42 million. But by its unveiling for a long time in 1975, the cost had increased to $ 160 million. It was a way to reach an end. The city wanted a franchise from the NFL. The legend has the longtime league commissioner Pete Rozelle, told the New Orleans businessman, Dave Dixon – who led the push – that her city could have a team as long as she met a critical condition.

“You better build a stadium with a roof because of all thunderstorms,” ​​said Rozelle.

Dixon forced. Louisiana has erected the largest stadium in the country’s dome. The building covers 13 square acres. At its top, the roof is 273 feet from the ground. “Two million square feet under the roof,” says Thornton. “When it opened, it was twice the size of the astrodome.”

It is also the fifth oldest active stadium in the NFL and climbed in fourth row after the Bills have left the Highmark stadium in the years to come (and the third if the Bears never leave Soldier Field). Recent renovations, stimulated by Benson and the organization of saints, have modernized the installation and opened competitions for easier movement.

“It looks more like a nightclub now against a Colosseum,” adds Sam Joffray, who spent 25 years with the Grande Sportive Foundation in New Orleans and actually designed the Stade’s first website in the mid-1990s . “This is a fairly surprising example of what can happen if you continue to reinvest in a place instead of demolishing it.”

A message is plastered throughout the city this week, pearls that volunteers distribute at the airport to report the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center: This is what we do. New Orleans is proud of its ability to host major events, and in the center of this is the colossal stadium – a few steps from anywhere in the city center – which has transformed the potential of the city to From the minute he opened.

“The Superdome has put New Orleans on the map,” explains Thornton. “Before its construction, our main industries were oil and gas and shipping. Now our main industries are tourism, petroleum and gas and shipping.

“I’m still kidding,” he continues, “that as soon as someone presents himself for the Super Bowl here, they put a hurricane from Pat O’Brien to the airport and they go to the French district and they do not never leave. “

Like Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Fenway Park in Boston, Wrigley Field in Chicago and Madison Square Garden in New York, the Superdome has established a only intimate relationship with a city and its residents. “We are not the largest market in the world. In fact, we are quite small compared to most NFL cities, ”explains Cicero. “But we can compete for these major events and organize these major events, and it starts with a truly incredible and incredible place. Superdome is only part of the fabric of New Orleans. »»

This is why saints have no interest in finding a new house.

This is why the Super Bowl continues to find its way to New Orleans.

“This community has such a way of putting on his stamp,” said NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, earlier this week, when he was asked why the Big Easy remained such a coherent player in the rotation of the Super Bowl of the League. “I think people here wrap their arms around and improve it. I think we realized that it is a place that is a bit perfect for the Super Bowl. »»

(Illustration: Dan GOLDFARB / Athletics; Photos: Aaron M. Sprecher, Manny Millan, Bob Rosato, James Drake / Sports Illustrated via Getty Images)