Today's game between the Saints and Chargers is not just about gridiron, it is also about selling New Orleans as a brand in a post-Hurricane Katrina world. Ian Parker reports. LONDON // A taste of the Big Easy will come to London today to mark the NFL game between the New Orleans Saints and the San Diego Chargers. New Orleans will be the "home" team for the game which has been transplanted from the Louisiana Superdome to Wembley, and in order to give fans a taste of a what a real Saints home game looks like, the national stadium will be decked out in the team's black and gold colours.
There will also be a Mardi Gras celebration and massive Cajun-style tailgate party (barbecue) outside the stadium. The celebrations got under way with a New Orleans-themed festival at the 02 Arena in Greenwich. In a change from last year's Wembley game between the New York Giants and the Miami Dolphins, this year's event will put more emphasis on the home team and - in New Orleans' case - efforts to rebuild the tourism industry in the wake of Hurricane Katrina which struck the city three years ago.
"It's partly to get the message across that New Orleans have sacrificed a home game to come over, and to set a message for future games that even if we can't replicate what it would be like to be at home, they are the ones that are giving it up to be here," NFL's UK managing director Alistair Kirkwood said. "We've worked extremely hard with the tourism board of the city. The governor [of Louisiana] is over here. We've constantly been exchanging ideas in terms of increasing the profile."
The extra effort this year is designed to address concerns that the NFL's International Series - of which this is the second game - robs American fans of home matches without giving anything back to those communities. The Saints have certainly been doing their part to talk up their home city while in London this week. The quarterback Drew Brees signed for the Saints from San Diego in the aftermath of Katrina, and threw himself into the rebuilding effort, buying a home in the heart of the city and raising money for reconstruction projects through his foundation.
"I think the big picture is that this is a great opportunity for our city, our organisation, and certainly the NFL and our game," Brees said this week. "It's good for our brand of football and just trying to expand that on a global level, but definitely for New Orleans because I think that, post-Katrina, a lot of people had maybe forgotten about New Orleans or maybe think that there's so much damage there that it's not worth going.
"There are still a lot of things that need to be fixed up, obviously we know that, but in a lot of ways I think New Orleans has come back better than ever and, just like London, it is one of those spots that everyone feels they need to visit." * PA Sport
