From Super Bowl to Michael Jordan, Mohamed Ali

New Orleans – Spring 1982. With 16 seconds left in the NCAA final, a skinny freshman from North Carolina buried a pullover that could provide a championship and change his life.

He appeared in New Orleans that week as Mike Jordan. He left as Michael.

By then, the massive steel building for Jordan to reach national consciousness (the seven-year-old Louisiana supergiant) was used to grab the theater unfolding on its walls. In November 1980, as the eighth round of the world welterweight champion ended in a few seconds, boxer Roberto Durán was tired of Ray Leonard chasing the ring ), waving his gloves in the referee, then waving his corner. “No más, no más,” Duran murmured. This is the first time that a world champion has voluntarily recognized the title in 16 years.

Two years ago, the same stadium witnessed 56 professional wins by Muhammad Ali, a unanimous decision against Leon Spinks to regain the WBA heavyweight title.

Pete Maravich rests here. Keith Smart’s jumper won the Indiana championship here. Chris Webber hit a timeout and he didn’t have it here.

In 1978, the venue hosted its first Primetime Super Bowl. Thirty-five years later, the lights went out. Tom Brady won his first game here. Brady’s idol Joe Montana won the final victory here.

In 1981, the Rolling Stones performed in front of 87,500, and then the record crowd of chamber concerts. The Pope visited. The same is true for the president.

But for the Native New Orleans, there is nothing like making the city feel whole again for the night of Steve Gleason’s blocked punt.

When Hurricane Katrina landed on August 29, 2005, the disaster caused by the disaster did not occur. As the embankment ruptured and flooded the parish, the superman became a “sanctuary” for displaced citizens. Thousands of people are stuffed inside and have nowhere to go. Pipeline failed. Air conditioning failed. The vicious wind peels off from a part of the roof. Urine is concentrated on the floor. Blood stained the wall. A man reportedly jumped to death from a balcony of the stadium.

A city was dragged, its citizens scarred, and the iconic stadium was beaten.

Twelve months later, the Super Soldier was restored, and with it New Orleans. Doug Thornton, executive president of ASM Global, a company that runs the stadium, watched Saints fans cry on their cheeks on the night of the home opener. “They never thought they would come back,” he said.

The moment that followed was so symbolic that the team erected a statue to commemorate it.

After forcing the Atlanta Falcons to enter the first championship in the game, Gleason laid out Michael Koenen’s pan attempt. Saints teammate Curtis Deloatch resumed the ball into the finish area for a New Orleans touchdown, starting a publicity celebration. ESPN’s Mike Tirico later told the NFL movie: “I’ve never been bigger than this one.”

The statue of Steve Gleason’s iconic 2006 pan block was unveiled outside the Super Balloon in 2012. (Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty)

Superdome’s eighth Super Bowl will arrive on Sunday; no other stadium hosts more than six. This proves the rarest stadium in the United States, although there are many factors that fight their lifespan, including architectural progress and the worst Mother Nature has to offer. Not only that, in the era of billions of dollars, state-of-the-art stadiums, NFL franchises are getting fewer and fewer.

The saints still do this. This is how New Orleans prefers it.

“I’ve spent half my life in this building,” said Thornton, whose office has been with the Caesars Superman for the past 28 years. “We always joke that New Orleans sees Super Giant as its living room. This is where we watch kids graduate high school. This is where we go to Saints Games together. For monster truck rally. For all these big events, We do it every year like a sugar bowl.

“People just worship this place.”

Macie Washington tends to have a walk-in bar a few blocks from the stadium. New Orleans without a super dance? The thought lingers in her mind for a moment. She became quiet. She never thought about it.

“What happened on the dome, we feel it here,” she said. “It’s the heart of our city.”

Consider similar places erected in the same era, in the new wave of the time, the interstellar template of Houston (opened in 1965 and closed in 2008), Detroit’s Pontiac Silverdome (1975 Opened in 2013); King of Seattle (opened in 1976 and closed in 2000); Metrodome, Minneapolis (opened in 1982 and closed in 2013), RCA dome in Indianapolis ( Opened in 1984 and closed in 2008). All except the celestial bodies were razed to the ground.

Superdome is still standing, partly because the $557 million makeover that has been scattered in four NFL seasons recently will have a different look for the Super Bowl Lix. More than $100 million of that comes directly from Saints owner Gayle Benson, president and CEO of the Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation. “If that doesn’t prove that they want to stay, I don’t know what it is.”

Cicero does not mean staying in New Orleans. He means staying on the super stage.

“Continue to plan and fund the renovation of the stadium instead of removing new renovations from scratch?” Cicero continued. “It just shows how important it is to the New Orleans.”

More in-depth

Roger Goodell praises Saints’ transparency for connection with Archdiocese

The original price of the building was back in 1967, Thornton said, at about $42 million. But with the delayed unveiling in 1975, the cost jumped to $160 million. This is the means to end. The city wants an NFL franchise. The Heroes have long-time league commissioner Pete Rozelle told New Orleans businessman Dave Dixon that he was the first to push forward the push, and that his city would be in as long as a crisis happens, his The city can have a team.

“You’d better build a stadium with a rooftop due to all the thunderstorms,” ​​Rozel said.

Dickson is obliged. Louisiana has established the country’s largest dome stadium. The building covers 13 square feet. At the top, the roof is 273 feet from the floor. “There are 2 million square feet under the roof,” Thornton exclaimed. “When it is opened, it is twice the size of a celestial body.”

It is also the largest active stadium in the NFL, and over the next few years, the Bills vacated the Highmark Stadium (if the Bears leave the Soldier Field) and would climb to fourth . The latest renovations stimulated by Benson and Saints have modernized the facility and opened Concourses for easier movement.

“It looks more like a nightclub and gym now,” Sam Joffray added, who worked for 25 years at the Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation and in the 1990s The first website of the stadium was actually designed in the mid-term. “This is a very amazing example of if you continue to reinvest on the site instead of demolishing it.”

This week, there was a message throughout the city, distributed from bead volunteers to the airport, under the signage of the Ernest N. Morial Convertion Center: This is what we are going to do. New Orleans prides itself on its ability to host major events, and it’s a huge stadium (a short walk from almost anywhere in the city center), thus changing the city’s potential.

“The Supers put New Orleans on the map,” Thornton said. “Before construction, our main industries were oil and gas and transportation. Now, our main industries are tourism, oil and gas and transportation.

He continued: “I’m always kidding, once someone shows up here in the Super Bowl, they send out the hurricane from Pat O’Brien’s airport, they head to the French Quarter, they’ll never leave .”

Like Lambo Field in Green Bay, Fenway Park in Boston, Wrigley Field in Chicago and Madison Square Garden in New York, Superdome has a unique intimacy with the city and its residents. “We are not the largest market in the world. In fact, we are very small compared to most NFL cities,” Cicero said. “But we can compete for these big events and host these big events, starting with a truly amazing venue. Superdome is just part of the structure of New Orleans.”

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

That’s why the Super Bowl keeps finding its way back to New Orleans.

“There are stamps like this in this community,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said earlier this week, when asked why Big Easy is still such a steady player in the league’s Super Bowl rotation. “I think people here are wrapping their arms around to make it better. I think we’ve realized it’s a perfect Super Bowl place.”

(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / sports;Photo: Aaron M. Sprecher, Manny Millan, Bob Rosato, James Drake/Sports Illuster by Getty Images Illustration)