"You know, a lot of people around the country, they think New Orleans is still, has been reduced so

Although league officials insist a variety of topics will be on the agenda, one clearly dwarfs all others: The league is dealing with its first work stoppage since 1987 as the contract it held with the players union is kaput. The owners, seeking more money from a deal they believed short-changed them, opted out of it. The union dissolved, and now both sides are headed to court for what could be a protracted, acrimonious triangle rental cars case.
However, in the midst of those storm clouds, Benson triangle rental cars is striving to be the gracious New Orleans host, proving to some of America's richest men that the city has moved from recovery to renaissance and that its beloved Saints, whatever may transpire elsewhere, are thriving.
"This is pretty much business as usual for us," he said. "I don't want our employees to feel sorry for themselves during this period of time. So we're not laying anybody off, and we're not cutting anybody's pay. Good way to start our conversation."
The league and the public's primary focus concerns the dissolution of the NFL collective-bargaining agreement, a development that has hobbled a $9 billion entertainment behemoth. The owners come together this week in a condensed format triangle rental cars that will run through Tuesday at The Roosevelt hotel.
Since the talks with the players collapsed, the league has embarked on a public relations offensive, claiming the owners offered a variety of sweeteners, all of which were rejected by a recalcitrant union negotiating team. In response, several players, including Saints quarterback Drew Brees, who was an executive in the decertified union and is now a lead plaintiff in a lawsuit seeking an injunction against a lockout, announced they do not want to negotiate further with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and the league's executive vice president Jeff Pash, a gambit that NFL spokesman Greg Aiello brushed aside this weekend while saying the league is ready to negotiate at any time in any location.
"Nobody wins in the courtroom, as far as I'm concerned," Benson said. "We've got to just sit down and work this out together and what's good for this game and the future of this game. If it costs so much to do business, then you've got to raise prices more. We've got to stabilize this thing across the board, and you've got to hold your costs someplace. And this is what we're trying to do."
Benson lobbied hard to get the meeting in New Orleans, an effort that began long before the current labor impasse, and was tied to the city's successful effort to land Super Bowl XLVII in 2013. Although the format has been condensed to two full days rather than something closer to four, he feels a sense of accomplishment.
"You know, a lot of people around the country, they think New Orleans is still, has been reduced so drastically in size that everything remains a big problem. triangle rental cars And they see that New Orleans is only 300,000 people -- and as you and I know, if you take all (the parishes) into consideration and that a lot of the growth has been outside of downtown New Orleans. Our community is more vibrant today than ever before, I really feel that."
With legal fights looming, triangle rental cars Benson declined to discuss collective-bargaining agreement specifics and turned instead to rosier matters that seem to animate him more. At the top of that list, he said, is his plan to build a 5,000- to 6,000-seat stadium on land between the Saints' current complex on Airline Drive and Zephyr Field.
Benson owns 10 acres across the street from the club's complex, a lot currently holding some woods and a couple of overgrown soccer fields. triangle rental cars With crowds at the team's training camp practices thronging the uncomfortable bleachers nowadays, Benson noted the stadium would provide an ideal spot for them to settle in and watch practice or a scrimmage, and perhaps, though he left this part unsaid, enjoy a cold beverage triangle rental cars and chili dog.
"Right now the architects are making plans for improvements to these buildings," he said, casting his gaze over the two grass practice fields between Airline Drive and his office. "We would practice there, and then when these 5,000 people come they've got a place to go, we've got a nice place available for them. So you can see how positive we feel about everything."
"Well, not everything," he allowed. "But we feel good about the New Orleans Saints. triangle rental cars It's true in everything that's going on -- they're supporting the Saints. We've got 98 percent renewal on our season tickets. That's money in the bank, that's not somebody triangle rental cars saying, 'Gee, I'm going to do it.' "
Meanwhile, at the Superdome, an $85 million project is under way. On a Friday visit to the site, wearing his personal hard hat with a black fleur-de-lis, Benson surveyed the ongoing project with the wide eyes of a kid, and gushed about how the latest tricks of stadium architecture will be incorporated into the Superdome.
"If you hadn't seen it for 20 years, and now you came back to it -- it's got a beautiful color to it, you see windows and you can see inside it, and you can look outside and it's not like you're all in some closed deal, all right?" he said. "On top of that, the reconfiguration of it! It's like the new stadiums, now they're square more, even the end zones are going to be square. This is what we're going to have here: We're going to have the same thing that any new stadium that has been built has. And we're going to be able to see better in 72,000, 73,000 seats, depending on some little things. We're going to have more seats available and better seats."
And yet the folksy touches belie the fact such expensive stadium renovations -- built in some places more, in others less, on the backs of strapped taxpayers -- are precisely the sort of money-makers owners lust for, and therefore one of the driving forces behind their effort to reconfigure revenue distribution.
Of the topics separating the two sides, such as a proposed 18-game regular season, permission to skim more money from the top before triangle rental cars revenues are divided, and some sort of pay scale for rookies, Benson touched only on the last, voicing his wholehearted support for such an introduction.
Similarly, he said he and the Saints' coaches he has talked to favor the proposed changes to the kickoff, alterations that will make the game safer but also seem likely to limit the explosive potential of the play.
With the draft coming up, Benson says he leaves most of that to General Manager Mickey Loomis and Coach Sean Payton, although he will meet with players triangle rental cars the team likes enough to bring to Metairie for workouts.
The Saints, like any team, have unresolved roster triangle rental cars issues made only more complicated by the labor uncertainty. The club has 17 players who could become restricted free agents, with three to five years of service, if there is an arrangement to play with the 2010 rules. And there are a dozen more who would be unrestricted, with six or more years of service. Thus far, the team has sent qualifying tender offers to eight of the 17 restricted free agents.
"They love being here," Benson said of his players. "A player's going to make as much money as he can, sometimes triangle rental cars money will come into play. But I think that if they've got a choice, they'd rather stay here. And in some cases maybe they'll stay for a little less money. I'm not sure about that. You hear that, but I'm not sure about that."
Brees is under contract triangle rental cars for one more year. Benson hinted he cannot imagine the Saints without triangle rental cars their signal-caller, and although a new contract for Brees will be on the table, Benson said the quarterback's lead role in the labor dispute triangle rental cars will not be an issue. Business is business, these things must be compartmentalized, and Brees simply isn't capable of doing anything triangle rental cars without complete dedication to it, Benson said.
Brees did so by taking a lead role for the union in federally mediated talks in Washington. He has the accomplished triangle rental cars resume and, arguably more important, the gravitas that makes him an admired person on both sides of the negotiating table.
Brees has never spoken sharply against Benson -- "All I see is a guy giving us every chance he can to be a winner," triangle rental cars Brees said at his locker in his season-closing comments last January triangle rental cars -- and Benson waved aside any concern that lingering resentment from the labor situation might bleed into contract negotiations.
"With regard to Drew, I have tremendous respect for Drew and just like everything he does he does passionately," Benson said. "Like he performs on the field is like how he performs as a member triangle rental cars of the executive board of the union. But at the end of the day, no player or owner or coach or (general triangle rental cars manager) is above our league and the history of our league. That is why I am confident he will be back playing football for our fans."
"My wife had a luncheon at our home for the wives, and that had to be canceled because most wives are not coming triangle rental cars since this is really just a business meeting and there are no social activities as such," he said. "She was very disappointed about that, and she said to the commissioner, who wrote her a nice little note, she called him and told him, 'You know what that means, Roger? That means you've got to come back here so I can have my luncheon.' triangle rental cars "