Ready or not: Sports return to New Orleans

by Trent Trammel, staff writer

 

After what Hurricane Katrina did to New Orleans, no one knew how long it would take to rebuild that city. Some experts thought that the Louisiana Superdome would never be able to hold any event, and that it would be torn down due to the damage.

But after little more than a year, New Orleans is getting fixed up, and the sports teams have decided to come back and play for their hometown fans.

Last year, when the hurricane rained down on New Orleans, buildings were demolished and people were emotionally crushed. Those who lived through it had to find a new home. 

Tulane University had to send its students to various colleges in nearby states, including members of the university’s baseball team who enrolled at Texas Tech University, and all the professional sports teams had to relocate for the season.  The New Orleans Hornets became the Oklahoma City/New Orleans Hornets, and the Saints moved to San Antonio for the season. 

The Superdome was trashed and had leaks throughout the whole stadium.  Refugees of the hurricane had to stay there and withstand the bad conditions, while the emotional strain on everyone made it a lot harder to deal with.  Now that we are entering the new season for sports, the city has rebuilt and fixed up all damages done to the city’s sports complexes.

The New Orleans Saints played their first regular-season home game on Sept. 25, when they hosted the Atlanta Falcons.  Ironically, the Falcons were the last team to play in the Superdome.

The Hornets start their season on Nov. 1, but they don’t get to play at home until Nov. 5.  After a mediocre season a year ago, second-year starter and returning rookie-of- the-year Chris Paul has hopes of taking this team to a place they haven’t been since the 2003-2004 season, the playoffs.  With a strong draft and a young team, we can only hope the best for them in the upcoming seasons.

After a rough 2005, this is such a great thing, for the city of New Orleans and for the many people who helped rebuild and donate after Hurricane Katrina.  To see a city bounce back after a disaster of that magnitude is a miracle, and to have its professional teams back at home playing for the fans is a great thing that hopefully will lead to many great things to come in the future.  We should all acknowledge everyone who helped in the disaster relief as being the true “Saints” for their efforts to get New Orleans back on track.