When the Saints Went Marching In

Abstract

Social identity theory is used to explain behaviors, thoughts, and feelings associated with group membership. This study focuses on the New Orleans Saints National Football League (NFL) team and its effect on citizens of its host city as well as fans from the surrounding region. While a large body of research shows little evidence that new stadiums and professional sports teams make a significant economic impact on the region, some findings have shown that sports teams can provide intangible benefits. These intangible benefits are often related to the positive associations fans of the team have by considering themselves a part of that particular in-group. This study applies social identity theory to the New Orleans Saints’ fan base and discusses the reactions of the team’s fans during the 2009 Super Bowl–winning season as reported in national, regional, and local publications.

Keywords

sports communication social identity theory popular communication

One of the more succinct descriptions of social identity theory (SIT) has been provided by Hogg, Terry, and White (1995). They describe SIT as a social psychology theory that focuses on intergroup relations, group processes, and the social self. According to SIT, people classify themselves into social categories such as nationality, political affiliation, or sports team. These categories provide a definition of who the person is in terms of the defining characteristics of the category. People’s actions, feelings, and emotions are prescribed by the stereotypical attributes of a particular group of which they are members, otherwise known as the in-group. Similarly, stereotypes are applied to members of the out-group as well. There is a strong tendency for individuals to adopt behaviors and beliefs that favor the in-group over the out-group, thereby increasing positive perception of the self.

Hargie, Dickson, Mallett, and Stringer (2008) pointed out that the tendency to favor the in-group over the out-group accentuates the differences between groups as well as the similarities within groups. Groups or social categories appear difficult or impossible to change. At times, a perceived inferior position of the in-group can lead to negative social identity that can trigger an attempt to move status position. These researchers have identified three factors that affect the preference for identity management: perceptions of stability of the group, legitimacy of the status inferiority, and the permeability of the boundaries between groups. Based on these factors, people are more or less willing to engage in individual or collective modes to change their present situation. Unstable and illegitimate status relations cause members to think that there should be an alternative to their present situation while permeability between in-group and out-group raises the possibility of individual mobility between groups. Mummendey, Kessler, Klink, and Mielke (1999) listed six identity management strategies individuals and groups use to handle negative social identity. The first two are individual methods, individual mobility and recategorization, whereby an individual will choose to switch to a higher status group or choose to consider his own group of a higher status. The next two are collective methods, social competition and realistic competition, whereby the in-group as a whole will attempt to reverse their status or to compete for resources that will allow the in-group to gain higher status. The last two are creative methods, preference for temporal comparison and reevaluation of the material dimension, whereby groups will choose another comparison point (instead of a higher status out-group) that gives them a higher status or devalue the comparison with the out-group as unimportant to increase their positive social identity (Hargie et al., 2008; Mummendey et al., 1999).

The process of categorization simplifies the social environment and relationships between individuals. This theory can be helpful in creating a better understanding of “the communicative processes upon which judgments about group membership are made, relationships sustained, or outgroup attitudes ameliorated” (Hargie et al., 2008, p. 792).

The Relationship Between Cities and Sports

Substantial research has been conducted on the issue of professional sports teams and the real economic impact made on their host cities. Over the last two decades, numerous studies have shown that investment in sports facilities and teams are not correlated with regional economic development (Austrian & Rosentraub, 2002). Baade (1996) argued that professional sports teams do not increase income or create enough jobs to justify cities’ staggering financial support. The primary beneficiaries of these investments are the owners and players, not the tax-paying public. Baade and Dye (1990) found no evidence that a sports stadium or franchise increases the level of real income in a sample of nine cities studied between 1965 and 1983. Coates and Humphreys (1999) found, after studying 37 standard metropolitan statistical areas in the United States between 1969 and 1994, that the existence of professional sports franchises in some cities actually reduces the level of per capita personal income with no effect on growth per capita income. Previous research by Baade and Dye, Baim (1990), and Euchner (1993) reported that professional sports have an insignificant impact on metropolitan economies.

Several researchers have pointed out that, while it has been proven that sports-led development strategies are ineffective engines of economic growth, the presence of professional sports in a city can increase the overall well-being of the city’s residents (Coates & Humphreys, 1999). Rosentraub’s (1996) study of the US$450 million sports-led development project in downtown Cleveland confirms that the city will likely not experience substantial changes in development patterns or a great many new jobs. However, he argues that Cleveland is now a more exciting place with a greater sense of civic pride and that the city is creating an increasing impression among young people that Cleveland is the center of the region, causing them to return to the previously deserted downtown for recreation. The citizens of Cleveland and Cuyahoga County should determine if these intangible benefits, not the supposed economic benefits, are worth the price tag.

Rosentraub (1996) posed the question, “What is the cost to cities without major league sports franchises?” (p. 27). He questioned if the city without a team becomes a second, third, or fourth tier community and claimed, “Any community or city in our society that is striving to become a major center must also establish and maintain its sports identity” (p. 27). He used the example of employers, looking for a high quality of life for their employees, who might not choose a city that lacks cultural amenities like theaters, museums, and professionals sporting events. He argued that sports are an important part of the marketing image of a city with “free” publicity broadcast on a regular basis to hundreds of thousands, maybe millions depending on the event.

Regardless of the macroview, individual sports fans can be affected strongly by their sports teams. One study (Wann, Inman, Ensor, Gates, & Caldwell, 1999) demonstrated that individuals with a strong identification with their local team report healthier mood profiles than those with low identification. Individuals can be affected positively and negatively by this connection. Hirt, Zillman, Erickson, and Kennedy (1992) found that sports fans’ judgments of their personal capabilities are influenced by the performance of the team with which they identify; high-identifying fans who witnessed a victory report higher personal competencies on mental, social, and motor skill tasks than highly identified fans who witness a defeat (Hirt et al., 1992). Highly identified individuals also report a decrease in self-esteem following their team’s defeat (Davis & End, 2010). Another study found that citizens of Germany report higher levels of life satisfaction after a national soccer team victory than prior to the game (Schwarz, Starck, Kommer, & Wagner, 1987).

Judge and Watanabe (1993) argued that positive mood in one context (i.e., life satisfaction) can spill over to other contexts such as work environment. This spillover effect can account for the strong positive correlations between life satisfaction and job satisfaction (Tait, Padgett, & Baldwin, 1989). This can be translated to sports fans of successful teams whose joy may spill over to positively influence job satisfaction and, subsequently, their performance at work (Davis & End, 2010). Isen (1989) found that positive mood, similar to the mood experienced by fans of successful sport teams, can positively impact the economy through increased consumption and spending.

Austrian and Rosentraub (2002) noted other intangible benefits. They pointed out that “sports teams provide a common denominator among people of different age, race, and income” (p. 550). Platow et al. (1999) concluded that charitable contributions increase following a sports team’s successes. Sports also help in the healing process following a tragedy. Brown (2004) discussed the role Major League Baseball and National Football League (NFL) games played in the nationwide healing process after the September 11 terrorist attacks. Instead of merely escaping reality, Brown claims sport can address the nation’s pain and invite spectators to deal with their feelings from a number of perspectives. He quotes USA Today writer Erik Brady, reflecting on September 11 a year after the attacks, “Ballparks became home to sacramental ceremony. It seemed natural to salute and sing and cry and then settle in for a game that meant exactly nothing and everything all at once” (quoted by Brown, 2004, p. 5).

New Orleans and Its Saints

In 2005, the Wall Street Journal summed up the Saints’ history with this statement: “The Saints have been perennial losers, winning just 40% of their games in 38 seasons. For years they were dubbed the ‘Aints.’ But their fans have stood by them” (Fatsis, 2005, p. B5). Four years later, the 2009 Saints team would win the ultimate championship in American football, the Super Bowl, and finally bring legitimacy to the fans who had stood by them for 43 seasons.

The team was born on November 1, 1966—All Saints Day—and named for the spiritual jazz song “When the Saints Go Marching In” (Layden, 2007). From that day, the identities of the largely Catholic city and its football team were permanently intertwined (Finney, 2010). Even though the Saints had only nine winning seasons in their history, the team is “unconditionally loved in its native city” (Layden, 2010b, p. 72). In 1980, the Saints hit rock bottom, winning only one game. Throughout the early 1980s, the fans still supported the team, although they wore bags over their heads to express their shame in the team’s poor performance at the prompting of the iconic sportscaster Buddy “Buddy D” Diliberto (Pope & Nolan, 2010). In 1985, current owner Tom Benson purchased the Saints (Hogan, 2009). The mid-1980s to early 1990s took a turn for the better with five winning seasons, the first in Saints history (Layden, 2010b). Returning to mediocrity in 1993, the Saints did not see another winning season until 2000, when they won their first playoff game. The franchise “took 21 years to celebrate its first winning season, 35 years to win its first playoff game, 42 years to have a chance to play for a world championship” (Finney, 2010, p. A01).

New Orleans is a small, relatively poor city by professional sports standards. It is the 36th largest city out of the 40 cities hosting a team from one of the five large professional sports leagues, and holds the same rank when measuring per capita personal income (Baade & Matheson, 2007). Lacking in large corporations, New Orleans finds it more difficult to fill the luxury suites and to achieve the “guaranteed sellout” like other NFL cities (p. 592).

While New Orleans may seem to be an unlikely choice for a professional sports team, “the city caters to the tourist trade to an extent that distinguishes itself from almost every other American city” (Baade & Matheson, 2007, p. 594). Its tourist-based economy relies on an arts-entertainment-recreation industry that is much more prevalent than most other United States cities (Baade & Matheson, 2007). With the addition of the Superdome in 1975, a monumental structure that could fit the Houston Astrodome comfortably inside, New Orleans could market itself to a growing demand for convention space and sporting events (Layden, 2010a). The Superdome “would host concerts and conventions and impact the landscape and economics of New Orleans like no other institution” (Layden, 2010a, p. 10).

New Orleans has used its infrastructure, including the Superdome and an extensive convention center, to its advantage, ranking 4th in the United States in number of conventions hosted. Prior to 2005, the city attracted more than 10 million visitors who spent in excess of US$5 billion per year. For this reason, Baade and Matheson (2007) suggest that New Orleans may be different than other cities in regard to the lack of economic activity for host cities of professional sports teams.

The city is smaller and less affluent than other host cities in general, and it may be that the frequency with which large sports events are hosted by New Orleans makes the area an exception to the experience of most cities with regard to sports and economic development. (Baade & Matheson, 2007, pp. 591-592)

On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina made an indelible mark on New Orleans and its iconic structure, the Superdome. The largest natural disaster in United States history flooded almost 80% of New Orleans and caused the deaths of nearly 2,000 people in the Louisiana and Mississippi Gulf Coast region. The Superdome stood as a visual symbol, broadcast around the world, of the city’s suffering and the government’s incompetence (Layden, 2010a). The home field of the Saints served as the center for 30,000 refugees who could not escape the city; catering freezers in the basement were used as a morgue for the dead. Flood waters remained in the below-sea-level city for weeks as levees and pumps were repaired, causing even more extensive damage to residential and business communities. Approximately 80% of New Orleans’s 188,000 occupied housing units were severely damaged. The cost of reconstructing New Orleans was estimated at more than US$100 billion (Baade & Matheson, 2007).

Even before Katrina, New Orleans lagged behind in nearly every measure of economic development. By January 2006, New Orleans had lost 29.2% of its residents as compared with July 2005. The workforce size had decreased by 30.9% by July 2006. The displaced residents were largely middle-class or economically disadvantaged. Entire neighborhoods were destroyed, and 45% of those displaced did not live in homes they owned, leaving many residents with weakened ties to the community and less incentive to return. Those missing citizens were needed to support the tourism industry so vital to the economic stability of New Orleans (Baade & Matheson, 2007).

In New York City after the September 11 terrorist attacks, the city had the home baseball and football teams to help rally the city’s spirits; but New Orleans’s sports teams did not have a city to rally or even a stadium to play in (Fatsis, 2005). Before the hurricane in early 2005, Tom Benson, the Saints owner, made it known that he was interested in moving the Saints to another city. With the severe damage inflicted on the Superdome in Katrina, the Saints were forced to play “home” games in San Antonio, Baton Rouge, and even New Jersey (Layden, 2007). It was estimated that the renovations to the Superdome, and the adjacent arena that housed the National Basketball Association’s Hornets, would cost US$400 million; according to their contract, the Saints could opt out of their contract with the Superdome in January 2006 (Fatsis, 2005).

It seemed that New Orleans was about to lose the Saints for good; the city was downtrodden and the Saints were a vagabond team without a home (Fatsis, 2005). A Times-Picayune editorial stated, “Before Katrina, Saints fans wanted their team to stay. Now they need it to stay” (Fatsis, 2005, p. B1). Then in early 2006, Tom Benson hired Mickey Loomis as general manager; Loomis, in turn, hired Sean Payton as coach. Payton signed 27 new players (Layden, 2007), including Drew Brees, an injured quarterback from the San Diego Chargers who hoped to fully recover by the start of training camp (King, 2006).

After a US$200 million renovation (S. Jenkins, 2010b), the Superdome reopened for the team’s first home game since Hurricane Katrina on September 25, 2006 with a Monday Night Football national broadcast (Schwartz, 2010). Set before a national stage, the country saw New Orleans rising from the ashes. “Then New Orleans celebrated its NFL franchise like never before, as the team galvanized the community like never before, giving the downtrodden a pleasant distraction from their worries about reparations, FEMA money and the absence of electricity” (DeShazier, 2010a, p. S03).

The city identified with their new team, particularly with Brees. He was unwanted by his former team or any other team in the NFL. The Miami Dolphins were interested at one time but thought he had only a 25% chance of regaining full use of his injured shoulder (Layden, 2007). When Payton first drove Brees through New Orleans, he gave him the pitch: you can be part of the rebuilding. “When I visited New Orleans, I saw it all, the good and the bad,” Brees said in a 2010 interview. “I just thought, this is a chance to be part of something incredible—the rebuilding of an American city. I felt like it was a calling. Like I was destined to be here” (King, 2010a, p. 58). Brees’s dedication to the city through his words and his charitable actions, not to mention his on-field performance, garnered the city’s support and appreciation. “Ninety percent of people who come up to me on the street don’t say, ‘Great game,’” Brees said in 2006, when he first arrived in New Orleans. “They say, ‘Thank you for being part of the city’” (quoted by L. Jenkins, 2010a, p. 30).

The team went from a 3-win season in 2005 to a 10-win season in 2006. This was their first winning season since 2002, finishing with the second playoff win in team history (Layden, 2007). A record number of season tickets were sold in 2006, although only 40% of the luxury suites were sold by May 2006 (Baade & Matheson, 2007). By the 2007 season, the Superdome sold out of all 137 suites and 68,000 season seats with a waiting list of more than 30,000 (Wolff, 2007). The stadium has sold out of season tickets every year since (Hogan, 2009).

The newly formed team under Sean Payton hit its stride in 2009. The Saints won a franchise-record 13 games and 2 playoff games including the National Football Conference (NFC) Championship on January 24, 2010, giving the team its first chance to play for the ultimate prize, a Super Bowl Championship. After the NFC win, the city burst into a fury of joy and excitement at a level never reached in this party-loving city. Without violence or riots, the city celebrated a victory all its own, and grown men had trouble keeping their emotions in check. “The truth is, if Katrina never had happened, a river of tears still would flow through the Superdome on Sunday,” according to the Times-Picayune (Lorando, 2010, p. D01). It was “the ultimate Saints experience . . . a championship in our house, shared by 70,000 cheering, singing, dancing, hugging, high-fiving, crunking and, yes, crying Saints fans. Along with a few million more watching on television” (Lorando, 2010, p. D01).

While the city celebrated another victory, the “Who Dat Nation” joined in vicariously through their television sets (St. Germain, 2010). Bobby Hebert, Saints sportscaster, coined the phrase in the 2006 season based on the popular chant associated with the team, “Who dat! Who dat! Who dat say dey gonna beat dem Saints!” (Walker, 2010a, January 13, p. A01). With displaced New Orleanians cheering on from around the country and new fans joining by the thousands interested by the team’s and the city’s compelling stories, the Who Dat Nation had grown to epic proportions by the time the Saints hoisted the Lombardi Trophy.

The Saints defeated the Indianapolis Colts 2 weeks later on February 7 in the most widely watched Super Bowl, and the most widely watched scheduled program, in United States television history, attracting more the 106.5 million viewers. The 51.7 million households watching the 2010 Super Bowl topped the previous record holder, the 1983 finale of the CBS sitcom “M*A*S*H” (Walker, 2010c, February 9).

Throughout the 2009 season, the country saw New Orleans again in a new light. Instead of death, destruction, and ineptitude, they saw life, energy, and excellence executed at the highest level. The television cameras swarmed New Orleans; some say it was difficult to tell the Super Bowl was actually in Miami with all the coverage of the Saints’ hometown (Walker, 2010b, February 8).

State economic officials hoped to parlay the Saints’ Super Bowl debut into a powerful start to a long-term rebranding of Louisiana’s image. They saw it as their chance to show that the state is strong and rebuilding. “Unlike the Saints, we’re not necessarily at Super Bowl level, but we’re clearly headed in the right direction,” said Stephen Moret, secretary of economic development for Louisiana” (quoted by Mowbray, 2010, p. C11). Austin Marks, chief of staff of Greater New Orleans Inc., used the Saints’ dream season as a recruiting tool, bringing site selection professionals to town for meetings and visits to the Superdome, courtesy of Saints executives (Mowbray, 2010).

By the end of the season, owner Tom Benson had secured a lease extension to keep the team playing in the Superdome through the 2025 season and convinced fellow NFL owners to vote New Orleans as the Super Bowl host city for a record-tying 10th time in 2013 (Hogan, 2009). By this time, nearly every national-profile sports event hosted in New Orleans before Katrina, including college football’s Sugar Bowl, college basketball’s championship tournament, and Professional Golf Association’s Zurich Classic, had returned or made plans to return to the city (Wolff, 2007).

The history of the relationship between the Saints football franchise and its host city leads to the following research question:

Research Question 1: What is the association between the positive self-image of Saints fans and the success of the Saints football team?

Method

National, regional, and local newspapers and sports magazines were reviewed from August 2009 to February 2010 using the search terms Saints and Super Bowl. The publications selected for review were Sports Illustrated, The Washington Post, and The New York Post on the national level; The Baton Rouge Advocate and The Mobile Register on the regional level; and The Times-Picayune on the local level. In total, 1,885 articles were reviewed to discover the reported association between the positive self-image of New Orleans citizens, as well as of Saints fans in general, to the success of the Saints football team. Articles were classified as showing a positive association, a negative association, positive and negative association, or no association at all. Articles with no association contained no information about the effect of the football team on its fans. Post hoc content analysis was undertaken of 1,885 articles by two coders. The intercoder reliability was .99 (Altheide, 1996; Lindlof & Taylor, 2002).

Results

Of the 1,885 articles reviewed, 46 (2.44%) were in Sports Illustrated, 126 (6.68%) were in The Washington Post, 217 (11.51%) were in The New York Post, 283 (15.01%) were in The Baton Rouge Advocate, 335 (17.77%) were in The Mobile Register, and 878 (46.58%) were in The Times-Picayune. In Sports Illustrated, 8 (17.39%) articles were coded to the positive self-image of Saints fans and 38 (82.61%) were not relevant. In The Washington Post, 16 (12.70%) articles were coded to the positive self-image of Saints fans and 110 (87.30%) were not relevant. In The New York Post, 20 (9.22%) were coded to the positive self-image of Saints fans and 197 (90.78%) were not relevant. In The Baton Rouge Advocate, 33 (11.66%) articles were correlated to the positive self-image of Saints fans, 1 (0.35%) was coded to the negative self-image of Saints fans, 1 (0.35%) was coded to positive and negative self-image of Saints fans, and 248 (87.63%) were not relevant. In The Mobile Register, 34 (10.15%) articles were coded to the positive self-image of Saints fans and 301 (89.85%) were not relevant. In The Times-Picayune, 94 (10.71%) articles were coded to the positive self-image of Saints fans, 1 (0.11%) was coded to positive and negative self-image of Saints fans, and 783 (89.18%) were not relevant.

Discussion

Definition of Individual Through In-Group

The articles reviewed showed that the Saints and their fans have had a long-standing relationship that has been through many more downs than ups. As Lagasse (2010) wrote in Sports Illustrated,

There’s something about the Saints and their relationship with the city that is indescribable. Wins and losses aren’t just felt on the field and by the 53 guys on the roster but by everybody in town. I’ve been all over the country, and there is a correlation between the success of the Saints and the success of the city unlike any other I’ve seen. (p. 80)

Mickey Loomis, General Manager of the New Orleans Saints, also noted the strong connection in an article in The Washington Post: “There’s always been a unique relationship between the fans of the New Orleans Saints and their team . . . There’s a connection between the team and the city that’s unusual” (quoted by Maske, 2009, p. D01). Toni Trapani, a Saints season-ticket holder and lifelong New Orleans resident, attempted to explain why the citizens of New Orleans were so connected to the team. He said,

The team gets into your blood at a young age the same way the city does. This isn’t a transient town like Dallas or Houston or Atlanta. Everyone who lives here chooses to live here. It’s not like your company sent you here. You’re here because you want to be here. (quoted by Vaccaro, 2010, p. 78)

Many residents of the Gulf Coast region were severely impacted by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Numerous articles included references to the rise of the city paralleling the rise of the Saints. LeCharles Bentley, drafted by New Orleans in 2002, described the complementary resurgence of the city and the team in a Times-Picayune article:

What no camera was able to capture or mouths able to articulate was the emotional and mental devastation that laid in the wake of Katrina . . . The irony is the city and the people were made whole in the same building that ended up being a tomb for so many. Fans cheered the Saints to their first Super Bowl berth at the Superdome—a place that is synonymous with one of the darkest periods in natural disaster history . . . the Saints and the city of New Orleans have shown that perseverance and faith eventually will yield sweet rewards. (Bentley, 2010, p. S73)

Accentuating Similarities Within the In-Group and Differences From the Out-Group

The successful 2009 season was reported to have a unifying effect on the city and the region. The Mobile Register wrote,

The Saints brought us together, my family, my community, my coast, my state, my brothers and sisters in Louisiana, and yes, gathering from the record-breaking television ratings for the game, my nation. For one great shining moment, we were all Saints fans. (Burtt, 2010, p. C01)

A Times-Picayune article discussed the concept of the Who Dat Nation, described as “a post-Katrina phenomenon that has tied together Orleanians, suburbanites and displaced former residents of all ethnicities, ages and socioeconomic classes based on their love of the Saints” (Hammer, 2010, p. A01).

The players recognize the strong ties their team has to the city, and to its recovery from Katrina. Quarterback Drew Bees was quoted in a Washington Post article as saying,

It’s surreal . . . Coming here four years ago, post-Katrina . . . It’s unbelievable, it’s unbelievable. You can draw so many parallels between our team and our city. In reality we’ve had to lean on each other in order to survive. The city is on its way to recovery. We’ve used the strength and resilience of our fans to go out and play with confidence on Sundays. It’s been one step at a time, and we’ve had to play through plenty of adversity. Just like this town has. (S. Jenkins, 2010b, p. D01)

Perceived Illegitimate Status of In-Group as Inferior

After the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina, the city and the team were ready for a change in status from losers to winners. The Washington Post wrote, “Had a town ever craved a victory more than New Orleans? All across the city, people who had lost everything needed so desperately to win something. Even the cops on street corners chanted, ‘WHO DAT?’” (S. Jenkins, 2010b, p. D01). After the Super Bowl win, a Sports Illustrated article said,

The triumph capped a lovefest between the city and the team that began in 2006 with the hiring of coach Sean Payton and the signing of quarterback-community institution Drew Brees just months after Hurricane Katrina had devastated New Orleans and left tenuous the Saints’ future in the town. “This is for everybody in the city who had homes that used to be wet,” Payton said after the game. “This is for New Orleans.” (King, 2010b, p. 41)

Realistic Competition

The change in the Saints’ self-identification from losers to winners allowed the fans as a group to change categories themselves, an example of one of the six identity management strategies for groups with a negative social identity described by Mummendey et al. (1999). The Saints and their fans are typical of realistic competition, whereby the in-group as a whole attempt to compete for resources that will allow the in-group to gain higher status. This change in status is evident in several articles in The Times-Picayune. One article stated,

For so many years, we followed what had been our lovable losers. But Sunday’s victory against the Indianapolis Colts seemed to change the local perspective in an instant. There seemed to be a greater sense of civic pride on Monday morning. People hugged, they kissed, they danced, they cried. (Canulette, 2010, p. H01)

Dr. Adrianne Brennan, an assistant professor of clinical psychiatry at LSU Health Sciences Center, was quoted in The Times-Picayune as saying, “New Orleanians have this new identity now,” she said. “We’re not the underdogs. We’re on top” (Alexander-Bloch & Kirkham, 2010, p. A01).

Positive Self-Perception of the In-Group

Most of the articles that mentioned the effect of the Saints on the city of New Orleans and on Saints fans were positive in nature. Saints fans’ sense of identity is in some ways prescribed by their sports team. Linebacker Jonathan Vilma said, “The New Orleans Saints are Super Bowl champions and the city of New Orleans is Super Bowl champions” (Deshazier, 2010b, p. B03). The Mobile Register article went on to say, “You hear that kind of sentiment and it’s hard for civic pride to not burst through, impossible for provincialism to not intensify even more than it already has.” The Baton Rouge Advocate recorded Saints receiver Robert Meachem as saying,

A few weeks ago, a fan walked up to me and just started crying and said, “Thank you for what you did for our city.” That makes you know that you are not bigger or better than anyone else, but you are doing something that’s good for our city. (Cannizzaro, 2010, p. 54)

The Washington Post reported that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said,

When you think about the relationship between the Saints and the Gulf Coast and the Saints and New Orleans, it was more than just a football game and more than just a football team . . . The hopes and dreams and struggles of the people in that region were reflected in that team. (Maske, 2010, p. D03)

One article also mentioned the positive effect a winning team can have on the work environment. The Baton Rouge Advocate reported, “The New Orleans Saints’ Super Bowl win may have long-lasting, positive effects on the region’s Hurricane Katrina-damaged psyche, rebuilding residents’ self-confidence and self-esteem, and making them more productive at work, according to at least one expert (Griggs, 2010, p. B04). The article went on to quote Seymour Adler, senior vice president in the Human Capital Practice at Aon Consulting, “Winning the game makes people feel good about being in New Orleans and around the city . . . Boosting self-confidence, security and self-esteem have been scientifically proven to increase productivity.” Jean Kelley, president and founder of Jean Kelly Leadership Consulting in Tulsa, said winning can also lower productivity temporarily because of the adrenaline rush as well as heavy drinking and eating. While Consultants Challenger, Gray, and Christmas estimated the Super Bowl would cost employers as much as US$900 million on the following Monday, Paul Damiano, president of Good Works Consulting in Summerfield, North Carolina, said there are too many variables and measurement errors to get a reliable numerical answer. Although there may be short-term decreases in productivity, the article said Damiano predicted “a corresponding gain in non-traditional measures such as better communication and employee relations and even higher short-term motivation” (Griggs, 2010, p. B04).

Doubters and Near-Believers

Only two articles mentioned a negative effect of the Saints’ presence in the state. One appeared in The Baton Rouge Advocate and concerned the high price state taxpayers had to pay to keep the Saints profitable over the years. The article questions if the Saints, even after such a successful year, are worth the high price tag. Ballard (2010) wrote,

Since 1985, Louisiana taxpayers have given the Benson family of San Antonio, Texas, almost a half-billion dollars in subsidies and cash—without ever getting any ownership interest that would be recognized by a court. In essence, a succession of Louisiana governors used the state’s treasury to reward managers who apparently could not succeed in the National Football League, a business that has grown to astounding heights of profitability. (p. B07)

The other appeared in The Times-Picayune and was a mix of positive and negative references. The article questioned the long-term effect the team’s success could have on the city. Rice University professor and former New Orleans resident Douglas Brinkley was quoted as saying, “Saints mania is very exciting, but sports can be an opiate for the masses . . . You can’t build a sustainable urban community on football wins” (“Jazz and Razz,” 2010, p. B06). The article goes on to comment, “No one thinks that, but the Saints do inspire those of us who’ve chosen to stay and rebuild” (p. B06).

Besides these two articles concerning economic factors, the articles reviewed in this study contain only positive subject matter in reference to the city’s and fans’ connection with the Saints football team. The intangible benefits commonly referenced are the unity among fans in the “Who Dat Nation” and the ecstatic joy experienced by the citizens of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region, examples of accentuating similarities within the in-group, as well as the corresponding good feelings about the city and the region and the positive impression it may create in the rest of the viewing public around the country, and the world, as a result of the positive media coverage of the 2009 season, both examples of positive self-perception of the in-group.

Future Implications

Baade and Matheson (2007) argued that New Orleans will have a difficult time retaining their professional sports teams over the long run. They predict that any efforts to rebuild sports facilities would hinder development. It is questionable whether the extensive investment New Orleans made in its sports team was worth it when so many other essential services and publicly funded projects are still struggling. Baade and Matheson allow that hosting professional sports and megaevents has symbolic significance, but they argue it is an amenity the city simply cannot afford.

Supporters of investment in the sports infrastructure say,

There’s a preservationist case to be made, in which sports in New Orleans muscle their way alongside cuisine and music—all worth saving because they make life worth living, especially when people the world over want to sample that very culture. (Wolff, 2007, p. 7)

It remains to be seen if the investment New Orleans has made in the Saints, their winning season, and the ensuing publicity will make a long-lasting effect on the community. In the short term, it seems to have created a positive effect for the citizens of the city and the surrounding region who identify as fans of the team.

Research has shown that professional sports teams can provide intangible benefits for their host cities, while the economic benefits have been shown to be inconsequential. In the case of New Orleans and its Super Bowl–winning NFL team, the Saints, more research needs to be conducted to determine what benefits may be experienced by the city. A few suggested areas of future research include level of identification Saints fans have with their team as compared with other teams’ fans, tourism levels before and after 2009, changes in media coverage post-Katrina compared with post-Super Bowl win, changes in economic climate, and measurements of life satisfaction, job satisfaction, and/or work performance post-Super Bowl win. Ultimately, the goal of such research should be to obtain a better understanding on the relationship of sports to a variety of intangible benefits to a community.

Footnotes

Author’s Note

This paper was previously presented at the annual meeting of the Southern States Communication Association in Little Rock (2011).

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Author Biography

Elizabeth Booksh Burns is the assistant director of New Student Orientation at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and holds an MA in communication management from UAB. She is an adjunct professor at Jefferson State Community College.

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