NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The state commission that oversees the Superdome and the New Orleans Saints are at odds over the club’s financial contributions to renovations scheduled for completion before the stadium hosts the next Super Bowl.
Louisiana Stadium and Exposition District board members were informed by staff at a board meeting Wednesday that the Saints have fallen $11.4 million behind on their share of payments toward the renovations since making their last installment in December.
Team executives, however, said later that the club has been withholding payment because of the commission’s failure to provide requested “documentation.”
“We have reached out to the LSED on numerous occasions,” the Saints said in a written statement provided by Greg Bensel, the club’s senior vice president of communications, broadcasting and community and government relations.
“When the satisfactory documentation is provided, a payment will immediately be authorized,” the statement said. “Unfortunately, it was disappointing to hear the comments coming out of the LSED meeting today that the team is not acting in good faith, when, in fact, we feel the opposite is true.”
The Saints did not specify what documentation they were missing, and LSED officials stated on Wednesday night that they “do not understand what ‘documentation’ the Saints were referring to.”
“The Saints have not disputed a single invoice or requested any additional documentation relating to a pay request, including the current unpaid invoices totaling $11.4 million,” the LSED wrote in a response to the Saints’ statement. “It would be helpful to the process if the Saints were more specific and identified what ‘documentation’ they are referencing.”
Comments