A Helping Hand for a City that Needs It
Adam Markowitz
Friday July 27, 2007
As Jason Lucas and I pulled into Louisiana, it all sort of hit me like a ton of bricks. The city of New Orleans and the surrounding areas may never be the same again.
Seeing the exits on I-10 for Slidell hurt quite a bit. Seeing the ruins of old gas stations and buildings that have been blown apart and never restored stung. But it took passing the exit we were supposed to get off at and seeing Metairie Road that really did it for me.
Back in my days at Florida State, I worked at a hotel which brought in a bunch of former residents on New Orleans and the outlying areas through FEMA following Hurricane Katrina in 2005. A group of about a dozen different displaced families or pieces of families were all from Metairie and lived right on Metairie Road.
Though this really has little to do about the Arena Football League, it was quite the experience. Some of these families fought tooth and nail to try to get back on their feet. Others seemed to live life only because they had to, but with no true meaning whatsoever. The ugliest situations were those families who were split because of the pressure of dealing with having nothing anymore.
Hurricane Katrina destroyed a lot more than just some properties. Properties can be replaced and rebuilt. Lives and families cannot be replaced.
Though the ArenaBowl can’t replace those lives, at least it can help replace some of those properties by aiding the economy and give the city of New Orleans a reason to get excited again.
Remember watching the Saints first game back in New Orleans this year? The entire state of Louisiana seemed to rally around the team for the year, and the result was a trip to the NFC Championship game. Just having sports again gave meaning to life for some who had given up all hope for anything else. This city seems to have the same sort of aura around it right now that was apparent from television watching the Saints play.
I’ve finally found a good reason to have a neutral site ArenaBowl. I always believed that having the game in Las Vegas was nothing more than an excuse for all of the League officials and other big shots to go and have a good time. I always thought it would be better to have the game where it used to be: the home of the team with the best record in the game.
Though I have only been in New Orleans for a few hours, I can tell that this city wants this game. There are ArenaBowl signs literally everywhere. The whole city seems to have no other concern than hosting this event. Even the valet at the hotel knew that teams from Columbus and San Jose were playing each other for the AFL championship.
Thank you, New Orleans. Though bringing the ArenaBowl to this area is only part of the healing and rebuilding process for this city, it is certainly a step in the right direction. Before the League officers sit down and try to devise what is best for them personally in regards to ArenaBowl XXII, I hope they take the time to realize just how much ArenaBowl XXI means for the people of this great city who truly need it.
