Ca$h Cow needs more cash, bitch

For those of us counting down the days until Los Angeles Saints gear officially goes on sale: get ready. The state of Louisiana might have a spot of trouble coming up with the annual bribe revenue subsidy paid to the Saints, which the team claims is vital to their remaining in the city of New Orleans. From Y! News:

The payment problem has recurred ever since a deal was negotiated with the Saints in 2001 and the Hornets came from Charlotte, N.C., in 2002. Over the years, the state tapped surplus cash, refinanced Superdome debt and borrowed from a development fund to help make the payments.[...]

The state’s 10-year deal with the Saints is the largest of the two and runs through the 2010 season, guaranteeing the NFL team $186.5 million in payments. The state now owes the Saints some $23.5 million annually—atop the NFL team’s earnings from ticket sales, concessions, parking and other items.

Yeah, considering the state of Louisiana is expected to be about a billion dollars short on its budget, coupled with the fact Saints owner Tom Benson has been trying to get out of New Orleans since before Katrina, how long can the team stay there? Yeah, it’s greedy to uproot your football team for greener pastures in another city, but it’s also greedy to be a heaping ass of a city that wants to have reconstructed housing AND pro football. Maybe you should put Drew Brees’ birthmark to work. That birthmark’s been getting a free ride for far too long.