Athletics in New Orleans have helped unite the city’s people for years.And after Hurricane Katrina devastated the city in 2005, New Orleans residents like Ryan O’Malley found athletics as a rallying point in the face of disaster.O’Malley, accounting senior, said his family has held Saints season tickets all his life, and he followed them even during the 2005-06 season when the team played four games in Baton Rouge and relocated to San Antonio for most of the year.The Louisiana Superdome, the Saints’ home venue, suffered $142 million in damage, according to Superdome spokesman Bill Curl.Construction began in March 2006 to get the Superdome ready for the Saints to play in it. It was the biggest construction project to any American stadium in history. That time and effort came to fruition Sept. 25, 2006, when the Dome reopened for the Saints’ first home game of the season against the Atlanta Falcons.O’Malley said that night is one he will never forget.”It was so awesome to see that rush of everyone in the Dome, to see so many people get so excited about the Saints,” O’Malley said. “It was the best Saints game I’ve ever seen. I still have my ticket from that game.”The Saints would go on to win the game, 23-3, behind a blocked punt that led to a Saints touchdown just minutes into the game.”Our seats were right behind that end zone,” O’Malley said. “It was so loud, yet so much fun. The people in our sections were high-fiving and getting so excited.”Mary Beth Romig, public relations and communications director for the New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau, said having sports to lean on is something special for the city.”Sports are a spiritual thing for us here,” Romig said. “We were asked in the national and international media if a sporting organization could mean that much to a city, and I said, ‘Absolutely.’ The spirit of the teams reflects the spirit of the people who returned. And it’s crucial to our well-being.”Sports psychologist Eric Duchmann said sports can be “a tremendous beacon” for a city, particularly in post-Katrina New Orleans.”Athletics give a common cause for a city, something that the community can focus on and rally around,” Duchmann said. “It gives them a diversion from the hardships and experiences there every day. We all know it’s a game in reality, but it’s also something that stands for strong values about how to live life, overcome adversity, and stay positive and focused — all the different things that are a sign we can overcome.”Jay Cicero, president and CEO of the Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation, said athletics have helped New Orleanians take their minds off the stress of Katrina’s aftermath.”Sports are something that is in our DNA here,” Cicero said. “Citizens of New Orleans needed something they could rally around besides concentrating on FEMA and rebuilding, where they would live and their jobs.”The New Orleans Arena, where the Hornets play, also sustained damage after Katrina, causing the team to relocate to Oklahoma City for two seasons.Duchmann said the return of the Saints and Hornets to New Orleans provided an emotional spark for residents.”Particularly in New Orleans, which celebrates any good cause for a party, the teams coming back and having good years fit even more into what [the city] needs to put the past behind them,” Duchmann said. The Saints finished 10-6 in their first season back and reached their first NFC Championship game in team history. The Hornets were Southwestern Division champions and reached the Western Conference semifinals when they returned to the Big Easy last season.Curl said SMG, the Superdome management company, spent $77 million on post-Katrina renovations — including a new roof, replacement of the Dome’s outer skin and various improvements inside the stadium.Curl said having the “crown jewel” back has been invaluable to the city’s economic life.”The Saints sold out season tickets for the first time in history in their first season back after the storm,” he said. “The Hornets had a run of 13 consecutive sellouts, and they’ve been doing extremely well this season with an exciting team. We’ve also had a packed house for the Sugar Bowl and the BCS championship, so the business of sports has been very, very good.”New Orleans was the first city to host three major college football bowl games in one season: the 2007 New Orleans Bowl, the 2008 Sugar Bowl and the 2008 BCS championship game. LSU faced Ohio State for the BCS title, and the game set a Superdome attendance record with 79,651.Curl said the “newer, more accommodating” Superdome and the team involved in bidding for large-scale sporting events helped the city land several events in the near future.New Orleans will host the BCS championship and its fifth men’s basketball Final Four in the Superdome in 2012 and the women’s Final Four in the New Orleans Arena in 2013.The Superdome will host a men’s NCAA regional semifinals and finals in 2011, and New Orleans had already won the first and second rounds of the men’s NCAA tournament in 2010.”That run of NCAA basketball events is four years back-to-back with March Madness in New Orleans,” Curl said. “No city has done that in recent history. That is a great accomplishment for us to be that successful and bring those events to New Orleans.”Cicero said the city is also hoping to make a pitch for the 2013     Super Bowl and 2014 NBA All-Star Game. New Orleans was the host of the 2008 NBA All-Star Game, and the sellout game was broadcast in 215 countries in 44 languages.Romig said the ability to land such big events is largely because of the city’s marketability.”We are in such a walkable, compact city, and the games themselves, the hotels and all the fine restaurants are all so close to each other,” Romig said. And this is what New Orleans does. We do big events, including sporting events, better than anyone. Hospitality is what we do best.”Romig said marketing what New Orleans is all about is something to which the city cannot assign a dollar value.”When you have an event such as the NBA All-Star Game or a Final Four, and people keep talking about the road to New Orleans, and they show … scenes of street life and all those colorful things that come along with the city outside of the actual games, that’s the kind of marketing we can’t afford,” Romig said. “It’s an invaluable opportunity for New Orleans to showcase itself to the world.”—-Contact Rachel Whittaker at [email protected]