Doug Thornton stood in a terrace aisle, 97 feet from the floor of the Louisiana Superdome, scanning the 900,000- square-foot stadium amid the sounds of rumbling dump trucks and whining fire alarm tests. “One of the things that really strikes you when walk through the building is the sheer size of the place,” said Thornton, regional vice president of SMG, the Dome’s facility management company. “To have 70 to 80 percent of it damaged by water is almost overwhelming. You really start to scratch your head and say, ‘Can this be done? Is it possible? And certainly, is it possible to do it in this time frame?'” One year after Hurricane Katrina destroyed the Dome’s roof and soaked its interior, Thornton’s questions are being answered. The $185 million renovation project of the 32-year-old New Orleans icon is ahead of its scheduled reopening of Sept. 25. “We don’t know of any other stadium that has been so heavily damaged by a natural disaster that has been rebuilt in such a short period of time,” Thornton said. To tackle this unprecedented project, SMG began by hiring a group called Ellerbe Becket to assess the Superdome’s damage. The architects and engineers from the firm had their inaugural post-Katrina visit to the Superdome on Sept. 26, one day after Hurricane Rita came ashore near the Texas-Louisiana border. The damage evaluation stage lasted until Oct. 12, and the discoveries made by the firm brought both good and bad news. “There was some concern right after the storm that [the Superdome] may have to be demolished,” Thornton said. “But we quickly dispelled those rumors when the architects and engineers declared the Dome structurally sound and capable of being renovated.” Ellerbe Becket released a report Dec. 13 that detailed damage assessment, code review, enhancement opportunities, cost estimating and construction schedule for the building. With about only 20 percent of the building free from water damage, Ellerbe Becket labeled the repairs at an estimated cost of $153 million. In addition to the cost, Ellerbe Becket’s report brought another unkind piece of news to Superdome officials. “We were told by the construction consultants that we would not be able to open the stadium until probably Thanksgiving 2006,” Thornton said. “Of course$ that would have left us with a reduced Saints season, probably only four games and possibly even losing the Bayou Classic for this year.” Faced with losing much-needed revenue from New Orleans Saints home games and the Bayou Classic, Thornton turned to Gov. Kathleen Blanco for assistance in the form of an executive order signed by Blanco on Dec. 9. “It was the executive order signed by the governor that really launched this project,” Thornton said. “We were able to accelerate [the construction] pace and move it up by 60 days by focusing on just the items that would be necessary to play a football game.” After the time-schedule issue was resolved, Thornton said the next, most complicated step of the plan came along – assembling the funding. According to Glenn Menard, general manager of the Superdome and New Orleans Arena, the Superdome lost about $15 million in event revenue for the 2005 fiscal year. The financial losses from events were not the most crippling financial blow, Menard said. According to a report released in January by the Bring New Orleans Back Commission, the Superdome’s operating budget was cut from $23 million to $8 million, and the staff was reduced from 185 employees to just 32. The reason for the cuts was the loss of hotel-motel tax revenue, a tax fueled by tourism, which the Superdome relies on for nearly 60 percent of its operating budget. Superdome officials dealt with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, state insurers, the Louisiana Stadium and Exposition District and the National Football League to assemble the needed funds for the project. While the Superdome was to undergo the necessary repairs, the LSED, the agency that manages both the Superdome and New Orleans Arena, decided to incorporate a few upgrades to the facility. The upgrades raised the renovation cost to $185 million. Thornton said FEMA pitched in $116 million for repair work, the state pitched in $13 million and the NFL gave a $15 million non-reimbursable grant. For the remaining $41 million, the LSED decided to refinance its $195 million in outstanding debt. “We took advantage of the Gulf Opportunity Zone legislation to refinance that debt to where it was tax exempt,” Thornton said. “We generated $65 million in new capital – $40 million of which was dedicated to the construction. The remaining $25 million was dedicated to the operation budget.”
RESTORATION One of the most daunting and pressing aspects of the Superdome’s restoration involved its 9.7-acre roof. When the Superdome’s roof began to fail, two smoke-relief dampers at the highest level of the building were lost. “The wind was penetrated through and then began to blow off sections of the roof, allowing about 70 percent of the roof membrane to fail,” Thornton said. “The water intruded and penetrated all of the interior spaces. That’s where most of the damage occurred.” The roofing project began March 1 and was completed July 19. During the busiest times of the job from April to July, 120 workers were on the site of what Superdome officials are calling the largest reroofing project in American history. Construction workers used eight, 27-story high hoists to lift 10,463 pieces of decking. Then 500,000 gallons of polyurethane foam and 20,000 gallons of urethane coating were pumped through hoses and sprayed onto the roof surface. In the end, the foam hardened to two-and-a-half inches thick, and the urethane gave the roof a skin as thick as a nickel. The 72,000 seats in the Superdome presented another extensive task for construction crews to handle before the Superdome’s reopening. Thornton said 23,000 new seats have been installed while every seat in the building had to be inspected. “The seat cushions soaked up the water, and the mold grew under the seats, and they could not be remediated,” Thornton said. Each seat had to undergo an environment test, Thornton said, to make sure they were safe to use. “We had no air conditioning for three months,” Thornton said. “We brought in a remediation company that tented all the seats. We had enough sheet plastic to cover seven-and-half city blocks at one time.” To test which seats were safe, Thornton said hot air was blown under the sheet plastic for three months to dry out the seats. Then a micro-ban substance was used to wipe down the seats, followed by a test to see if the seats were able to be used again. “Those that passed the test were able to stay and those that failed, we got rid of,” Thornton said. One of the most visible changes in the Superdome’s interior is its new set of full-color video boards, scoreboards and ribbon boards. The Superdome will feature two new 25-foot by 50-foot widescreen colored video boards. The traditional 8-foot by 60-foot message boards in the four corners of the Superdome have been upgraded to full color from black and white technology as well. The Superdome will also feature four new LED-ribbon boards, similar to the recently added boards in Tiger Stadium. Every suite in the Superdome has been completely redone. “The biggest change in the design of these suites is that we got rid of the old, sliding glass doors,” Thornton said. Previously, suites in the Superdome were enclosed by glass, but now the interior has been opened to the field and new, wider leather chairs have been installed. The suites and the four ballrooms in the Dome will not be completed by Sept. 25, Thornton said. “The only thing that will not quite be finished in the suites will be the carpeting and the cabinetry,” Thornton said. The ballrooms and suites will be finished by July 2007. Roy Mouledous, vice president of Broadmoor LLC, the construction manager of the Superdome renovation, said the concession stands and bathrooms have also been upgraded. “There are some concessions that have been renovated, probably 70 to 80 percent of them have been gutted down to the bare bones,” Mouledous said. “Bathrooms have been upgraded with new toilet partitions, and all other units have been put back.”
THE FUTURE New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin announced at a May 2 news conference that the Superdome will not be a shelter of last resort when a storm threatens the city. In an effort to revive the city’s economy, Superdome officials have pledged their efforts to return the facility into the entertainment conglomerate it was before Hurricane Katrina. “We are planning to host Bayou Classic this year,” Thornton said. “We’re going to host Sugar Bowl, we’re going to host the Louisiana High School football championship and we’re going to host New Orleans Bowl.” Thornton also said Tulane home games and the traditional Endymion Extravaganza, an event that allows the super-krewe parade to roll through the Superdome, will return in 2006. Officials also are working on a plan to host the Essence Music Festival in July 2007. In 2007, the Superdome will host the NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball tournament’s first and second rounds, and officials plan to bid in October on hosting a future men’s Final Four. As far as hosting another Super Bowl, Thornton said the state and the Saints need to work out an agreement, which will extend the lease between the two parties beyond 2010. Broadmoor LLC presented the Saints and Superdome officials with a list of possible Superdome improvements two-and-a-half years ago, Thornton said. The improvements should help with lease negotiations, Thornton said. The renovation of the suites, new seats in the club level, concession stands and club lounges – all of which are being completed – were included in Broadmoor’s list. “It was very important after the storm that we try to incorporate as many of the improvements as we could,” Thornton said.
COMING HOME The New Orleans Saints will return Sept. 25 to a sellout crowd on Monday Night Football against their historical rivals the Atlanta Falcons. “With Monday Night Football in town, the whole production…should prove to be a very nice and big welcome back,” said Greg Bensel, Saints spokesman. In addition to a sellout crowd, Bensel said he expects more than 400 media members from all over the world to be in attendance. Bensel said many events are being planned before and after the game but are being held in secret as a surprise for those in attendance. “Needless to say, everyone and every business was affected by the storm,” Bensel said. “[The game] will say that the city is making progress in its return, and it will offer a unique opportunity for people throughout the world to keep the flame burning in their support of our city.” The Tulane Green Wave’s first regular season home game since 2004 will be Sept. 30. Assistant Athletics Director Dennis Polian said fans have returned to embrace Tulane athletics and said it shows in attendance at recent events. “We just celebrated a fan day [Aug. 27] on campus,” Polian said. “Yesterday we had over 500 people there. It just showed how loyal our people are.” The Green Wave’s rebound from the storm has also shown prospective student athletes that the athletic program is open for business. “The leadership within this University and within this department of athletics has demonstrated the commitment and the ability to do things that nobody else can do,” Polian said. “And that speaks to our recruiting classes we’ve been getting. We did last year what nobody else in the country has done.”
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—–Contact Kyle Whitfield at [email protected]