Caesars Superdome vying for Sports Facility of the Year during 50-year anniversary

Dennis Lauscha: 'I think it deserves to be, considering the way the Super Bowl turned out, the way the building works, the way the building looks'

Mar 28, 2025 at 06:14 PM

John DeShazier

Senior Writer

New Orleans Saints owner and honorary festival co-chair Gayle Benson, President Dennis Lauscha, and Saints legend Archie Manning spoke at the New Orleans Book Festival at Tulane University on Friday, March 28, 2025. Lauscha joined a panel discussion with Jeff Duncan, Doug Thornton and Mark Romig about the history and cultural significance of the Caesars Superdome. Additionally, Manning talked about his football legacy, leadership, and career insights in a discussion moderated by his son, Cooper.

If it's hard to believe the Caesars Superdome this year is celebrating its 50th birthday, it's because the facility is doing its best Benjamin Button and aging in reverse.

That partly explains why this year, it is one of six finalists nominated for Sports Facility of the Year in the Sports Business Journal annual awards.

The nomination largely can be traced to the massive renovation project that spanned four years and fully was completed prior to the New Orleans Saints' 2024 season, and in time for Super Bowl LIX in February, New Orleans' record-tying 11th Super Bowl and one of the many marquee events the Superdome hosted even as renovations were ongoing.

"That would be a tremendous accomplishment," New Orleans Saints and Pelicans president Dennis Lauscha said Friday. "I think it deserves to be, considering the way the Super Bowl turned out, the way the building works, the way the building looks. Our customer satisfaction numbers were off the chart this year, so by any metric I think it certainly deserves it."

Lauscha was a panelist – along with Doug Thornton, who has operated the Superdome for 28 years and is president of North American Venues for Legends/ASM Global, and Jeff Duncan, an author and award-winning columnist for The Times-Picayune/New Orleans Advocate – for a discussion on the Superdome at 50, hosted by the New Orleans Book Festival at Tulane University.

The panel was introduced by New Orleans Saints owner and Pelicans governor Gayle Benson.

"This versatile and innovative stadium has hosted almost every imaginable kind of event, ranging from the Rolling Stones, mass with Pope John Paul II, Mardi Gras parades and boat shows," Benson said. "It also served as a shelter of last resort when Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and severely damaged the stadium, causing many questions that were raised about whether the Superdome and New Orleans could ever survive. Of course, not only did the Dome and the New Orleans area survive, both came back even stronger than ever.

"The newly transformed Caesars Superdome is also a great example of what we can accomplish when we cooperate, communicate and work together to achieve something that truly benefits everyone. The renovation project took several seasons to complete, and even more time to create a plan that would allow us to continue hosting Saints fans and major events during the process, as well as determine how to responsibly fund a project that would extend the life of this state's asset for many years to come."

Thornton said the Superdome is into its second life cycle, given that it and facilities like it were designed to functionally last for 30 years.

"We're almost all the way through our second life cycle in this building, so how were we able to preserve it and keep it top shelf?" Thornton said. "A lot of investment over time.

"With Hurricane Katrina, we were able to completely repair it. We came back in 2009 and '10 and did some upgrade work, but this most recent renovation we stepped back and we said how can we be very bold, and think like the original founders of the Dome, and create something that is really going to last for another 25, 30 years – into that next 30-year life cycle.

"(Architects) came up with this great idea of taking out the ramps. That freed up 110,000 square feet of space, on both sides of the stadium. So we were able to reclaim that space.

"The Astrodome is 1 million square feet; that is significant, because it was the first domed stadium built in the world. And the ones after that were all 1 million square feet – RCA Dome, Detroit (Silverdome). They're all gone. You know why? Because their envelope was a million square feet.

"We've got two million square feet under roof, and that enabled us to come in and really think out of the box. And with the help of the Saints, we programmed it in a way to be very, very modern and celebrate the fan experience. It was all about improving our fan experience. We wanted wider concourses, more concessions, more restrooms, more portable transportation.

"And knowing that the state would not be able to cover the whole thing, the Saints stepped up, said we'll pay for a big portion of that – a third of it – the LSED was able to refinance our debt.

"It was not easy; it was four years, the team couldn't move out, they couldn't go somewhere else and play for two years. So we had to work around the four seasons, and it was a challenge."

Add in the complexities from Covid – higher costs, shutdowns – and the massive undertaking to keep the Caesars Superdome a step ahead was made more difficult.

But the mission was accomplished, and there's more to come.

"There were some things we didn't get to do for budget reasons and scheduling reasons," Thornton said. "We want to replace all the seating. There are fixed seats in certain areas that are 20, 30 years old. There's always back-of-house things. Then there's the entire campus – the arena, Champions Square. There's much more we can do to anchor that campus."

Anchoring that Lauscha believes will continue to keep the Superdome vibrant.

"Based on the renovations we've just done, there's no question in my mind that we'll blow through the second generation and head into the third generation before we have to make major changes going forward," he said.

Photos: Gayle Benson, Dennis Lauscha, and Archie Manning speak at New Orleans Book Festival at Tulane

New Orleans Saints owner and honorary festival co-chair Gayle Benson, President Dennis Lauscha, and Saints legend Archie Manning spoke at the New Orleans Book Festival at Tulane University on Friday, March 28, 2025. Lauscha joined a panel discussion with Jeff Duncan, Doug Thornton and Mark Romig about the history and cultural significance of the Caesars Superdome. Additionally, Manning talked about his football legacy, leadership, and career insights in a discussion moderated by his son, Cooper.