Featured image credit: Infrogmation of New Orleans/CC BY-SA 4.0/Edited for size
Caesars Superdome successfully staged postponed college football showpiece the Sugar Bowl yesterday (Thursday), albeit with attendance around 10,000 down on initial projections following the New Year’s Day terror attack in New Orleans.
The incident on the city’s famed Bourbon Street has claimed the lives of 14 people, with dozens more injured. Hours before the game was due to take place a decision was made to postpone the Sugar Bowl by a day in coordination with federal, state, and local authorities as well as the College Football Playoff (CFP), ESPN, the Southeastern Conference, competing teams the University of Georgia and University of Notre Dame, and Caesars Superdome.
The game was due to be a sellout with 68,400 tickets sold, however after the one-day postponement the official attendance was announced as 57,267. With the Caesars Superdome, home of the NFL’s New Orleans Saints, located around a mile from the site of the attack, security was significantly strengthened for the staging of the game, which saw Notre Dame emerge 23-10 victors.
With law enforcement assets that would typically be allocated to an event of this stature engaged in active investigations related to the incident, the postponement was designed to allow for additional security resources to be put in place in order to maintain the typical standards of a major event in the Caesars Superdome.
Along with snipers being positioned on nearby rooftops, the Associated Press reported that police blocked regular traffic from passing by the main Superdome entrance on Poydras Street, while a helicopter circled overhead.
Security officers around the stadium were handling dogs trained to detect explosive devices. They encircled cars entering the Superdome’s parking garage and in some cases sniffed bags and backpacks.
The eventual staging of the game yesterday marked the first time the Sugar Bowl had been postponed in its 91-year history, although it was relocated at the end of the 2005 season following Hurricane Katrina.
This season’s Super Bowl is scheduled to take place on February 9 at Caesars Superdome. The Saints in August unveiled the final elements of the stadium’s $560m (£451.9m/€544.5m) transformation, which has been timed to culminate with the staging of the finale to the NFL season.
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