Fans finally got back into the building for the 2021 season, but the numbers weren't quite what might have been expected.
Saints home games in the 2021 season averaged just under 65,000 fans per game, a steep drop from the 2019 mark of roughly 73,000 that was good for 7th-best in the NFL.
That average decline of 8,000 was the third most among NFL teams, according to an analysis by Greg Auman of The Athletic, behind just the Detroit Lions and Washington Commanders. All this while the league as a whole reversed a years-long attendance decline, according to Sports Business Journal.
But there are a few qualifying characteristics to keep in mind, the first being the most obvious: Home didn't always mean "at home" for the Saints in the 2021 season.
Hurricane Ida displaced last year's team shortly before the season, pushing their home opener to Jacksonville. Despite being on the road, the Saints were still the home team and the attendance for that game is reflected in their average home attendance. Just over 32,000 fans turned up for that game. While an impressive number on short notice in a city that neither team plays in, it still serves to double the appearance of the attendance drop. When factoring in just the games played at the Caesars Superdome last year, the average was 69,633 -- cutting that 8,000 more than in half to about 3,400. When the Jacksonville opener is included, the Saints ranked No. 22 in attendance. Without it, the Saints are ranked No. 11 -- it's a significant difference.
Still, a drop of roughly 23,800 fans in attendance over the course of seven home games is notable, though not really unexpected. The Superdome was one of the NFL stadiums running vaccine/negative test checks at its gates for the 2021 season -- per city mandates -- which could've resulted in a chunk of fans staying home, particularly the unvaccinated.
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There were also lingering concerns stemming from the coronavirus pandemic, as well as lingering issues from Hurricane Ida, which thrashed the city in August. Either could've been a contributing factor.
In the end, it came down to something much more simple: The Saints renovated the stadium and that appears to have dropped the overall capacity in the building from the 73,000 in 2019. The listed attendance for each home game in the Superdome was exactly 69,170, indicating a sellout.
Former coach Sean Payton noted multiple times throughout the season that the noise level in the building wasn't up to par with what he had remembered in previous seasons.
That could've been due to fewer fans in the building, but it didn't help that the team simply didn't play well enough at home to get fans excited to be in that number. The much-hyped return home in Week 4 turned sour when the Saints blew a 10-point 4th quarter lead and fell in overtime to the Giants.
In the next true home game -- this time on Halloween against Tom Brady and the Bucs -- New Orleans finally got its thrilling win in front of the home crowd, but it came as Jameis Winston was lost for the season with a major knee injury.
Then came the losing streak, a five-game skid started with Trevor Siemian and Taysom Hill manning the ship. The particularly difficult losses came against the Bills on Thanksgiving, then against the Cowboys on Thursday Night Football a week later.
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The team finally got back on track with wins over the Bucs and Jets, and then came the COVID debacle of Week 16. That loss was started by the backup to the backups in Ian Book with nearly two-dozen others out for the game. Things finally got back to winning ways at home against the Panthers in Week 17, but that was too little, too late to get anyone hyped up for a trip to see a home game.
All that is to say: Don't panic about hometown attendance at this point. This season figures to have plenty of added energy with the hometown draw of former LSU stars Tyrann Mathieu and Jarvis Landry. But nothing is more important than winning. If the team puts on a better show at home, the fans will be plenty invested and plenty loud (the tickets are bought and paid for, after all). If they still aren't, then some alarm bells might start going off.