The New Orleans Saints kick off their 2024 training camp this week in an unusual location and with another notable change.
For the first time in a long while no Saints fans will be in attendance to watch the team prepare for the bulk of its training camp slate, with the exception of a pair of practices at Tulane's Yulman Stadium and the Caesars Superdome. Those will come in late August after a pair of preseason games and 18 practices at the campus of UC Irvine.
The question becomes: Why not? Saints GM Mickey Loomis explained the issue was more about logistics and investment than anything else.
"We’re aware from our home market … we weren’t expecting a lot of fans," Loomis said. "It’s just, the venue, all of the logistics that are involved, because it’s significantly more logistics involved when you open it up to the public than when you don’t."
A year ago when the Saints arrived in Costa Mesa for a set of practices, they did so in front of fans hosted by the Chargers.
NFL home turf rules have come under the spotlight in recent weeks due to another team, the Las Vegas Raiders, also taking to California for their camp. With a built-in fanbase from their time in L.A. and Oakland, they could be a potential draw, but NFL rules prohibit open practices under such circumstances in another team's home territory. Earlier this offseason Saints team officials indicated that they had a good relationship with the L.A. clubs and could likely work something out if needed. That theory was never tested.
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"I didn’t really do much inquiry into what we were allowed to do with fans or what we were not allowed to do," Loomis said, "because pretty quickly we determined that hey, it’s going to be a limited amount of people at practice.”
The Saints did host fans at practices the last time they took training camp on the road, that time for three years to the Greenbrier in West Virginia. This road camp, though, is expected to be a one off and was spurred by ongoing construction at the team facility in Metairie.
While the team has maintained its plans are to return for camp back home, where it's held practices since 2017 and with fans often in attendance, it's clear no one is begrudging the trip to Orange County and its far-more-comfortable weather.
"The heat last year, I felt like … that was the first year that man it just really impacted what we were able to do in terms of training camp," Loomis said. "This year, who knows what the heat is going to be over the next 30 days. It’s gonna be hot, we know that, but there’s also been a lot more rainfall, so that along with the limited space that we have in the indoor facility because the remodel has taken away some of our space inside there, it just makes it a lot more – it just confirms, affirms the decision to come out here and have training camp away. In terms of the future, our intention is to be back in Metairie.”