New Orleans Saints owner Gayle Benson and Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry signed a new ten-year lease Thursday that keeps the New Orleans Saints playing in the Superdome for years to come.
The deal also includes five-year options for the Saints to renew the lease at the end of the term.
It also imposes multi-million dollar penalties if the Saints decline to renew -- $75 million if they reject a renewal once the initial ten years ends, with the payout declining over time.
There are also hundred of millions of dollars in "liquidated damages" provisions designed to lock the team in to playing in New Orleans.
"This is an agreement that is great for the state, it's great for the citizens of this state, and it's also great for the Saints," said Landry during the signing ceremony at the Superdome.
The deal got hung up for a few weeks on negotiations over how the lease for office space in the adjacent Benson Tower high-rise would work, and caused the Saints to miss a deadline for applying to host the Super Bowl in 2031. Saints owner Gayle Benson said she would be speaking with the commissioner about future Super Bowls as soon as the league approves the extension.
"Once the NFL approves this lease extension, which I know they will, we will then be allowed to petition the NFL to bid on future Super Bowl," said Benson.