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Best Sports Business Cities: No. 24 — New Orleans

No. 24: New Orleans

Score: 31.0

We heard it repeatedly: New Orleans is a great place to attend — and conduct business at — top-tier events, like the Allstate Sugar Bowl (played there since 1935); PGA Tour Zurich Classic of New Orleans (since 1958); New Orleans Saints games (1967); recent NBA All-Star and CFP championship games; and the NCAA men’s basketball Final Four.

Executives love the downtown, where Caesars Superdome (a $450 million renovation is underway in advance of Super Bowl LIX), Smoothie King Center and the Sun Belt Conference headquarters are a short distance from each other. But hotel rooms are expensive (an average of $176 per night) and the 18.2% room tax is second only to St. Louis among our top 50 markets.

Sponsors (2): New Orleans was home to the fewest sponsors of any major league market even before Smoothie King, which has naming rights to the Pelicans arena, moved to Dallas in 2018.

What they’re saying: “This could be the Super Bowl city every single year.” — D.B.

ADDITIONAL SECTIONS
PODCASTS

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: June 26, 2023

FSG gets into golf; What's next for Monumental Sports? MLB gets another hit with London series and a big acquisition in the agency world.

SBJ Spotlight: Scott Warfield of PGA Tour

Legalized sports betting is in the third inning according to Scott Warfield. The PGA Tour’s VP of Gaming says that the industry is heading in the right direction and there is plenty of opportunity. Warfield joins SBJ’s Abe Madkour and John Ourand from Orlando in this edition of SBJ Spotlight.

SBJ I Factor: Danita Johnson

SBJ I Factor presented by Allied Sports features an interview with Danita Johnson, president of business operations for D.C. United and a member of Sports Business Journal’s Forty Under 40 class of 2023. Johnson talks with SBJ’s Abe Madkour about learning how to sell and to not fear change, becoming an effective manager, the importance of empathy as a leadership trait, and what to look for when evaluating job candidates. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards, such as Forty Under 40, Game Changers and others.

SBJ TV

UNC AD Bubba Cunningham on football, women's sports and NIL

12 mins

Toledo AD Bryan Blair on the challenges and opportunities of NIL

8 mins

Marchand and Ourand, Ep: 91: What’s Next for the NBA, RSNs and Messi

43 mins

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