Ditka-hype begins in New Orleans
■ DIVIDENDS: Even Chicago
residents have begun to buy
Saints’ season tickets
The Associated Press
NEW ORLEANS — The hiring
of Mike Ditka is already paying off
for the New Orleans Saints.
The calls are coming for season
tickets.
“It’s been incredible,” Greg
Suit, Saints vice president for
marketing, said Wednesday. “It
started Monday when the rumor
was around that he was going to
be hired. Yesterday we had a cou
ple of hundred calls for season
tickets, and today we had to trans
fer people in from other depart
ments just to answer phones.”
And it’s not just people around
Louisiana calling. In a day and a
half, about 50 Chicago residents
have become season-ticket hold
ers, and more are signing up by
the minute.
“We’re faxing out forms to busi
nesses that want to pass them out
to employees,” said Jasen Feyer
herm of the Saints ticket office.
“We’re hearing from families who
say they’re switching allegiance
from the Bears to the Saints be
cause they love Mike Ditka.”
Dave Gomez, 45, of Chicago
was one of those buying Saints
tickets. Gomez, a lifelong Bears
fan, said he purchased four sea
son tickets and would make every
game in New Orleans.
“We’re sick inside that he’s not
coaching the Bears, but happy
that he’s coaching somewhere,”
Gomez said. “It will hurt, but I’m
a Saints fan now.”
The Saints did not sell out a
single home game last year —
their fourth straight non-winning
season. And coming off a 3-13
record, it appeared to be a hard
sell again this year. Then Ditka
came to town.
Mike Sawka, 27, ordered two
season tickets. He attended the
Chicago game in New Orleans last
year and liked the city. Now with
Ditka the coach, he’ll be making
the trip eight times a year.
“And I won’t be the only one
from here,” Sawka said. “There’s
going to be a big Saints contingent
in Chicago from now on.”
Callers said they would get to
games one way or another.
“We had one man who said he
and his two sons were going to get
a group together and drive down
in a bus for every home game,”
Feyerherm said. “He said they
were willing to go anywhere to
see coach Ditka coaching again.”
Local fans were also buying
season tickets. At least 200 tickets
were sold on Monday, and the
number increased on Tuesday
when Ditka officially became
coach.
It’s good news for the Saints,
who watched season-ticket sales
dip to 40,000 last year, close to a
team low. New Orleans sold
53,000 season tickets in 1988, fol
lowing their first winning season
and first trip to the playoffs.
For a club that has had only five
winning seasons in 30 years,
promising that next season will be
better gets harder every year.
“Obviously, marketing with a
headliner like Mike makes it a lot
easier to give people a reason to
be optimistic about the season,”
Suit said. “It gives you a running
start toward September and the
time you actually get the team on
the field.”
Normally in January, even fol
lowing good seasons, the ticket of
fice is busy only with internal
business, such as preparing the
mailing that goes out to season
ticket holders every spring. But
this is no normal January for the
Saints.
“One of our people told me he
was on the phone for an hour and
15 minutes without stopping this
morning,” Suit said. “It’s more
than just the sudden surge of pub
licity the hiring brought. It’s that
now fans have someone to pin
their hopes onto — someone they
believe in.”
Coach: Reeves pleased with Brooks’ knowledge
■ Continued from Page 7
the Falcons training facility in suburban Suwanee
next Tuesday, according to Reeves.
Brooks is the fifth defensive coordinator in five
years for the Falcons, who perennially have ranked
among the worst defensive teams in the NFL. Even
after signing Cornelius Bennett as a free agent last
year, Atlanta still allowed an NFL-high 461 points.
“He realizes this is a challenge,” Reeves said. “But
he also realizes that through the free-agent system
we’re under now, particularly with the type of mon
ey we have to spend under the salary cap, that if we
can make some wise decisions we’ll be competitive
and turn this thing around.”
Brooks was a defensive back coach at San Francis
co in 1974 and '75, and he also worked as a defen
sive assistant in college before he took over the Ore
gon program in 1977. Overall, he had a losing record
with the Ducks, but he took them to four bowls in his
final six years, capped by Oregon’s first trip to the
Rose Bowl in 1994.
He won his first four games as an NFL coach, but
St. Louis was plagued by a shoddy defense and a
large number of penalties. The Rams allowed a team
record 418 points in 1995 and 409 in 1996, and they
tied a team record with 133 penalties this season.
“Not all good coaches come from a winning back
ground,” Reeves said. “That’s certainly something to
look at, but I just have a lot of respect for him, and I
know he’ll come in and do a good job with the de
fense.”
Brooks, who also has the title of assistant head
coach, is the fourth defensive assistant named by
Reeves. Earlier, Don Blackmon was hired as line
backer coach, Bill Kollar as defensive line coach and
Ron Meeks as secondary coach.
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