Saints, Pelicans have scored points by giving back – Clarion Herald

In January 1998, Tom Benson and his fellow NFL owners had just won the Fort Knox equivalent of the Super Bowl.

The league signed off on a blockbuster, $17.6 billion network television contract that would raise the NFLs annual salary cap for players by $10 million to $51.5 million per team.

For several years, Dennis Lauscha, a young CPA with the independent accounting firm of Arthur Andersen, had audited the Saints compliance with the intricacies of the newly installed salary cap. Benson was so impressed with Lauschas work that he asked the 28-year-old, a 1987 graduate of Jesuit High School, to come to work for him.

Bensons chief financial officer, Bruce Broussard, had serious health issues, and Benson wanted Lauscha to learn the CFO job for a year under Broussards careful tutelage and then take over as his top financial officer.

I distinctly remember saying, You know, Mr. Benson, Im relatively young at 28. Would you be comfortable with a 28-year-old being a CFO? Lauscha recalled. And he told me, Look, Dennis, I got my first car dealership at 28. So that made me feel pretty good.

The NFL is big business. There may not be a more important corporate entity to the health of the New Orleans region and the state than the New Orleans Saints, and by addition, the New Orleans Pelicans.

Thats why when Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in 2005 and there was talk of the Saints never coming back to town, that uncertainty fueled a passionate backlash among surviving fans who were dragging their lifes belongings to the curb.

Despite his early missteps in responding to the disaster, its irrefutable that when Tom Benson made his decision to return to New Orleans, he was all in.

There was a lot of discussion about what the team would do and where we were headed and everything else, Lauscha told a June 7 gathering at Immaculate Conception Church in New Orleans for the churchs Cannonball Conversation series in honor of the Ignatian Year. I distinctly remember him saying, Hey, were going back. Were going back to make a difference. Lets pack up and go. The inference was were going to be a great football team, but first we need to make a difference in our community. He really meant that. It was moving, to be honest with you.

Anyone keeping track of the NFL ledger these days and, by comparison, the NBA ledger understands how unfathomably valuable sports franchises have become. Seven hours after Lauscha spoke at Immaculate Conception, the Denver Broncos announced they had been sold for $4.65 billion the same team previous owner Pat Bowlen paid $78 million for in 1984.

Lauscha, president of both the Saints and the Pelicans, said Gayle Benson, who assumed the ownership role of both franchises following her husbands death in 2018, has embraced and enhanced the core value of good corporate citizenship. Lauscha said the Gayle and Tom Benson Foundation has made nearly $200 million in contributions toschools, hospitals and other charities.

There are literally thousands of organizations we have done something for, and I wish we could do more, Lauscha said. I know Mrs. Benson wishes we could do more. Its been said that she has no heirs. When she passes and lets say a prayer that thats a long time from now all of her assets will be sold and given to charity.

Lauscha is an aficionado of church architecture. In his travels to cities across the world, he visits cathedrals. He and his wife Jennifer were in Seville and walked through Santa Mara de la Sede, the worlds largest cathedral after St. Peters Basilica in Rome and St. Pauls Cathedral in London.

How could a mid-sized port city in Europe have built something on such a large scale, Lauscha thought.

There was a plaque in the back that basically said, Let us build a church so grandiose that those who see it will think we are mad, Lauscha said. We are talking about Seville. Were not talking about Rome or London or Paris. Then I think, hey, it wasnt long ago when New Orleans a mid-sized port city decided it was going to have a vision to be the greatest in the world, and we built the Superdome. How was it that this small town had the vision that those folks in Seville had to see what can be accomplished?

The Saints pay careful attention to their audience. They poll fans each year about their game-day experience and also seek, in a sense, to evangelize by casting a wide net. Lauscha said there are 7 million people living within a reasonable drive of New Orleans all of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida panhandle. Those living outside the metropolitan area now represent about 35% of ticket sales.

He said there are three things that drive ticket sales: You have to be priced right; the team has to be heading in the right direction; and the fans have to like the players, coaches and owners. Thats it.

The likability factor comes down to personal integrity, which Lauscha said was instilled in him from his time at Jesuit. He mentioned the success of the Pelicans sticking together through injuries and early-season losses to make the playoffs. There were even players, such as Josh Hart and Nickeil Alexander-Walker, who were traded but stayed around that night to attend a game courtside at the Smoothie King Center just to say goodbye to their former teammates.

That kind of bond is virtually unheard of in todays bottom-line professional sports.

That value proposition starts with you, he said. What do I bring to the organization? What do my colleagues, employees and other team members bring to the organization? We always have to be respectful of others. Its amazing what we can accomplish when we realize we dont care who gets the credit.

Among all of those things, even deeper, is a recognition that you must be humble in the eyes of God. It all starts there. If youre not humble there, then the whole value proposition falls apart. We see that in the Ten Commandments, we see that in the Golden Rule, we see that in Jesuit education. It begins with the acknowledgment that everything we do, we do for the greater glory of God. A.M.D.G.

pfinney@clarionherald.org

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Saints, Pelicans have scored points by giving back - Clarion Herald