The Sugar Bowl will do everything it can to play this season’s game at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, La., but will play in Atlanta at the Georgia Dome if officials can’t solve massive logistical problems, executive director Paul Hoolahan said Tuesday.
In a nationwide conference call after Bowl Championship Series meetings in Chicago, Hoolahan said the Sugar Bowl’s main goal after Hurricane Katrina damaged the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans was keeping the Jan. 2 game in Louisiana.
“We’re all part of it,” said Hoolahan, who had to relocate his family to Houston. “We all lost homes. We all lost things valuable to us. The last thing we want to do is hurt the people of Louisiana by doing something to abandon them or defect.”
The biggest problem is hotel rooms. Hoolahan said the city hosting the Sugar Bowl needs a minimum of 32,000 available rooms, and Baton Rouge, located 80 miles from New Orleans, has fewer than 10,000. As more hotel rooms become available through relief efforts, they are taken by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other relief personnel.
The Sugar Bowl is looking at hotel availability in Houston, 270 miles from Baton Rouge.
Tiger Stadium’s capacity of 91,600 easily tops the Superdome’s 69,082, but Baton Rouge has swelled to twice its size because of incoming relief staff and evacuees. If the Sugar Bowl moves to LSU’s stadium in Baton Rouge, New Orleans must be somewhat operational.
“It will be particularly difficult if we have to take the event outside the state,” Hoolahan said. “That will be gut-wrenching for us and the people of Louisiana.”
Officials of the 71,250-seat Georgia Dome have given permission to play the Sugar Bowl there. Hoolahan said a decision would be made by the first week in October.
John Henderson can be reached at 303-820-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com.
