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With New Orleans Saints players, coaches and staff camped out in Dallas, head coach Sean Payton said Monday the team’s Week 1 game against the visiting Green Bay Packers might need a new venue.

The team evacuated roughly 160 people to Dallas on Friday night ahead of looming Hurricane Ida, which also caused the cancellation of the Saints’ final preseason game Saturday night against the Arizona Cardinals.



While the team is able to practice in the Cowboys’ AT&T Stadium this week, backup plans are being considered in the event New Orleans won’t be recovered enough to host the Saints’ opener on Sept. 12 at home against the Packers. The city is without power in the aftermath of the massive hurricane, which made landfall in Louisiana as a Category 4 storm with winds of 150 mph on Sunday.

“We don’t know relative on Week 1 in the Superdome,” Payton said, via NewOrleans.Football. “We’ll have a Plan B. There’s a lot of things from a priority standpoint that are more important to our city.”

“I honestly think in the next three days that we’ll know what our next step is,” Payton added. “We’re pretty sure it’s not going to be returning to Metairie (La.) anytime soon to start practices. I think that’s unrealistic.”

Superdome Withstands Storm

The Superdome itself, however, seems to have successfully withstood the hurricane, unlike the major damage it incurred during Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

NOLA.com reported that Superdome staff conducted a walk-through Monday morning and found just one “little window leak.”

The game is not likely to be postponed, and the league would move the game to a neutral site, if needed. With the Cowboys playing the Thursday night game on the road in Week 1, AT&T Stadium would be available, and Dallas would appear to be the most viable neutral site.

–Field Level Media (@FieldLevelMedia)