NEW ORLEANS — New Orleans officials have unveiled "state of the art" improvements to the Superdome, the stadium that once epitomized the chaos of Hurricane Katrina but became a symbol of the city's resilience.
"This is a brand new stadium," Tom Benson, owner of the NFL's New Orleans Saints, said of the improvements, on Wednesday. "It's got all the things we wanted. I haven't seen a finer stadium in the country."
The upgrades have covered everything from seats to luxury suites, and from electronic video and scoreboard systems to restrooms.
"We have a state of the art, modern stadium and we've saved the taxpayer money," Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal said.
The Superdome, once a horrific symbol of the abject failure of government to help thousands of people displaced by Katrina in 2005, became a focus of pride after it reopened on September 25, 2006.
As the home of the city's beloved Saints, it provided a backdrop to the team's emotional 2009 NFL campaign that ended with a triumph in the February 2010 Super Bowl in Miami.
A study by the University of New Orleans found that events at the stadium have had a fiscal impact of $4.1 billion on the Louisiana economy.
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