dirty
EOG Master
Displaced bowl makes do in Atlanta
By TIM TUCKER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 11/02/05 They've settled into tidy temporary offices in downtown Atlanta, but Sugar Bowl officials cannot escape the mess they left behind.
The business manager shows a visitor photos of the bowl's ransacked New Orleans offices, which were looted in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The executive director displays snapshots of what little remains of his Misssissippi vacation home, reduced to its concrete slab by Katrina.
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W.A. BRIDGES JR./Staff
</TD></TR><TR><TD class=caption>Paul Hoolahan, the Sugar Bowl's executive director, and his staff are scrambling to make arrangements for this season's game.
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</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><!--startclickprintinclude--><!--begintext-->Then they put their photos and worries aside and get back to work.
The Sugar Bowl staff evacuated to Atlanta several weeks ago, after the bowl determined it could not hold this season's contest in hurricane-ravaged Louisiana. Instead, the college football postseason classic that has been played in New Orleans every year since 1935 will take place in the Georgia Dome on Jan. 2, 2006.
In the meantime, under trying circumstances, separated from families, the eight-person staff has a year's worth of work to do.
"I'd be less than truthful if I didn't say that on occasions it's overwhelming," said Paul Hoolahan, the bowl's executive director.
"Paul and I will be talking about something and we'll get halfway through a thought and we'll just zone out because we're thinking about three other things in midsentence," said Jeff Hundley, the associate executive director. "Then all we can do is laugh and start over."
Hoolahan often refers to his world in two contexts: "pre-Katrina" and "post-Katrina."
Pre-Katrina, he, his wife and their three daughters lived in a New Orleans suburb and had a vacation home in Bay St. Louis, Miss.
Post-Katrina, Hoolahan's primary residence is uninhabitable until water damage is repaired, his vacation home is gone, his wife and one daughter are living in Houston, two other daughters are staying with friends near their suburban New Orleans high school, and he is living in an Atlanta hotel.
Pre-Katrina, the Sugar Bowl had everything in place for its game in the Louisiana Superdome: tickets and sponsorships sold, hospitality events planned, volunteer jobs assigned, "all the pieces of the puzzle on the table and pretty well assembled," Hoolahan said. Post-Katrina, "the puzzle went right off the table onto the floor," he said.
"We have to reassemble it piece by piece, the difference being we're in a new town, not knowing our way around the block."
Yet the magnitude of the job can provide an emotional respite of sorts.
"The harder we work, the less we think about what's at home ? the devastation," said Kathy Gaspard, the bowl's business manager.
Hoolahan expects the Sugar Bowl to return to Louisiana next season ? to New Orleans if the extensively damaged Superdome is repaired or to Baton Rouge. But for now the staff is immersed in the logistics of putting on the game in Georgia.
Customers who had tickets for the New Orleans game have received refunds, and tickets will go on sale here in a week or two. Some volunteers have been unreachable since Katrina struck, and Hoolahan said Atlanta volunteers will be "deputized" from events such as the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl. Some sponsors have dropped out, although title sponsor Nokia remains.
The Sugar Bowl hopes to operate here within the same budget it had adopted for the game in New Orleans, Hoolahan said. He expects relocation expenses to be covered by business-interruption insurance. If necessary, he said, the bowl can dip into its reserves to meet expenses, which include payouts of about $14 million to each of the participating teams.
Hoolahan puts the game's annual economic impact on New Orleans at $175 million to $200 million. Many variables will affect the impact here, including how many fans come from out of town and how long they stay.
The Sugar Bowl committee, which consists of 120 volunteers from the New Orleans area, will meet on Thursday ? in Atlanta. At last count, 58 members planned to attend.
The relocated staffers ? six-full time employees and two interns ? are staying in the Omni Hotel at CNN Center, away from families except for occasional weekend trips home. They walk to their offices in Suite 2332 of the Inforum.
"We're kind of like a family," Gaspard, in her 26th year with the bowl, said. "We have each other, and I think that helps a lot."
The staffers know they fared better than many who were touched by Katrina's devastation. They still have their primary homes, although most of them suffered damage. They still have their jobs, even if they had to relocate temporarily to do them.
"It's all relative," Hundley said. "Seeing what other people [are going through], we're making the best of it."
Eight days post-Katrina, several Sugar Bowl staffers got government passes and tetanus shots and donned gloves, boots and hazardous-materials suits to return to their offices in the Superdome.
"The offices had been severely ransacked," Hoolahan said. Intruders had "gone through everybody's files and drawers, thrown everything upside down."
Some property was taken, but the items that mattered most to the staff was left behind: memorabilia from Sugar Bowl games since 1935, including photographs and footballs autographed by participating teams. "I don't guess the pictures of national champions meant that much to [the looters]," Hoolahan said. Computers and files also remained, albeit scattered.
The staff got up and running in a hurry here. Office space was quickly located. Greg Blackwell, the bowl's director of communications, drove a truck filled with files and computers from New Orleans. Furniture was rented, phones connected, the Nokia Sugar Bowl logo placed on the entrance.
"The gracious people of Atlanta embraced us with hospitality and a willingness to work hand-in-hand," Hoolahan said. "It was very heartening."
The bowl's boss since 1996, Hoolahan is beginning to feel pretty good about this season's game. "I think we're hitting stride," he said. "I think we'll sell the tickets. I think we'll provide a full-blown bowl experience in the style we're accustomed to."
On a recent evening, outside the windows of the Sugar Bowl's temporary offices, darkness was falling. Nearby offices were emptying. But in Inforum Suite 2332, no one seemed in any rush to leave.
"Nowhere to go," Hoolahan said.
By TIM TUCKER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 11/02/05 They've settled into tidy temporary offices in downtown Atlanta, but Sugar Bowl officials cannot escape the mess they left behind.
The business manager shows a visitor photos of the bowl's ransacked New Orleans offices, which were looted in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The executive director displays snapshots of what little remains of his Misssissippi vacation home, reduced to its concrete slab by Katrina.
<!--endtext--><!--endclickprintinclude--><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=2 width=175 align=left border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR><TR><TD class=caption>Paul Hoolahan, the Sugar Bowl's executive director, and his staff are scrambling to make arrangements for this season's game.
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</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><!--startclickprintinclude--><!--begintext-->Then they put their photos and worries aside and get back to work.The Sugar Bowl staff evacuated to Atlanta several weeks ago, after the bowl determined it could not hold this season's contest in hurricane-ravaged Louisiana. Instead, the college football postseason classic that has been played in New Orleans every year since 1935 will take place in the Georgia Dome on Jan. 2, 2006.
In the meantime, under trying circumstances, separated from families, the eight-person staff has a year's worth of work to do.
"I'd be less than truthful if I didn't say that on occasions it's overwhelming," said Paul Hoolahan, the bowl's executive director.
"Paul and I will be talking about something and we'll get halfway through a thought and we'll just zone out because we're thinking about three other things in midsentence," said Jeff Hundley, the associate executive director. "Then all we can do is laugh and start over."
Hoolahan often refers to his world in two contexts: "pre-Katrina" and "post-Katrina."
Pre-Katrina, he, his wife and their three daughters lived in a New Orleans suburb and had a vacation home in Bay St. Louis, Miss.
Post-Katrina, Hoolahan's primary residence is uninhabitable until water damage is repaired, his vacation home is gone, his wife and one daughter are living in Houston, two other daughters are staying with friends near their suburban New Orleans high school, and he is living in an Atlanta hotel.
Pre-Katrina, the Sugar Bowl had everything in place for its game in the Louisiana Superdome: tickets and sponsorships sold, hospitality events planned, volunteer jobs assigned, "all the pieces of the puzzle on the table and pretty well assembled," Hoolahan said. Post-Katrina, "the puzzle went right off the table onto the floor," he said.
"We have to reassemble it piece by piece, the difference being we're in a new town, not knowing our way around the block."
Yet the magnitude of the job can provide an emotional respite of sorts.
"The harder we work, the less we think about what's at home ? the devastation," said Kathy Gaspard, the bowl's business manager.
Hoolahan expects the Sugar Bowl to return to Louisiana next season ? to New Orleans if the extensively damaged Superdome is repaired or to Baton Rouge. But for now the staff is immersed in the logistics of putting on the game in Georgia.
Customers who had tickets for the New Orleans game have received refunds, and tickets will go on sale here in a week or two. Some volunteers have been unreachable since Katrina struck, and Hoolahan said Atlanta volunteers will be "deputized" from events such as the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl. Some sponsors have dropped out, although title sponsor Nokia remains.
The Sugar Bowl hopes to operate here within the same budget it had adopted for the game in New Orleans, Hoolahan said. He expects relocation expenses to be covered by business-interruption insurance. If necessary, he said, the bowl can dip into its reserves to meet expenses, which include payouts of about $14 million to each of the participating teams.
Hoolahan puts the game's annual economic impact on New Orleans at $175 million to $200 million. Many variables will affect the impact here, including how many fans come from out of town and how long they stay.
The Sugar Bowl committee, which consists of 120 volunteers from the New Orleans area, will meet on Thursday ? in Atlanta. At last count, 58 members planned to attend.
The relocated staffers ? six-full time employees and two interns ? are staying in the Omni Hotel at CNN Center, away from families except for occasional weekend trips home. They walk to their offices in Suite 2332 of the Inforum.
"We're kind of like a family," Gaspard, in her 26th year with the bowl, said. "We have each other, and I think that helps a lot."
The staffers know they fared better than many who were touched by Katrina's devastation. They still have their primary homes, although most of them suffered damage. They still have their jobs, even if they had to relocate temporarily to do them.
"It's all relative," Hundley said. "Seeing what other people [are going through], we're making the best of it."
Eight days post-Katrina, several Sugar Bowl staffers got government passes and tetanus shots and donned gloves, boots and hazardous-materials suits to return to their offices in the Superdome.
"The offices had been severely ransacked," Hoolahan said. Intruders had "gone through everybody's files and drawers, thrown everything upside down."
Some property was taken, but the items that mattered most to the staff was left behind: memorabilia from Sugar Bowl games since 1935, including photographs and footballs autographed by participating teams. "I don't guess the pictures of national champions meant that much to [the looters]," Hoolahan said. Computers and files also remained, albeit scattered.
The staff got up and running in a hurry here. Office space was quickly located. Greg Blackwell, the bowl's director of communications, drove a truck filled with files and computers from New Orleans. Furniture was rented, phones connected, the Nokia Sugar Bowl logo placed on the entrance.
"The gracious people of Atlanta embraced us with hospitality and a willingness to work hand-in-hand," Hoolahan said. "It was very heartening."
The bowl's boss since 1996, Hoolahan is beginning to feel pretty good about this season's game. "I think we're hitting stride," he said. "I think we'll sell the tickets. I think we'll provide a full-blown bowl experience in the style we're accustomed to."
On a recent evening, outside the windows of the Sugar Bowl's temporary offices, darkness was falling. Nearby offices were emptying. But in Inforum Suite 2332, no one seemed in any rush to leave.
"Nowhere to go," Hoolahan said.
