Economist: Saints win great, but little financial impact

People around Louisiana are thrilled with the New Orleans Saints' first-ever Super Bowl victory, but the game won't have a major influence on the city or state, an LSU economist says. "This is a great win for the Saints, the city of New Orleans and the state of Louisiana, but it's not going to balance the city or state budget at all," says Jim Richardson. Richardson says Mitch Landrieu's landslide win Saturday in the New Orleans mayoral race will have, by comparison, a long-term impact on the city since it indicates there will be a more robust recovery effort. "Winning the Super Bowl is great, but to show people New Orleans is an up-to-date, modern, growing city is hard work," he says. One positive event that may come out of the Super Bowl is representing New Orleans as a city where people of all races and backgrounds have united around a team. "That’s a powerful image," Richardson says.

Andy Gutowski, partner and creative director with Object 9, a local marketing firm, says it's difficult to measure the marketing impact of the Super Bowl because the event is just so large. But the national exposure has caused Americans to rally around the Saints. "People have to be feeling better about coming to New Orleans," he says. One of the biggest effects is the goodwill generated by Drew Brees and Coach Sean Payton. "Both of those men are such class acts," Gutowski says. To keep the goodwill and camaraderie surrounding the Super Bowl win going, Gov. Bobby Jindal has declared this week as "Saints Week" statewide. "The Saints played for more than just themselves; they played for a city and a state that has looked to the team for hope through difficult times," Jindal says in the proclamation.—Timothy Boone

Super Bowl merchandise flying off store shelves

Saints fans were camped out at local sporting goods stores to buy the official Super Bowl championship merchandise when it went on sale today. "Sales have gone psychotically well," says Tiffani Joffrion with Dick's Sporting Goods at the Mall of Louisiana. The store opened at 7 a.m. to sell official Super Bowl merchandise, and people were lined up waiting to enter. Dick's got in shipments of more than 2,000 Super Bowl championship T-shirts and 1,500 caps; by mid-afternoon, Joffrion says, the gear was "just about gone."

Similar strong sales were reported at Academy Sports on Airline Highway. Wayne Cooper, store director, says nearly 1,200 caps and 2,400 T-shirts have been sold. "It's been outstanding," Cooper says. Store sales were double what was seen when LSU won the BCS Championship game in 2008, he says. For a Business Report story about sales of Saints merchandise and the Baton Rouge company cranking out many of those T-shirts, click here. —Timothy Boone

Biggest-ever TV audience tunes in to see Saints’ Super win

The Super Bowl was watched by more than 106 million people, surpassing the 1983 finale of M-A-S-H to become the most-watched program in television history. The Nielsen Co. estimated today that 106.5 million people watched the New Orleans Saints upset the Indianapolis Colts. That beats the M-A-S-H finale, which had 105.97 million viewers in an era when there were fewer television sets than now. Compelling story lines involving the city of New Orleans and its recovery from Hurricane Katrina and the quest for a second Super Bowl ring for Indianapolis quarterback Peyton Manning propelled viewers’ interest. The game also obliterated the previous record audience for a Super Bowl: last year's game between Arizona and Pittsburgh, which 98.7 million people watched. The top-rated market this year was New Orleans, where 82% of homes with a TV set in use tuned in to the game.

Chas Roemer calls for K-12 education overhaul

Chas Roemer, a member of the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, challenged the scholastic establishment to make Louisiana the leader in virtual education without raising the budget, and he lashed out at BESE for bureaucratic inaction. “The politics is so thick you can barely breathe,” he says of board meetings filled with teachers- union members, school district staff and others with a “vested interest” in keeping the system from changing too much. Roemer outlined his ideas for overhauling K-12 education at the Baton Rouge Press Club today. Those ideas include giving parents a choice to pull students from failing schools, using student-based budgeting to make costs transparent and focusing on site-based management to empower individual school staff to effect change and become accountable for student success. “The Saints won the Super Bowl because they expected to win,” he says. “Too many don’t believe our kids can learn. If they don’t believe in the kids, why would the kids believe in themselves?” He also called for creating a separate board to approve charter schools, 77 of which are operating in the state, as an alternative to taking over underperforming institutions, 32 of which were seized in the past couple years. “There are consequences for failure,” Roemer says. Read the full version of this story here.—Todd R. Brown

New riverfront project tied to River Center expansion

A public space that could host crawfish boils and other outdoor events is part of the River Center expansion project on which the Downtown Development District Commission will get an update Tuesday morning. The “new riverfront project” listed on the commission’s agenda is a “shade structure” that would provide a social aspect to the outside of the River Center, according to Davis Rohrer, head of the DDD. “If you wanted to have a crawfish boil, you’d have a place on the riverfront that you can actually see the river and experience the river,” he says of the amenity, which would supply water and lighting hookups. The Metro Council is set to vote Wednesday on appropriating $12.4 million for the River Center expansion, which is planned ahead of 2012 conventions for the U.S. Bowling Congress and the International Planetarium Society. Rohrer will discuss the project at the 8 a.m. meeting Tuesday at the Kean Miller Conference Center in One American Place.—Todd R. Brown

Moses leaving WAFB for Nashville

WAFB reporter Caroline Moses is leaving the local CBS affiliate to take a position with WSMV, the NBC affiliate station in her hometown of Nashville, Tenn. The capital correspondent and investigative reporter distinguished herself in the local TV market during her three-year tenure here with hard-hitting stories on government waste and fraud. Moses says leaving the market and the top-rated station here was a difficult decision, but she wanted to be closer to her family, all of whom still live in the Nashville area. It was also a good career move: Nashville is the 29th-largest TV market in the U.S. compared to 95th ranked Baton Rouge. At WSMV, Moses will be joining the I-team of investigative reporters. Her last day on the air at WAFB is Thursday.

Jindal to pick interim lieutenant governor

Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu is headed to New Orleans City Hall, leaving behind his job as second-in-line to the governor, a vacancy that several politicos eagerly seek to fill. Before anyone can run for the job, though, Gov. Bobby Jindal will make a temporary appointment to the post—sometime before Landrieu takes office as New Orleans’ mayor on May 3. After that appointment, lawmakers will decide whether they want to abolish the job entirely, as the Jindal administration is proposing for the upcoming legislative session. Jindal’s chief of staff, Timmy Teepell, says the governor is meeting with people interested in becoming the interim replacement for Landrieu. Teepell says Jindal is looking for an appointee who isn't interested in running for the job. Several potential candidates have been mentioned for the lieutenant governor position, including Natural Resources Secretary Scott Angelle, former Gov. Kathleen Blanco, Senate President Joel Chaisson II, Secretary of State Jay Dardenne, state Rep. Rick Gallot, state Rep. Mike Michot and state Sen. Willie Mount.

Executive spotlight: Charles Schudmak

Harvesting and transport of Louisiana’s sugar cane crop normally lasts from early October until late December. So for Charles Schudmak, COO at Cora Texas Manufacturing, the fall is “all work and no play.” Not that he has much time for play in general, with a young boy at home and another on the way. Downtime usually means family time for the self-described “homebody.”

“We will watch a movie by the fire in the winter or spend the day in the backyard by the pool in the summer,” he says. “We do a lot of family activities and spend a few weekends on the coast.” For the full Q&A with Schudmak, click here. Here is a sample.

If you could have any job other than your own, what would it be?

“I would like to have a worldwide hunting and fishing charter company. It would be a great adventure to travel the world for the best sport and set up camp, but I don’t think I could handle all the time away from my family.”

Business Report planner: Department of Revenue gives info on school tax breaks … Roemer presents lecture on Lincoln ... Women in Business offers entrepreneurship advice

Tuesday — The Louisiana Department of Revenue will hold a community forum to discuss the new tax deduction for school tuition and supplies at 6 p.m. at 8585 Archives Ave.

Thursday — Former Gov. Buddy Roemer will give a lecture about President Abraham Lincoln at 6 p.m. at the Old Governor's Mansion. The event, entitled "Lincoln: The Politician," is sponsored by the Foundation for Historical Louisiana and the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission. Admission is free for FHL members and $10 for guests.

Feb. 19 — LSU’s Women in Business program will hold a brown-bag lunch from 11:15 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Ione Burden Conference Center. The event, hosted by Carol Carter of the Stephenson Entrepreneurship Institute in LSU's E.J. Ourso College of Business, will discuss understanding and developing your core competencies. Attendees are urged to bring their lunch. Admission is $15. To register, click here.

Feb. 22 — A seminar on doing business in the Caribbean will be held at 1 p.m. in LSU's Louisiana Business & Technology Center. The event is sponsored by the LBTC, the Louisiana Small Business Development Center/Technology Center at LSU and the U.S. Export Assistance Center in New Orleans. The event will discuss key Caribbean business markets and the best sectors for U.S. exports. Admission is free, but participants are urged to register at lsbdc.org.

For the full list of upcoming events, click here.