Saints Victory Gives MCCNO One More Reason to Celebrate During Carnival Season
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In the midst of Carnival season, New Orleans had yet another reason to celebrate – the hometown NFL team, the New Orleans Saints, won their first Super Bowl victory on February 7, 2010.
“The Saints’ outstanding performance this season and their subsequent Super Bowl victory was an inspiration the entire nation, as well as the ‘Who Dat Nation’ (as Saints fans are collectively named),” said Bob Johnson, president/general manager of the New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. “Their road to excellence reflects the rise of our city, and we couldn’t be prouder of our hometown team.”
Several Mardi Gras Carnival groups, known as “krewes,” reflected the city’s euphoria over the Saints win by featuring Saints owners, coaches and players in their parades, and in Saints-themed Carnival balls at the Convention Center. Saints star quarterback Drew Brees reigned as King of Bacchus, which paraded 30 Mardi Gras floats through the vast halls of the Convention Center.
The Bacchus and Orpheus parades, held on the Sunday and Monday nights before Mardi Gras, traditionally roll along a five-mile stretch of downtown New Orleans streets, delighting hundreds of thousands of onlookers, before concluding their route inside of the Convention Center for an ‘exclusive’ party for 10,000 of the krewes’ closest friends. During the two-week Mardi Gras season, the Convention Center hosted nine Carnival celebrations, which attracted approximately 36,000 local and out-of-state revelers.
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PHOTO: New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center President/General Manager Bob Johnson and his wife, Kathy Johnson, with The Vince Lombardi Trophy, which is awarded each year to the winning Super Bowl team. |
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About the New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center
With 1.1 million square feet of contiguous exhibit space, an award winning staff and first class amenities, the New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center (MCCNO) is the sixth largest convention center in the nation and a consistent Top 10 host of the largest number of conventions and tradeshows annually. A leading rainmaker of the city’s hospitality industry, MCCNO event activity has produced $39.12 billion in economic impact since its 1985 opening, including $2.19 billion in new tax revenue.
