Mike Stanfield
Senior Vice President of Sales
New Orleans Saints, New Orleans Pelicans
The $560 million renovation of Caesars Superdome seems to mirror the enthusiasm of fans of the home team, who, ahead of the 2024-25 NFL season showed their fierce loyalty to the Saints by once again selling out all premium inventory at the venerable stadium.
“Our wait list is 140,000,” said Mike Stanfield, the team’s senior vice president of sales. “It’s a way of life down here.”
That premium space entails 165 suites and 19,421 club seats, according to Stanfield. It’s standard operating procedure for Stanfield, entering his 25th season with the Saints. During his tenure, the only season in which the Saints did not sell all premium seats was in 2005, after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and the Superdome and forced the team to play its eight regular-season home games at LSU Stadium, the Alamodome and old Giants Stadium at the Meadowlands.
“It’s a good situation to be in, especially for a two-team organization,” said Stanfield, referring to the Saints and the New Orleans Pelicans, both of which are owned by Gayle Benson, widow of the late Tom Benson, who acquired the NFL team in 1985 and the NBA club in 2012. “We have 40 ticket sales people for premium and they also focus on the Pelicans.”
Under Stanfield’s direction, the Saints have surpassed the majority of the club’s ticket sales milestones, and Saints official merchandise has grown annually into one of the NFL’s top sellers, according to the team. Stanfield also supervises the ticket, suite sales and box office personnel on a daily basis, in addition to serving as the food and beverage service liaison.
Stanfield is also deeply involved in the expansion of the corporate sponsorship base for both clubs, and has extended long-term agreements with partners like Caesars Entertainment, Cox Communications, Entergy and Verizon.
As part of the five-year renovations at the Superdome, suites on the 300 level were renovated and expanded with more interior hospitality space. New club lounges include a field-level club sponsored by Mercedes-Benz, supporting 10 rows of club seats, plus a dozen bunker suites that opened three years ago with long term leases and which immediately sold out.
Overall, the upgrades essentially tripled the amount of club lounge space overall, Stanfield said.
“We’ve made it a 2024 building,” Stanfield said. — Ryan Borba / Don Muret
