By Mark Lorando, The Times-Picayune
February 05, 2010, 8:13PM
It’s not exactly Poydras Street an hour before a New Orleans Saints game. But walk down Ocean Drive, the South Beach boulevard of Art Deco hotels, bars, restaurants and boutiques that is ground zero for hard-partying Super Bowl fans, and there’s only conclusion the objective observer can reach:
The Saints are the home team Sunday.
“Oh man, it’s 10-to-1 Saints fans out here,” said Mark Wallace, area manager for Fat Tuesday, the daiquiri bar chain that has a location in South Beach. “And I’m talking about what I’m seeing walking around on the street. Inside our place, it’s 100-to-1 Saints fans.
“It’s absolutely crazy. We had planned for a big weekend, but we didn’t expect anything like what we saw Thursday night. And (Friday) is already off the charts.”
What Wallace and others in town have observed, but the event’s organizers are unable to quantify and loathe to acknowledge, is that south Florida is shaping up as perhaps the least neutral Super Bowl site in National Football League history.
It is an indisputable, if immeasurable fact: In bars and nightclubs, RV parks and hotels, Saints fans are blowing out Colts fans. It’s not even close.
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