KLUP Post 2/5/2008 Tom Benson and Intercollegiate Athletics

New Orleans Saints owner wants to gain positive yardage for the Alamo City, John Thurman of Heart of Texas Realty with Today's San Antonio Business Journal News Feature. Business Journal writer Scott Bailey, reported that long time business leader and owner of the New Orleans Saints, Tom Benson, is working to remove some question marks attached to this city's football future. Tom Benson believes that the key that opens the door to a future filled with an array of intercollegiate and professional athletic programs is the upstart University of the Incarnate Word football program set to begin in 2009 in a stadium that will bear Benson's name. UIW President Lou Agnese and Tom Benson have been talking about a football program at UIW for a number of years but the community and internal support at UIW was lacking. However, when Benson's New Orleans Saints came to the Alamo City after Katrina, UIW's administrators noticed the support the community had for the program. The next hurdle however was finding an underwriter for the stadium. Tom Benson underwrote the $6 Million needed for stadium so construction could begin. The UIW Cardinals will play their first season starting in September of 2009. I'm John Thurman of Heart of Texas Realty.