Reporter's Notebook: The Saints Come Marching In

NEW ORLEANS, Sept. 25, 2006 — -- New 9.6-acre roof: $32.5 million

NFL contribution: $15 million

Total cost for Superdome rebuilding: $185 million

Showing the world that New Orleans is a place to have fun again? Priceless.

OK, apologies to MasterCard, but that is really the story line here.

In the days after Katrina, the world saw the city of New Orleans and the Superdome, in particular, as a hell on Earth.

Tonight, the Saints will once again come marching in.

The dome, on which a horrified nation's eyes were transfixed during the chaos and horror of Katrina, reopens tonight as the city's beloved football team returns home to play on "Monday Night Football."

This is so much more than a football game.

It is a celebration for a city still fighting to get up after taking a hit harder than any linebacker ever dished out.

I arrived in this town on Sunday, and this game is all anyone is talking about.

For the people who have lived through this year of tragedy, this is much bigger than the last Mardi Gras or anything else that has happened in the last year.

I asked my restaurant hostess Sunday night why it meant so much.

"If they can fix the dome, maybe they can fix my neighborhood," she said.

If only it were that simple.

The dome's quick recovery was the product of the kind of state, federal and private coordination of which this city has seen so little.

Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco signed an executive order last December making rebuilding the Superdome a priority.

The federal government kicked in more than $100 million -- money that could only be used for a public facility like the Superdome.

The NFL kicked in $15 million.

The total tab of $185 million is $17 million more than it cost to build the dome in the early 1970s.