NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The state fee that oversees the Superdome and the New Orleans Saints are at odds over the membership’s monetary contributions to renovations scheduled for completion earlier than the stadium hosts the subsequent Tremendous Bowl.

Louisiana Stadium and Exposition District board members have been knowledgeable by workers at a board assembly Wednesday that the Saints have fallen $11.4 million behind on their share of funds towards the renovations since making their final installment in December.

Workforce executives, nonetheless, stated later that the membership has been withholding cost due to the fee’s failure to offer requested “documentation.”

“We’ve got reached out to the LSED on quite a few events,” the Saints stated in a written assertion offered by Greg Bensel, the membership’s senior vice chairman of communications, broadcasting and group and authorities relations.

“When the passable documentation is offered, a cost will instantly be licensed,” the assertion stated. “Sadly, it was disappointing to listen to the feedback popping out of the LSED assembly at the moment that the crew isn’t performing in good religion, when, in actual fact, we really feel the other is true.”

The Saints didn’t specify what documentation they have been lacking, and LSED officers acknowledged on Wednesday evening that they “don’t perceive what ‘documentation’ the Saints have been referring to.”

“The Saints haven’t disputed a single bill or requested any further documentation regarding a pay request, together with the present unpaid invoices totaling $11.4 million,” the LSED wrote in a response to the Saints’ assertion. “It might be useful to the method if the Saints have been extra particular and recognized what ‘documentation’ they’re referencing.”

The sum of money at challenge is small relative to the greater than $530 million scope of the renovation mission. However the crew’s delay in paying might trigger money stream issues and hinder the LSED’s skill to finish remaining work — except the state is ready to discover an extra funding supply as a stop-gap measure till the deadlock with the crew is resolved.

The LSED, in the meantime, questioned whether or not the Saints may be delaying cost to achieve leverage in negotiations for a brand new Superdome lease after the present one expires in 2030.

“That could be a fully separate and impartial settlement,” the LSED acknowledged. “There is no such thing as a authorized foundation to withhold funds underneath the Superdome Renovation Challenge Improvement Settlement based mostly on efforts to barter a longer-term extension.”

Most renovations have been accomplished. About $58 million in work stays, with the Saints accountable for about $41 million. The Saints have dedicated to spending about $200 million towards Superdome renovations, the crew assertion stated.

The mission has included overhauls of stadium entrances, concourses and kitchens; set up of hovering new escalators; and the alternative of older ramps with newer staircases and elevators. A lot of it was accomplished even earlier than final season.

Remaining work is anticipated to be accomplished earlier than the beginning of the 2024 NFL season, practically six months earlier than the practically 50-year-old stadium hosts the Tremendous Bowl on Feb. 9.

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