updated 1:57 p.m. ET Oct. 23, 2005

NEW ORLEANS - New Orleans Saints owner Tom Benson may have decided his team's future. And it doesn't look like it's in New Orleans.

San Antonio is the team's likely home for 2006, while Los Angeles is the preferred destination after that, ESPN reported.

The NFL could still include New Orleans as a Super Bowl site when the city is reconstructed, and expansion might even be a possibility, but that's 10 to 15 years away, ESPN reported.

On Friday, Benson said he hadn't made any decisions regarding the Saints future. That came two days after New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said talk of moving the Saints in the wake of Hurricane Katrina was a shameful act of disrespect to fans who supported the franchise for nearly four decades.

If the Saints relocate to San Antonio or elsewhere, New Orleans has only a slim chance of ever seeing another NFL team, according to a major sports consultant.

Marc Ganis, a consultant from SportsCorp Ltd. in Chicago who served as a consultant to Cleveland in 1996 when that city's NFL team moved to Baltimore, told ESPN that Nagin should make a play to hold on to the Saints no matter what Benson has planned.

"If I were advising Mayor Nagin, I would have given him the same advice that someone should have given the mayors of Baltimore and Houston," Ganis told ESPN. "Hold on to what you have. Do everything you have to hold on to what you've got, because there's no certainty to what will come next or what will come at all."

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But Benson said he wanted to “make it clear that no decisions have been made regarding our future plans,” and added that none would be made until the 2005 season is over.

“There are many factors that will affect the future location of our team,” Benson said. “That is also true of many other New Orleans-based companies that are faced with deciding their future homes.”

On Oct. 30, the Saints will play the first of four scheduled home games in Louisiana — all in LSU’s Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge — because of damage to the Louisiana Superdome.

"It's not the people," Ganis told ESPN. "It's not the individuals who show up at the game and buy the tickets. The people are great. It's the business, or lack of, that's the primary factor. For whatever reason, the area simply does not have many strong and large businesses."

Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco will be there and said she intends to meet with NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue, who also plans to attend.

“The NFL recognizes the loyalty to the Saints shown by the state of Louisiana and the city of New Orleans,” Blanco said. “NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue personally told me that when I spoke to him a few days ago and he is supportive of the New Orleans recovery. ... We are ready to meet with Saints representatives and the NFL leadership to help make their transition back to New Orleans certain.”

Superdome officials said Thursday that the stadium should be largely cleaned up and ready for the Saints to play at least some of their games there in 2006.

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