Maya Rodriguez / Eyewitness News
NEW ORLEANS-- As the Saints embark on a trip to a playoff game taking place 2,000 miles from New Orleans, some of the team's devoted fans will be right there with them as they take on the San Francisco 49ers.
"This is going to be a tough game for the Saints and they need as much support out there as possible," said Jeff Saint-Saens, who is heading for the city on the Bay.
Saint-Saens snagged a relatively inexpensive flight and plans to crash with relatives in San Francisco, where he'll meet up with some California Who Dats.
"I'm actually meeting up with some friends who live in L.A. and are big Saints fans," he said. "The Who Dat nation comes from everywhere, so we're going to converge in San Francisco."
Bob Bourg of Destination Management, Inc. handles the official Saints travel packages. He said, so far, about 100 people booked packages for the Saints-49ers game through the company.
"San Francisco is a far distance, so it's not like you can drive, like Atlanta," Bourg said. "People have spent a lot of money in the last few weeks on BCS championship and all the other things that gone on during the holidays."
The tickets to the game are not cheap. Online, they range anywhere from $160 to upwards of $3,000. Then, there are the lucky ones, like FeeFee Develle.
"As soon as we beat the Lions, my husband's boss knew we were headed to San Francisco," Develle said.
Her husband's boss secured a suite at Candlestick Park. She and more than 20 others from the New Orleans area were traveling to the game. Develle has never been to San Francisco and plans to make the trip a memorable one.
"We'll do Fisherman's Wharf, I'm sure and ride on what they call their trolley cars," she said. "I can't wait. It's going to be awesome. We're going to bring it home."
As of Thursday afternoon, there were about 3,700 tickets to the game left on StubHub. Travel agents said they are already looking ahead to creating packages of for a possible NFC Championship Game in Green Bay and the Super Bowl in Indianapolis.
