Duncan: Saints to bring training camp to Irvine, CA

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Irvine, California, has emerged as the favorite to host the New Orleans Saints’ 2024 training camp, multiple sources said this week.

After weeks of exploration, Saints officials have targeted a site at the University of California-Irvine in suburban Los Angeles, where the Los Angeles Rams have conducted their training camps in recent years.

The Saints have held training camp at their Metairie training complex since 2017, but an ongoing construction project on the team’s cafeteria adjacent to the indoor training facility will force the team to move camp elsewhere this year. Both facilities -- the cafeteria and indoor practice field -- are critical for training camp, when rosters expand to 90 players and inclement weather can impact practices.

Saints officials have kept mum publicly about their plans. Saints head coach Dennis Allen said last year that moving the 2024 camp was a possibility because of the renovation project.

"Nothing’s been determined, but yeah, that’s something that we might consider," Allen said in August.

The official start date and practice times for training camp are traditionally announced by the NFL in mid-summer. It remains unclear whether practices in Irvine will be open to the public.

An official announcement is expected to be made after a deal is finalized between the school and team.

Because of the distance — Irvine is 1,900 miles from New Orleans — the Saints will likely submit a request to the NFL to schedule their first preseason game or two on the West Coast before breaking camp and returning to New Orleans for their final preseason game in late August. The Saints are scheduled to play two of their three exhibition games on the road next season.

The 2024 location will be the 12th training camp site in club history and the farthest flung since the Saints trained in San Diego during their inaugural season in 1967. The Saints also spent a week of their 2009 training camp in Oxnard, Calif., where the Dallas Cowboys have trained regularly since 2001.

The Rams have held training camp in Irvine annually since 2016, with the exception of 2020 when they trained in Thousand Oaks. The team announced last year that it plans to move its camp permanently to its new practice facility in Woodland Hills, Calif.

The Saints also considered another site in Orange County, Calif., 3 miles away from Irvine in Costa Mesa, where the Los Angeles Chargers have recently trained, and The Greenbrier hotel in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, where the Saints trained from 2014-2016.

The Saints are familiar with the Orange County area, having conducted joint practices in Costa Mesa against the Chargers last August and in the 2017, 2018 and 2019 preseasons.

In Irvine, the Saints would practice on Crawford Field at the University of California-Irvine Athletics Complex, where the Rams have trained each of the past three years. The site also has served as a practice site for the Broncos, Lions, Chargers and several major colleges over the years. The 12-acre Bermuda grass field is large enough to accommodate five regulation football fields.

In November, the Rams announced their plans to move their headquarters and training complex to Woodland Hills, a neighborhood in Los Angeles in the southwest corner of the San Fernando Valley. The Rams plan to move there from their temporary home in Thousand Oaks before the opening of training camp in July.

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You'd think such renovations would take place when the season ends so it can be ready for the start of the new season.

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"Nothing’s been determined, but yeah, that’s something that we might consider," Allen said in August.

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The Greenbrier hotel in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, where the Saints trained from 2014-2016.

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