New Orleans Boom & Blackout

This insider’s account of the 2013 Super Bowl blackout cuts across the city’s cultural landscape to reveal what change has meant for New Orleanians.

Hosting the Super Bowl was set to be a major event for New Orleans. Not only was it a commercial boon for the city, but it would also be the first game played in the Superdome since it had been used as a shelter during Hurricane Katrina. As the big game approached, the entire city was determined to present its best face to the world.

Politicians, business leaders and tourism officials declared the rise of the "new New Orleans.” But as game day neared, the preparations revealed the strains of the post-Katrina recovery and the contrasts of the heralded renaissance. The watershed moment culminated in darkness when the lights went out in the Superdome.

In this revealing portrait of the breathless months before the game, author Brian W. Boyles unearths the conflicts, ambitions and secret histories that defined the city as it prepared for Super Bowl XLVII.