Back when New Orleans had a decent football team and a city healthy enough to support it, Saints owner Tom Benson used to dance with an umbrella on the sidelines after every Saints win. They called it the “Benson Boogie,” but now, it seems the once-proud owner would rather boogie right out of town.

The Saints franchise is trying to rebuild relationships with businesses to win financial support not only in New Orleans, but also in Gulf Coast Mississippi and west to the Louisiana-Texas border.

Benson, his organization, and the NFL are out in the community, but Benson may not see much of a return. New Orleans’s population has been depleted by nearly half since August, and much of the eastern part of Benson’s market has been affected. New Orleans officials are busy enough trying to work out an evacuation plan should another hurricane make landfall, much less trying to keep the Saints – who rely heavily on government subsidies – in town.

Benson was sparring with New Orleans and Louisiana officials about the condition of the Louisiana Superdome even before Hurricane Katrina made landfall on August 29. In 2001, Benson and the state signed a 10-year agreement that called for Louisiana to give the franchise $186.5 million in subsidies. In 2004 and 2005, Louisiana nearly defaulted on the payments, which were supposed to come from tourism taxes – revenues that were already in short supply after the 9/11 attacks and the hurricane season of 2004.

Because Benson hosted just two preseason games in New Orleans in 2005 and the Saints played just seven “home” games in San Antonio, Benson will receive just 2/9 of the more than $16 million he is due in July. This could create an opening that could spring Benson free sometime in September.

Benson seemed happy in San Antonio and was forced back to New Orleans for the 2006 season by NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue. Will Benson remain in New Orleans beyond 2007?

“Let’s have that conversation in a year,” Benson said outside a meeting room at the NFL’s annual off-season meetings in Lake Buena Vista, Florida on Monday. “New Orleans is going to be a smaller city, but we were losing population before Katrina. We didn’t have any Fortune 500 companies. New Orleans was a declining city. Business and people have been leaving for a long time. I don’t think the NBA wants to stay in New Orleans.”

The NFL is contributing $20 million to help get the Superdome ready for the upcoming season. “The Saints and the NFL are better off not going to the federal government for help, or we would still be waiting,” he said. “No one has poured more money into New Orleans business than the NFL.”

Benson is going to host games in New Orleans, but it’s quite evident he wants to be somewhere else. One NFL executive who sat in on an informational session in which Benson’s granddaughter explained how the team was trying to re-establish brand in the marketplace said, “who are they kidding?” The economic reality is that New Orleans and the Gulf Coast are still years away from financial viability.

The Saints plan to return to the Superdome to host the Atlanta Falcons on September 24. But if Benson and the NFL can’t make a go of New Orleans, what are the options? Tagliabue, who announced his retirement last week, has never been impressed with San Antonio. Likewise, San Antonio and Bexar County, Tex., seem more interested in funding a baseball stadium for the Florida Marlins than putting money into the Alamodome to bring the 13-year-old facility up to NFL standards.

For its part, the NFL wants to return to Los Angeles, but so far there is no city or public money available to rebuild the Los Angeles Coliseum or build a new facility in Anaheim. The San Diego Chargers and San Francisco 49ers want new stadiums and the Oakland Raiders’ lease could end in 2010.

But there is a dark horse candidate that could take Benson or an NFL team within two years: Toronto. Canada’s largest city has a stadium – the Skydome – though it would need extensive renovations to be up to NFL standards. There is also a lot of money in Toronto, which is the communications capital of Canada. The NFL is looking to expand its brand internationally and Toronto would probably be an easy sell. The only potential detractor would be Buffalo Bills owner Ralph Wilson, who see a lot of business come down from Toronto and southern Ontario.

“Toronto is a great city,” Denver Broncos owner Pat Bowlen, who is Canadian, said. “I am not moving there, but in my mind it would be a very attractive place for an NFL team. There is no question in my mind Toronto could support a team. There’s about 9 million people within two [to] three hours of downtown Toronto. There are a lot of avid sports fans”

There are, of course, more than a handful of obstacles for the NFL to overcome before Benson or any other owner could go to Toronto. Canada blocked the World Football League from setting up shop in Toronto in 1974 in an effort to protect the Canadian Football League. But that was 32 years ago. There is also the currency difference between the United States and Canada.

Major League Baseball, the NBA, and the NHL have had some financial difficulties in Canada with the Montreal Expos, Vancouver Grizzlies, Quebec Nordiques, and Winnipeg Jets, but Toronto is the financial capital of Canada.

The Canadian government has allowed the NFL Network channel space on its cable systems and the CFL has been lobbying NFL teams to place development players in its league instead of sending those players to NFL Europe. Windsor, Ontario, which is south of Detroit, played a major role as a secondary host city for this year’s Super Bowl.

The U.S. Congress might not look kindly toward the NFL deciding that Toronto is a more attractive city than San Antonio or Los Angeles. Still, the league has to look ahead and Benson may be having a conversation at next year’s off-season meetings that starts with the question: “how are things going in your new city?”