Gayle Benson went on the record to state she will not sell or relocate the New Orleans Pelicans.

“There is no way that I am going to sell that team -- ever,” Benson said.

“I value the Pelicans as much as I do the Saints, and I don’t look at myself as an owner of the teams,” Benson said. “I feel like it is an asset that I am protecting for the city.”

Benson is in the process of completing a succession plan for both the Pelicans and the New Orleans Saints.

“The owners of both leagues needed to know what we were going to do,” Benson said. “(NFL and NBA officials) have been involved, and they know what it is. It’s all under lock and key and it’s going to be great.”

Benson assumed sole ownership of the teams when her husband, longtime Saints owner Tom Benson, died last year in March. 

“I’ve said it a million times, I don’t know how many more times I can say it, ‘We are committed to the market. We are committed to winning in basketball,'” Lauscha said. “If anyone’s saying anything other than that then that is an agenda that they are pressing. It’s either ill-informed or something that they are trying to push.”