NEW ORLEANS — All it took was one day to leave no doubt, the Sugar Bowl and Superdome are primed and ready for the end of this college football season.

This city will host the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 1 and present the Bowl Championship Series national championship game to a nationwide television audience six days later.

The Superdome was one of the main stories in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which is commonly referred to here as “The Storm.”

More than 20, 000 people rode out Katrina’s high winds, rains and floods in the Superdome, and by the time the roof blew away, the once-proud arena that has featured some of the greatest NCAA Final Fours, as well as historic football games, was the Super Dump.

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The Sugar Bowl came back here last year after a one-year hiatus in Atlanta, but there was some question as to how prepared it and this city would be with such a short turnaround, and reports of a high murder rate regularly make the news.

So, a couple of past presidents and current officers of the Football Writers Association of America were invited for a Superdome tour and interview period, along with Bill Hancock of the BCS and Charles Bloom of the SEC.

Admittedly, the red carpet was rolled out, and no one knows how to do that better than folks in this city.

The Big Easy has always been a special event city, and while it was knocked down by the storm, folks were not knocked out.

Football has been one of the passions and lifelines of this city, and it is not an accident the Sugar Bowl was chosen to be part of the BCS.

Paul Hoolahan, Sugar Bowl chief executive officer, Jeff Hundley, chief operating officer, and Ray Jeandron, president, wasted no time in making everyone feel welcome with a dinner at Galatoire’s.

Thursday was the tour of the Superdome and a Marriott hotel that will serve as the press hotel during both bowls. Also, there was a visit with Stephen Perry, president and CEO of the New Orleans Metropolitan Convention and Tourists Bureau.

OK, the tour of the stadium actually happened after a great lunch at Dickie Brennan’s, but then, this city is as famous for its food as it is jazz and football.

The Superdome is the oldestexisting facility of its type.

It opened in 1975, and it was due some work even before the storm. But after Katrina the decision was made to refurbish instead of implode.

A new venue would have cost more than $ 400 million.

Sugar Bowl officials set a reconstruction deadline of eight months in order to be open by the New Orleans Saints’ first home game. Phase I was finished in time for the Sept. 25 home opener, and that Monday night turned into a very emotional telecast.

Assistant general manager Danny Vincens explained what happened in simple terms.

“With the top off, it was like somebody turned the dome upside down and shook everything out,” he said. “Then we practically started all over.”

The roof had to be repaired first, and after that the dome was literally overhauled top to bottom.

It is state of the art. Like new.

The Superdome is super again.

And the crime reports are a little misleading.

“The problems are not happening in the French Quarter, downtown or at the dome,” Perry said. “Our visitors are as safe here now as ever, maybe safer, unless they try and buy drugs at 3 in the morning in the wrong neighborhood.

“ In fact, we now realize how fortunate we were before the storm, and everyone is working closer to make it a better place than it was.”

Perry mentioned two specific ways.

“We have a different way of dealing with trash in the Quarter now,” he said. “You don’t see it anymore, and our police department is better and they work with us. When we have large groups in, they put more policemen on duty in our tourist areas.”

New Orleans isn’t all the way back, but it is on its way, and the two major bowl games will be festivals in their own right.