NEW ORLEANS -- The Rummel Raiders football team is about to get a home stadium.

It's been in the planning stages for most of the year, and has caused quite an uproar in the surrounding neighborhoods.

To get the ball rolling on the new stadium, Archdiocesan School Superintendent Father William Maestri announced the appointment of Rummel's first president, Michael Begg, and made it clear his major priority will be getting the stadium built.

Many in the neighborhood have put up a forest of opposition signs, which is not stopping Rummel.

The parish stopped them with a moratorium on any new stadiums, until a planning commission study is finished, probably in October.

But is this fast enough?

"Not really," Maestri said. "We were hoping to have it much sooner than that."

The neighbors' main concern is not the Rummel team itself, but who their opponents might be, one resident said.

"Crime being what it is, we're wary of anybody and everybody who doesn't live in the neighborhood," said Wade Smith, neighborhood resident.

The stadium will be in place by the start of the 2009 season, unless the opposition finds some way to block the project.

Construction of Rummel's new on-campus stadium is expected to begin before the end of the year and cost about $6 million.