Repairs are expected to cost up to $2.5 million.

General manager Jeff Montalbano told the AP that the owners are reluctantly considering selling the building. "This is such a hard thing," he said. "Selling could hurt the symphony, and we want to protect the integrity of what this facility is here for."

The LPO opens an abbreviated season next month at Tulane University. In the short term, the ensemble will also make use of performances spaces at Loyola University and the Pontchartrain Center, a convention center near Armstrong International Airport.

Robert Lyall, the director of New Orleans Opera, told the AP that the city's Mahalia Jackson Theatre and Municipal Auditorium should reopen this year. The Saenger Theatre is badly damaged but is currently being renovated.