A Hornets Oklahoma City Reader

Article 01

Official NBA Announcement

9.21.2005

http://www.nba.com/hornets/multimedia/ok_city_050921.html

Hornets to Play in Oklahoma City

NEW YORK, Sept. 21 -- NBA Commissioner David Stern announced today that Oklahoma City will be home to the New Orleans Hornets for the 2005-06 season, playing host to 35 regular season games. The team will also play six regular season games in Louisiana.

“The devastation of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region has made it necessary for the Hornets to move to a temporary location for the upcoming season,” Stern said. “Fortunately, the Hornets have received a gracious invitation from Mayor Mick Cornett and the business leaders and citizens of Oklahoma City to play their home games in the Ford Center, a first-class facility that we hope to fill with new Hornets fans this season.”

The team will also play six home games at the Pete Maravich Center on the campus of Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.

“It was important to the Hornets and the NBA that we maintain a presence in Louisiana in anticipation of a return to New Orleans next season,” Stern said. "Few American cities have experienced the level of tragedy as Oklahoma City,” Mayor Cornett said. “I think for that reason our community has a heightened sensitivity for those impacted by Hurricane Katrina. We accept that we are the best solution to solve one of the many problems and pledge our best efforts to support the Hornets."

“Like so many businesses and families uprooted by Hurricane Katrina, the Hornets were forced to leave New Orleans while the city recovers from this tragedy,” Hornets owner George Shinn said. “Fortunately, Oklahoma City is an ideal home for this season and we greatly appreciate the good will shown by Mayor Cornett and the local business community. We will play a majority of our games in Oklahoma City this season with great pride and gratitude, but remain devoted to our home and have set our sights on returning to a rebuilt and vibrant New Orleans for the 2006-07 season.”

Ford Center, built in 2002, is Oklahoma City’s state-of-the-art sports and entertainment showcase. The center is home to the Central Hockey League’s (CHL) Oklahoma City Blazers and the Arena Football League’s (AF2) Oklahoma City Yard Dawgz, and is designed to host major concerts, sporting events, family shows, ice shows and numerous other world-class entertainment experiences.

The 586,000 square-foot facility seats 19,6745 on four seating levels and features 3,380 club seats, seven party suites and 49 private suites. Ford Center is owned by the City of Oklahoma City, a city that has already welcomed thousands of evacuees from the Gulf region. The facility is the premier project of Oklahoma City’s visionary capital improvement program (MAPS) to finance new and upgraded sports, entertainment, cultural and convention facilities with a one-cent sales tax.

Ford Center is an SMG-managed facility. Headquartered in Philadelphia, SMG is the world’s leading private facility management company. With 168 Facilities, SMG controls over 1.4 million entertainment seats worldwide, and over nine million square feet of exhibit space.

Article 1

ESPN

11.02.2005

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/columns/
story?columnist=stein_marc&id=2211077

Everything's A-OK for Hornets on Opening Night

By Marc Stein

ESPN.com

Archive

OKLAHOMA CITY -- It's a town where the fans cling to the rather scholastic notion of standing until the home team scores a basket.

It's a place where the coach finds himself calling plays with hand signals sometimes because it's a lot louder inside than his team is used to.

It's a college community trying to shed its small-town stigma, but maybe that's why, for at least one night, the youngest starting backcourt tandem of all time looked so comfortable in the pros.

The NBA in OKC?

It's the address where the Hornets, after an evening that bordered on storybook, can say they've never lost.

Which was a pretty satisfying claim to make, however long it lasts, after everything this franchise has lost.

"In a million years I never thought it was going to be like this," said Louisiana's own P.J. Brown, reveling in the Hornets' 93-67 rout of the Sacramento Kings in the game that officially made them the New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets.

"Can't paint a prettier picture."

It was hard to argue after Brown, known to his teammates as "Jurassic," rumbled for his first 20-point, 10-rebound game in more than two years. It sparked the NBA's victims of Hurricane Katrina to the largest Opening Night margin of victory in franchise history, and an understandable round of post-game exaggeration.

If ever a team was entitled to get carried away about a 1-0 start, it's this one.

Brown is the only Hornet with the veteran savvy to quickly tack on the "it's only one game" disclaimer, but even the 36-year-old couldn't conceal a broad smile when a familiar face from New Orleans jokingly asked if this was the start of his MVP drive.

Yup. It was that kind of everything-went-right night in this home-away-from-home opener. The Hornets received an unexpected boost when the Kings' flight in Monday had to return to Sacramento because of mechanical trouble, necessitating the use of another plane and delaying the visitors' arrival until just six hours before Tuesday's tipoff. The Kings indeed looked like a tired team and the Hornets, relying on Brown's steadiness and a relentless push from two two 20-year-olds -- with J.R. Smith and rookie Chris Paul forming the youngest starting backcourt in NBA history -- never stopped running.

The crowd, meanwhile, never stopped roaring once it soaked in a jazzy instrumental rendition of the national anthem by former Oklahoma star and NBA veteran Wayman Tisdale. One Oklahoma City newspaper columnist opined in Tuesday's paper that the NBA's arrival finally made this an actual city and, judging by the noise from a sellout of 19,163 at the Ford Center, it means a lot to the locals to be in the big leagues.

"These crowds are going to be like college basketball crowds," said Desmond Mason, the Hornets' newly acquired swingman from Oklahoma State. "It's unlike anything else you'll see at an NBA game."

Yet even the player who knows this terrain best found it a bit strange to be playing a real NBA game in the land of collegiate football. The proximity to the rest of the Southwest Division and the presence of a relatively new NBA-level arena were lures that, for the league and the Hornets, made Oklahoma City an obvious choice to take the Hornets in, but Mason was openly stunned to be back.

"My wife and I have had that conversation a few times already," said Mason, who married a former Oklahoma State soccer player. "I definitely never figured I'd play basketball here again -- period -- much less an NBA game."

Mason wasn't alone. Hornets owner George Shinn recalled, as he was sorting through the options just weeks ago, how shocked he was when NBA commissioner David Stern suggested Oklahoma City as the Hornets' relocation destination.

"My exact words were, 'Oklahoma where?' " Shinn said. "I said, 'You've got to be kidding me, David. Do they have an arena?' I knew nothing about Oklahoma City."

The locals must have thought the same when Shinn addressed them before the opening tip. In his attempts to give thanks for the warm reception his franchise has received, from Oklahoma City and Oklahoma at large, Shinn temporarily forgot where he was and said, "From the state of ... this great state."

The team's start was a bit shaky, too, with a flurry of empty possessions and nearly three scoreless minutes before Brown finally allowed the fans to sit with a putback. Yet you could forgive the stumbles on this night, all the way up to the much-maligned owner. It's a team with an average age under 25, and no team has a manual to turn to for how to handle all this. How many professional sports teams have ever been forced to move by a natural disaster?

As Scott noted, it's impossible for the Hornets -- with an OKC patch on their jerseys and shooting shirts -- to forget that they're not where they're supposed to be. Impossible even when they're throttling a perennial 50-win team to earn a Opening Night share of the Southwest lead with San Antonio.

"I don't think that's going to be done until we know if we're going to be here another year, or if we're going to be here for good," Scott conceded. "I don't think you can let it go until you know exactly what's going on. You're still wondering what the league's going to do. You're still wondering about New Orleans, how quickly the city can rebuild. There's still a lot of questions that probably all of us have."

Said Mason, refusing to let his popularity in the area encroach on his newcomer status: "I've tried not to ask anybody about [New Orleans]. The guys seem to be happy right now. They're moving on. I'm not going to reopen that wound by asking about it."

Those wounds, of course, aren't going away soon no matter what the Hornets try, with so much of their future unclear. Don't forget that there were plenty of questions about this franchise's viability in New Orleans, as well as its management and roster choices, even before Katrina struck.

You can understand, then, why they couldn't resist this unexpected opportunity to trumpet their new home as First Place, USA.

They won't start 2-29 again, like last season, but the Hornets are realistic enough to know that baby-faced rebuilding teams can't count on a lot of nights like these.

"Everybody is just happy to have us here," Scott said of the OKC welcome. Then, only half-joking, Scott added: "After about three or four months, they might be saying something different."

Said Brown: "I never thought I'd have to leave [Louisiana], especially in these type of circumstances. I'm rooted down there, that's home. But this is starting to feel like home. I definitely want this team to go back to New Orleans, but the region has a long way to go before they even talk about us or the Saints coming back.

"It's a very unique situation, but I'm going to represent two cities."

Article 3

Philadelphia Inquirer

11.6.2005

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/
sports/13091102.htm

Top

Back

On the NBA | Oklahoma City should remain Hornets' nest

By David Aldridge

Inquirer Staff Writer

Russ Granik, the NBA's deputy commissioner, recalled the phone call from Oklahoma City mayor Mick Cornett in the days immediately following Hurricane Katrina's making landfall in New Orleans in September.

"We've had tragedy here," Granik recalled Cornett as saying. "We see what's happening in New Orleans. We can help."

And so it came to pass that the Hornets temporarily moved lock, stock and barrel to Oklahoma City, the nation's 45th-largest television market - and a place that knows from tragedy, having gone through the domestic terrorist attack of April 19, 1995, that killed 168 people.

And you know what?

The Hornets should stay there - permanently.

A sports team provides a diversion from reality. In the specific case of New Orleans, it represents a connection to what used to be, providing some semblance of normalcy for a city that has been turned upside down. Surely, the citizens of the city need the team now more than ever.

But what happened in New Orleans trumps standard operating procedure. We are not talking about people who need to take a load off after a hard day's work; we are talking about people without work - and without homes, without schools, and without much hope.

The infrastructure of a city - a tax base, corporate dollars, public transportation, basic emergency services, a middle class with discretionary income - is something New Orleans is currently not capable of providing.

In New Orleans, people have better - and more important - things to do with their time and money than go to games.

Oklahoma City's powerful are trying to do everything not to be viewed as taking advantage of New Orleans.

"Certainly, we're respectful of the series of events that led to the relocation," Cornett said Tuesday, when a sellout crowd of 19,163 filled the Ford Center for Hornets' improbable 93-67 rout of the Sacramento Kings in their regular-season opener.

"But from Oklahoma City's standpoint, this is an opportunity to prove that we're a major-league city. We're excited about it. At the end of this year, the sports world's going to have an opinion. Can Oklahoma City support a major-league franchise? We intend for that answer to be a solid yes."

Support has come from all economic sectors of the city, which is stocked with big companies in the oil and energy businesses as well as such companies as Lopez Foods, one of the country's largest Latino-owned firms. The Hornets have already sold more than 10,000 season tickets in Oklahoma City, putting them in the top 10 league-wide.

"We view it as the ultimate real-time test," said local businessman Clay Bennett, one of the movers and shakers who coalesced the local business community around the Hornets.

"The one great thing about this process was that it didn't require a sales pitch," he said.

The truth of the matter is that it was a tough go for the Hornets in New Orleans before the hurricane. Like Sacramento, Calif.; San Antonio, Texas; and Memphis - and Oklahoma City, for that matter - New Orleans might be too small to support two major-league teams. The more established Saints have four decades of history in New Orleans, and the benefits to a city of having an NFL team, frankly, are greater than those of having an NBA team.

(Along those lines, shouldn't the NFL dip into its stadium building fund and publicly commit to helping build a new football stadium in New Orleans that would assure that the Saints remain there? The league has made untold millions hosting Super Bowls in the Big Easy over the years. It's time to repay that debt.)

No city will support a team with an 18-64 record - the one the Hornets had last season - for long, and Oklahoma City is surely no different. The Hornets are going to continue to be bad for a lot longer than this season. But geographically and financially, it makes sense to leave them in Oklahoma City. Equally important, people in the city are uniquely capable of understanding the pain of loss and shared suffering.

"They were sympathetic because of what they went through," Hornets owner George Shinn said last week. "They understood, and they stepped up. They made it clear to the NBA when they called that [they were not] trying to steal the team. They just want [the Hornets] to have a safe place to land."

And any notion that Oklahoma City isn't a major-league town evaporates the moment you reach the corner of 5th and Robinson.

That's where the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building used to be, before Timothy McVeigh's act of madness reduced much of it to rubble.

Now a wondrous memorial to the dead - and the living - has risen from the ashes. And there is a nearby museum that details every second of that horrible day and many of the seconds that have come and gone since. There also is a serene outdoor mall with a reflecting pool that connects one end of the memorial to the other. There are 168 chairs lined up on one side of the memorial, one for each person killed in the explosion.

And on each wall these words are engraved:

We Come Here To Remember Those Who Were Killed, Those Who Survived, And Those Changed Forever. May All Who Leave Here Know The Impact Of Violence. May This Memorial Offer Comfort, Strength, Peace, Hope And Serenity.

Oh, Oklahoma City is big-league, all right.

Article 4

ESPN Insider

11.7.2005

no link available

Top

Back

By Chris Sheridan

The franchise formerly known as the New Orleans Hornets considers Oklahoma City its temporary home, with an emphasis on the word temporary.

But owner George Shinn has an option to stay in Oklahoma City for an extra season, and it's already becoming clear that the team's temporary home might be more viable than New Orleans as an NBA city.

Shinn and NBA commissioner David Stern both spoke at length Thursday to ESPN.com regarding the future of one of the league's most troubled franchises, allowing for an early handicapping of what's ahead for the Hornets.

Stern and Shinn both sounded committed to returning to New Orleans, though Shinn made the point that the ultimate decision on the team's future rests with the league's board of governors.

"It'll depend on the circumstances, and I'll have to wait and see," Shinn told ESPN.com. "But our goal is to come back. I'm working closely with David Stern on this, and if you know David Stern like I know David Stern, you don't mess with the pope."

Shinn said he wants to do his part to rebuild New Orleans, but he has questions about how much the population base might shrink. He has already paid out more than $4 million in refunds to ticket holders who wanted their money back.

Shinn also brought up the story of a friend from the New Orleans banking community who moved to Houston after Hurricane Katrina and subsequently decided to make his relocation permanent.

"People in New Orleans accepted us in a positive way, and I have to return the favor. We're going to do our part to make that city come back," Shinn said.

But speaking of the viability of Oklahoma City as an NBA city, Shinn couldn't contain his enthusiasm.

"This is a unique place and a really well-kept secret. I've been extremely impressed," Shinn said. "It reminds me a lot of the early days in Charlotte."

Shinn said the team has sold the equivalent of more than 10,000 full season-ticket packages in Oklahoma City, ranking the Hornets among the league's top eight teams in that category. Last season, in New Orleans, the Hornets ranked last in the league in attendance.

Another hint that the Hornets are quickly warming to their temporary digs came when coach Byron Scott described the atmosphere at the team's home opener as resembling that of a playoff game in Sacramento, where Arco Arena is considered by many the league's foremost home court.

So what happens if Oklahoma City proves itself to be a better NBA city than New Orleans?

"It's unfair to New Orleans to even raise that issue," Stern said. "They are the New Orleans Hornets, and that's our intention. The issue can't be how well they're supported somewhere else. The issue is whether New Orleans is ready to have them back. If they are, they'll be back."

For now, it appears the Hornets have four options: Staying in Oklahoma City for just one season, staying for two seasons, playing a bifurcated home schedule splitting time between the two cities, or trying to make a permanent move to Oklahoma City.

Based upon Insider's reading of Shinn's and Stern's comments, and the overall situation as of Friday, here are the morning line odds on all four scenarios:

Option 1: Play in Oklahoma City for only one season. Odds: 15-1.

Shinn does not have to decide on his second-year option until July, but Stern would like him to make a decision by January. Given the uncertainty over how quickly reconstruction and rebuilding will take place in New Orleans, the earlier timetable enhances Oklahoma City's chances of keeping the team for a second season.

Option 2: Play in Oklahoma City for two seasons, then return permanently to New Orleans. Odds: Even.

Stern appears to be giving Shinn no wiggle room to stay in Oklahoma City for more than two years, and the commissioner does not want to leave a legacy of having failed twice in the Crescent City. (The Jazz played in New Orleans before moving to Utah in 1979.)

If Oklahoma City's support for the Hornets stays strong through two seasons, Stern might push for the city to be the home of a future expansion team.

Option 3: Play in Oklahoma City for one or two seasons, then play a bifurcated home schedule with half the games in Oklahoma and half in Louisiana. Odds: 40-1.

Shinn said he hadn't even considered the possibility, and Stern quickly dismissed it.

"We did that once. It's an unpleasant memory," Stern said, making a reference to the Kings' splitting their home schedule between Kansas City and Omaha for three seasons during the mid-1970s.

Option 4: Move to Oklahoma City permanently. Odds: 40-1.

Shinn has taken up more of Stern's time than any other owner over the past three years, and Shinn sounded as though he was in no mood to pick another fight. If, however, numerous other owners supported a permanent move of the Hornets for the greater good of the NBA, the issue could be brought to the board of governors for a vote.

"Right now, I can't make a decision," Shinn said. "Days, weeks and months need to go by, and lots of things need to fall into place. Then we'll make the best judgment call we can make."

Article 5

Kansas City Star

11.10.2005

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/
sports/13127100.htm

Top

Back

Kansas City Penguins?

Leiweke eyes possible Sprint Center tenants

By RANDY COVITZ

The Kansas City Star

Keep your eyes on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Tim Leiweke certainly is.

Although Leiweke, president and chief executive officer of Anschutz Entertainment Group, is being careful not to tamper with an existing NHL or NBA franchise, he’s aware what clubs could be available when the 18,500-seat Sprint Center his company will manage opens downtown in the fall of 2007.

The NHL’s Penguins, who play in antiquated Mellon Arena, remain the most viable candidate, considering their lease expires at the end of the 2006-07 season.

The Penguins are trying to acquire a casino license and use the proceeds for a new building, but if that does not materialize, the club could be sold and moved to another city.

“If Pittsburgh doesn’t have an arena deal done a year from now,” Leiweke said, “they’re gone. The Pittsburgh Penguins can be the Kansas City Penguins, no question about it. That team here … it will sell out every ticket in advance, end of story. That team will be a huge instant home run here.

“And that kid, Sidney Crosby,” he said of the first pick in the 2005 draft, “is unbelievable.”

Leiweke was in Kansas City on Wednesday attending a breakfast reception for business leaders and meeting with those working on the Sprint Center. With 60 of the 72 luxury boxes already sold at a cost of $110,000 to $115,000, he was buoyant about the city’s chances of landing either an NHL or NBA team.

He was impressed with the way Kansas City, with less than six weeks lead time, drew 12,686 at Kemper Arena for an NHL exhibition game between St. Louis and Nashville. The Predators, too, are a possible candidate for relocation.

“The NHL has seen all our blueprints, they’ve seen all our plans, they know exactly what we’re doing here,” said Leiweke, who as president of the Los Angeles Kings is a member of the NHL’s executive board. “I am bullish on this market for hockey.”

Bill Daly, the NHL’s deputy commissioner, acknowledged the Sprint Center but did not offer any encouragement concerning a team in Kansas City, where the league had a team during 1974-76.

“While we’re pleased that the people in Kansas City have a new, state-of-the-art arena to look forward to,” Daly said, “the National Hockey League has no current intention of either relocating an existing franchise or adding an expansion franchise.”

If an NHL team doesn’t materialize by 2007, Leiweke has not given up on landing an NBA club as an anchor tenant.

The Orlando Magic is unhappy with the outdated TD Waterhouse Centre and could relocate if the community does not come up with a new arena. And the long-term future of the New Orleans Hornets is very much in doubt.

The Hornets, who were displaced by the hurricane damage to the New Orleans Arena, are playing 35 home games in Oklahoma City, but Leiweke is convinced Kansas City would be a better home.

The Hornets toured Kansas City and considered it as a temporary home but preferred Oklahoma City’s 19,675-seat Ford Center, which is managed by the same firm that runs the New Orleans Arena, over Kemper Arena.

“My opinion is Oklahoma City is a temporary situation,” Leiweke said. “They’ll either move back to New Orleans, or they’ll move again. With all due respect to Oklahoma, I see what’s being built here …”

To secure the Hornets, Oklahoma City had to make some huge guarantees. If the team does not earn 5 percent more in local revenue than it made in New Orleans last year — when it ranked last in attendance — taxpayers and local businesses must pay the team as much as $10 million.

Oklahoma City also put up about $2 million to cover housing expenses, team offices, improvements to the Ford Center and for game-day expenses, they may not recoup.

Before Wednesday night’s Hornets-Magic game in Oklahoma City, NBA commissioner David Stern said that although the league has no plans for expansion, the Hornets’ success in their temporary home has made Oklahoma City the favorite city if a team were to relocate.

“I can say without reservation that Oklahoma City is now at the top of the list,” Stern said.

However, Leiweke is confident the revenue streams created by the Sprint Center would entice an NBA or an NHL tenant. He expects all the suites to be sold by the end of the year, and a large portion of the money from suites and club seats, as well as slices from advertising signage and naming rights, would go to the anchor tenant.

“Whatever Oklahoma City gave away is miniscule in comparison to the opportunity for revenue in this marketplace for an anchor tenant,” Leiweke said. “Oklahoma City locked in 10,000 season tickets. Whether it be hockey or basketball, if we went out today and began a campaign to get deposits for season tickets, I think we would get 10,000 ticket deposits.

“This is all about economics, bottom line,” Leiweke said. “This is about how much money can a team generate in a given marketplace to stay competitive, and will the marketplace support them long term. If there’s an NBA owner who looks at this marketplace, they’re going to find it is substantially bigger than, say, Oklahoma City.”

Although it’s still conjecture on whether the Penguins, Predators, Hornets or some other NBA team will play at the Sprint Center, Leiweke said progress has been made on bringing a WNBA franchise to Kansas City in 2008.

WNBA president Donna Orender was sent to the Sprint Center’s groundbreaking by Stern, and Leiweke said a local group is seriously examining pursuing a franchise.

“Anytime you get David Stern’s attention,” Leiweke said, “that’s a good thing.”

Article 6

Times-Picayune

11.22.2005

http://www.nola.com/hornets/t-p/index.ssf?/
base/sports-1/1132642952247910.xml

Top

Back

TIME ISN'T ON N.O.'S SIDE

NBA wants to see progress, but is city getting a fair shake?

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

John DeShazier

It's not personal, simply business.

That, Hornets owner George Shinn said, is why NBA commissioner David Stern set January as the deadline for the league to determine where the Hornets will play their home games next season.

"All NBA teams start planning for the season and renewing their season tickets in January," said Shinn, who was in New Orleans on Monday to attend the wall raising of the first of 20 houses that the franchise is collaborating with Habitat for Humanity to build for needy families.

I don't know all of the signs of recovery that will sate Stern and give him reason to "re-award" the Hornets to New Orleans and send them to New Orleans Arena for all or part of their home schedule next season. But the likelihood is that two months hardly will be sufficient time for the ravaged region to prove it can support an NBA team, and that the New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets could be a lot more Oklahoma City than New Orleans in the immediate, and distant, future.

If the deciding factors are having more businesses reopened and more fans returned home, we can't realistically expect either to be up to Stern scrutiny by the beginning, middle or end of January.

"Your brain will tell you if things are heading in the right direction," Shinn said.

It's already taken longer than it should have for city and state leaders to appear as though they are heading in the same direction -- not necessarily the right direction, just the same direction.

Which means expecting a commitment from Stern, who seems a lot less likely than NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue to bind the pro sports franchise under his watch to Louisiana, is a long shot.

The Hornets don't have roots as entrenched or as spread out into Louisiana and Gulf Coast soil as the Saints. Passions over their possible relocation haven't erupted on a similar scale as they have with the Saints, partly because of their relative newness, partly because Shinn has had the good sense to say from the start, and at every ensuing opportunity, that it's his intention to return to New Orleans.

Now, if the Saints were allowed to make a break for it, the Hornets would be happy to fill the void. It's a lot easier to be prosperous in a one-horse pro town, like it was for the Hornets in those giddy first years in Charlotte, N.C., before the NFL Panthers came to town and before the relationship between Shinn and fans in Charlotte soured.

But not knowing whether the Saints actually will be allowed to bolt, no matter how vehemently owner Tom Benson wishes it to happen, the Hornets and Stern might be seeking a fast break of their own.

The team could -- emphasis on "could" -- play three games at the Arena in March , moving the last half of its six-game scheduled appearance at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge to its home facility. But that, too, contains more liquid than solid.

"I'd really like to play the three games in March (in New Orleans)," Shinn said. "The Arena looks like it will be ready. Will the city be ready? I don't want it to be an embarrassment to the city. I think it would be great, but it would only be great if it can be moderately successful.

"It will be a combination of two things. The Arena has got to be ready, and we've got to use our brain to make sure everything is right."

From New Orleans' perspective, so many factors, so little time.

From the NBA's perspective, just business.

Article 7

Minneapolis Star Tribune

11.22.2005

http://www.startribune.com/stories/511/5742928.html

Top

Back

Oklahoma City: A host with NBA hopes

An NBA franchise landed in Oklahoma City under the worst circumstances. But the locals have embraced the relocated Hornets and, frankly, wouldn't mind if they made the deal permanent.

Steve Aschburner, Star Tribune

Last update: November 22, 2005 at 11:56 PM

OKLAHOMA CITY - Little did Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor know that, when he stepped in to keep the sputtering NBA franchise in Minnesota in 1995, that he was rescuing it from a season of steamer trunks in Oklahoma.

Seriously, if you connect the dots, you can make a case that the Wolves, not the Hornets, would be the NBA team renting in Oklahoma City, displaced from their home in New Orleans by the trauma and destruction of Hurricane Katrina. That's where the Minnesota club, at least temporarily, was headed before NBA Commissioner David Stern blocked a sale and found Taylor as investor and savior.

Which means that, in some alternate reality, when the Wolves take the court tonight at the Ford Center for the first time, they will be facing ... themselves? Not literally, of course. But the visitors from up north might have a little empathy for players, coaches and support staff who have had a city yanked out from under them.

"They actually have played better, done better, than people expected," Taylor said Tuesday. "People would have been very sympathetic to them if they had started out hardly winning any. But [at 4-6] they have not done that.

"This is one of those times when we're not looking at another team as competition. We look at them as one of our family members. We're part of the NBA, and when a city has a disaster and a team is in trouble, the whole organization steps up to help.

"Now that I've said that, I hope we beat them anyway."

As disruptive as the Hornets' move from New Orleans has been, it pales next to the devastation visited upon that city, and their fans, in late August. Ain't nothin' easy any more about the Big Easy, and hosting 41 NBA games ranks far down its list of priorities. Still, folks there have begun to wonder if they will get their team back at all.

"I've got to be very careful of what I say because I don't want the commissioner to wring my neck," Hornets owner George Shinn said recently. "We're still planning to go back to New Orleans, but this is a situation here that I can't say enough positives about Oklahoma City."

New Orleans' pain has been Oklahoma City's gain in this storm-driven switcheroo, which is looking like equal parts evacuation, relocation, flirtation and infatuation.

Neither the New Orleans Arena nor the battered populace was capable of supporting an NBA season in 2005-06. But the dirty little secret is that the market was no raving success even in the best of times. After leaving Charlotte in 2002, the team blew through its curiosity factor in three seasons, sinking to the bottom in league attendance rankings. Finishing 18-64 last season didn't help, but the Hornets were a 41-41 playoff team in 2003-04 and still ranked 29th out of 30.

So far, through five home-away-from-home games, the Hornets have averaged 18,566. Financially, the franchise has a sweetheart deal with Oklahoma City: free rent at the NBA-worthy Ford Center and a guarantee of $40 million in revenues, with up to $10 million in shortfall covered by the city, the state and investors. If income exceeds $40 million, the city will be compensated for housing and other costs it kicked into the deal, and anything beyond $42.5 million will be split evenly between the team and the city.

Also, while New Orleans had only one major corporation sponsoring the Hornets, Oklahoma City has five, including Devon Energy Corp., Kerr-McGee and Chesapeake Energy. That's why city officials, even with modest calculations -- average attendance of 12,000 for 35 games, average ticket price of $50 -- project a boost to the local economy of $55 million to $60 million.

City has felt ready

Not a bad windfall (literally) from a deal put together in three weeks in September. But then, Oklahoma City has felt ready for this for some time. It was one of six finalists when the NHL expanded by four teams in 1997, when the Wild landed in St. Paul, and it was considered briefly a few years later when Calgary was looking to move. And in April 2004, mayor Mick Cornett met with Stern to tout Oklahoma City for NBA expansion or relocation.

The Ford Center, after all, was built to NBA specifications, with almost 50 luxury suites and 3,000 club seats. And the league has a healthy history in so-called "one horse" markets, cultivating fan bases in places such as Sacramento, Orlando, San Antonio and Portland.

The basketball part has not been easy. Already referred to in some circles as "NOOCH" -- New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets, get it? -- the team might have an identity crisis for months. Lettering on the court at home reads "Oklahoma City," lettering on the road jerseys reads "New Orleans." The home white jerseys straddle, deadlocked simply as "Hornets."

"It's going to feel like we're on the road for all 82 games," guard Speedy Claxton said before the regular season. "Even when we come home, we're going to be living out of a suitcase."

Rookie stirs up excitement

On the court, rookie point guard Chris Paul has generated Allen Iverson-like excitement. But the Hornets traded a one-time All-Star center, Jamaal Magloire, as the season began for Milwaukee swingman Desmond Mason, a solid player but possibly marketing insurance (Mason attended Oklahoma State).

Said forward P.J. Brown, a Louisiana native: "This is new territory, new ground for everybody. ... These are tough circumstances but we'll have to manage them and do the best job we can do."

Should New Orleans be nervous? For now, Stern, Shinn and city officials are saying the right things. Oklahoma City knows what it is to suffer unexpectedly, tragically, and doesn't want to be seen as capitalizing on someone else's plight. Make no mistake, though: This is business as much as it is charity. For the puffed-up civic leaders, if this isn't an abduction, at least it is an audition.

"New Orleans is down and out," Taylor said. "There's a lot of pressure, even if you say business-wise it makes better sense to stay, where you don't want to pull a team under those circumstances.

"But Oklahoma City has done a lot of good work already. They shouldn't have to compete real hard after stepping up so well this year."

Article 8

USA TODAY

11.23.2005

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/basketball/nba/hornets/
2005-11-22-oklahoma-city_x.htm

Top

Back

Oklahoma City all abuzz over the Hornets

By Greg Boeck, USA TODAY

OKLAHOMA CITY — "Live your life so that whenever you lose, you are ahead."— Will Rogers, humorist and political satirist, 1879-1935

Oklahoma's favorite son would be proud of this city, 140 miles southwest of his Oologah birthplace. Some 80 years after he doled out that down-home advice, this reborn city has bear-hugged a team it will one day lose — but be ahead.

Fueling a vibrant renaissance of a downtown rocked by the federal building bombing that claimed 168 lives in 1995, Oklahoma City, almost overnight, has stamped itself as a red-hot big league sports property with its rousing embrace of the New Orleans Hornets. They're the NBA team displaced by Hurricane Katrina in September.

Love at first dribble. That's one way to explain this western-flaired city's instant attachment to a team relocated from the Deep South. Another is the kinship born out of shared tragedies.

"We can identify with New Orleans, big time," says Oklahoma City native Mike Wilson, 55.

Mayor Mick Cornett agrees. "It made us more sensitive to what they were going through. One (tragedy) was man-made, the other wasn't. But both cities probably went through a 'why us?' that's tough to come out of."

The Hornets sold 10,000 season tickets after the move was announced. After five games of 35 set for NBA-ready Ford Center, the team is playing to 97% of its 19,163-seat capacity — and feeding off the crowd with a surprising 4-6 start entering tonight's home game against the Minnesota Timberwolves.

"They've made us feel at home," says center P.J. Brown, whose flooded home in Slidell, La., sent his family to live in Humble, Texas, outside Houston. "There's energy throughout the whole city."

The major league sports-starved locals have so taken to the young Hornets, who were 18-64 and averaged a league-low 14,221 last season in New Orleans Arena, that coach Byron Scott marveled at the cheers his team heard coming off the court — after a loss.

"It was because of our effort," he says. "The people have been fantastic."

How rabid are fans, who line up at games to buy $20 T-shirts and $25 caps emblazoned with "Oklahoma City Hornets"? According to The Daily Oklahoman, two teens arrested last week for allegedly robbing a convenience store at knifepoint told police they wanted money for Hornets tickets so they could see professional basketball players.

Exceeding expectations

The NBA team is targeted to return to its flood-ravaged home, perhaps as early as March for three games. Owner George Shinn, who bought a home in Oklahoma City and comes to games in cowboy boots, has promised to bring home the team when the time is right.

But Oklahoma City, with a metropolitan population of 1.1 million that ranks it as the second-smallest market in the NBA ahead of only the Salt Lake City-based Utah Jazz, isn't expected to be left out in the NBA cold for long.

Once a sleepy cowboy town that rooted for college football teams in Norman (Oklahoma) and Stillwater (Oklahoma State) and claimed state-grown stars Mickey Mantle and Johnny Bench, the city has irreversibly proven itself a vital major league destination.

"It's beyond anything we expected or hoped for," NBA commissioner David Stern says. "The community stepped up big time — elected officials, the corporate sector and fans. In my view, they've moved to the top of the list if an NBA team were ready to move."

Prime prospects, with expansion not on the horizon: The Seattle Supersonics and Sacramento Kings, if neither resolves its lease negotiations, and the Orlando Magic if they fail to get the new arena they want.

"We had expectations, but they've been exceeded," says Clay Bennett, who championed the courtship of the Hornets on the business front. "There's pent-up demand in a much more sophisticated market than we even gave ourselves credit for."

"This," said Cornett, "is validation."

Hospitality 'overwhelming'

Originally, leaders at the forefront of the city's renaissance in the late '90s targeted the NHL for an expansion team in 1999 but came up empty-handed with the $89 million Ford Center under construction. It opened in 2002 with the Blazers, a Central Hockey League team, and the Yard Dawgz, an Arena Football League team, its main tenants.

Coupled with the '98 opening of SBC Bricktown Ballpark, home of the Class AAA Redhawks, and development of Bricktown, crown jewel of the downtown entertainment district, the city had everything but a big-league tenant.

That changed after Hurricane Katrina, just four months after Cornett left Stern's office in New York with no encouragement from the commissioner for an NBA team relocating.

Although Shinn pushed for Las Vegas, where the NBA will hold the 2007 All-Star Game, Stern convinced him to consider Oklahoma City. When he did, it was a slam dunk.

"It's been like a godsend," says Shinn, "short of a miracle. I've been overwhelmed by everything. To put a deal together like this in three weeks' time is unbelievable."

For Shinn, it's a sweetheart deal in which he bears no financial risks. If the Hornets fall short of earning $40 million this season, the state, city and group of local investors will make up the difference up to $10 million. Cornett, however, says the city is heading toward a break-even deal. Also, the deal provides 108 furnished apartments and a $500,000 allowance to cover housing costs for employees, to be reimbursed by grants from FEMA, and furnished office space for staff, with rent and utilities provided by the city.

"The owners," says Shinn, "are very pleased."

He has embraced the city back. Shinn mandated all employees and players visit the memorial where the bombing occurred. "I want them to understand what this community went through, to see firsthand why they embraced us so much. They've been through it."

Shinn says he hasn't forgotten New Orleans. He returned Monday for groundbreaking on 20 houses the Hornets are building with Habitat for Humanity to help in the recovery project.

"Friends call and ask me when I'm coming back," he says. "I ask them, 'Are you coming back?' They say, 'Well, I'm coming back if New Orleans comes back.' And I say that's the wrong attitude. You can't wait and see. You have to do your part, help make this happen. That's why we're building the homes."

Twin followings boost team

Stern has set a Jan. 31 deadline for deciding whether to exercise the Hornets' option for returning to Oklahoma City next season. That's when the ticket drive for 2006-2007 starts. Although New Orleans Arena, which suffered minor damage, is expected to be ready as early as March, Stern says he doesn't want to return to the city full time if it's not in position to support the Hornets.

Also in January, Stern says he will consider playing three of the six games set for Baton Rouge in New Orleans Arena, starting in March.

Both Oklahoma City and New Orleans are following the Hornets on telecasts provided by Cox Communications TV Sports, the first time two markets are televising the same team. Ratings aren't available yet, says Cox's Rod Mickler, "But my gut is games are being viewed well in both markets. The numbers are high, if not higher than normal."

Newspapers in both towns are covering the team. Asked about interest in the Hornets in New Orleans, Doug Tatum, sports editor of The Times-Picayune, says it is hard to gauge. "So many people are focused on the recovery aspect. There is still a segment of the community interested in them, but it's not to the level of the Saints. We won't really be able to judge until a game in March is moved from Baton Rouge."

Although Shinn has promised the Hornets will return to the city they moved to from Charlotte in 2002, Tatum says there remains "definite concern" the team might never come home.

"Shinn has been positive, but Stern has been guarded, rightfully so," says Tatum. "There are concerns whether they can sell their suites, get the sponsorship needed and sustain a fan base."

Brown, who attended Louisiana Tech, says the players want to return home. "The people want us back, and we want to get back. But most importantly, people have to get their lives together, get jobs, get the economy going."

He says friends back home say they're watching the Hornets. "That's 21/2 hours they can get away from everything."

In Oklahoma City, locals celebrated the opener with a street party, and a rowdy, sell-out crowd watched the Hornets win. Big crowds followed the next four games. Not only was the appetite there for an NBA team, the price is right: Season tickets were available for $999 in the lower bowl.

"We're proving to people we love sports other than football," says Charles Greene, 67.

"There's nothing like this here," says Jared Wilson, 22.

The team has responded in turn. "We owe them so much for coming out and supporting us," says rookie point guard Chris Paul. "It's like a college atmosphere here."

Cornett expects fan support to remain strong, even though the Hornets, with seven players with one year or less of NBA experience, are long shots to challenge for a playoff spot.

"They get a free pass from us," he says. "They're young, and they hustle. That's about all you can ask."

Swingman Desmond Mason played at nearby Oklahoma State. He knows about the divided college loyalty here. But that's changed with the arrival of the Hornets. "Now it's an opportunity to root for one team," he says.

Will Rogers would be proud.

Article 10

11.25.2005

MSNBC

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10203751/[/b]

SeattlePI

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/othersports/
2080AP_Oklahoma_Citys_Chance.html

Herald News Daily

http://www.heraldnewsdaily.com/stories/news-00104672.html

Top

Back

Oklahoma City trying to be a major league draw

City has embraced relocated Hornets, wants to be permanent home

Updated: 2:15 p.m. ET Nov. 25, 2005

OKLAHOMA CITY - After years of quietly working to reinvent its downtown and shed its image as bombing victim, Oklahoma City has started screaming for attention.

The roar erupts on game nights at the Ford Center, where nearly 19,000 basketball fans leap to their feet, wave signs and drown out the announcer’s call to welcome “your hometown Hornets!”

As the temporary home to New Orleans’ displaced NBA team, Oklahoma City is seizing a rare chance in the national spotlight, hoping to show off a transformation that city leaders consider worthy of the major leagues.

Embracing the moment as a sales pitch, Mayor Mick Cornett has called for the city to “support this team with everything we’ve got.”

The three-year-old downtown arena and the rest of a massive revitalization project has done much to lift the cloud of the 1995 federal building bombing from the state capital’s heart.

A national memorial at the bomb site attracts visitors with its graceful and somber tribute to the 168 dead. But more uplifting changes are a few blocks south — where water taxis cruise past the canal-side dining of the Bricktown entertainment district’s refurbished warehouses and families can take in a movie, a Triple-A baseball game and, since Nov. 1, NBA basketball.

“What people are finding when they come to Oklahoma City is that they’ll be back,” said Frank Sims, executive director of the Bricktown Association. “They can’t get it all done.”

The chance to highlight the city’s efforts came, ironically enough, through another tragedy.

Two days after Hurricane Katrina knocked the Hornets from New Orleans, Cornett was on the phone with the NBA, offering up the arena that has hosted Britney Spears, the Rolling Stones and NCAA regional basketball tournament.

After the first five of 35 games planned in Oklahoma City this year, the Hornets ranked eighth in the NBA in attendance, drawing an average 18,566 fans. Cornett said the team is expected to boost the city’s economy by $50 million to $150 million.

Doris Bell, a neatly coifed 64-year-old from nearby Norman, “wasn’t even an NBA fan.” But now she comes to the games with a turquoise “H” plastered on her face.

Hornets forward Brandon Bass, who sees little playing time but is nevertheless mobbed by fans, attests: “I get a lot of love in Oklahoma City just for being a Hornet.”

Much of the renewal was funded by a temporary sales tax that voters approved in 1993. Public and private investment, including projects completed and those planned, add up to more than $1.3 billion since 1996, said Dave Lopez, president of Downtown Oklahoma City Inc.

In the early 1990s, the city was still mired in the aftermath of the 1980s oil bust. Its convention center was outdated, and major concert tours passed up this metropolitan hub of more than 1 million people.

Even downtown’s sometimes-dry North Canadian River was an embarrassment, prompting jokes about being the only river that had to be mowed twice a year.

The city built a new baseball park, updated the convention center, constructed the arena and dug a mile-long water canal to link Bricktown’s restaurants and the entertainment venues. A new system of locks and dams has allowed the river — renamed the Oklahoma River — to host regattas.

The city’s downtown turnaround is considered a model among other cities experiencing similar rebirths, including Little Rock, Ark., Nashville, Tenn. and Memphis, Tenn., said Christopher B. Leinberger, a Brookings Institution fellow who has helped transform more than 20 downtowns.

But Oklahoma City is only “halfway there,” he said. The crux of downtown redevelopment is returning people there to live.

Projects that would add roughly 1,500 townhouses, homes, condos and apartments for downtown are in various stages of development. City leaders believe retail will follow.

The city also has long-term big-league aspirations, even though the mayor said no one is out to steal the Hornets from New Orleans.

If the NBA ever decides to expand, Commissioner David Stern recently said, “Oklahoma City is now at the top of the list.”

Article 11

Ft. Worth Star-Telegram

11.25.2005

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/13255106.htm

Top

Back

MEDIA INSIDER

N'awlins to return, but will Hornets?

By JAN HUBBARD

Star-Telegram Staff Writer

The story of how the New Orleans Times-Picayune continued to publish in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina is a riveting one. At first, the staff was going to stick it out in New Orleans. When it was obvious that reporters and editors would be over their heads - literally - they evacuated to nearby Houma, La.

A team of 12 reporters stayed in the city so that first-hand accounts could be authored. And the Times-Picayune never missed an edition, thanks in part to the Internet because it published online for three days.

The news was vital for regular readers, particularly those who had been evacuated and were living in shelters and couldn't wait to get the latest information from back home. And although there were issues of life and death and lost homes, the importance of sports became evident quickly.

One day, life in New Orleans would be at least close to normal. What was the future of the Saints? The Hornets? There were other issues - certainly the future of Tulane, not only the athletic department, but also the university as a whole.

But like corporations, it is the professional teams that can leave. And the passion engulfing that issue - particularly as it applies to the Saints, who came to New Orleans in 1966 - is profound.

So it was never a question of whether the Times-Picayune sports department would cover teams. It was how they would do it.

"We haven't backed off in any major kind of way," Doug Tatum, the sports editor, said by phone last week. "The paper has been great in saying: 'We're going to cover teams the way we've always covered them.' We're not sending as many people to Saints games as we did before. But we always have at least one."

The Saints, of course, have been tooled around terribly by the NFL, which required them to play a "home" game in New York against the Giants and will not have one time this year when they play back-to-back home games in a city where the players are living. So they travel every week - even to home games.

But while that causes competitive hardships, it's no better for the Saints beat writers. Brian Allee-Walsh lost his home in the hurricane, but has had little time to recover and has been living in a two-bedroom, one-bath apartment in San Antonio with Mike Triplett, the other beat writer, and covering the team while trying to rebuild his life.

The question, of course, is: Is it all in vain? Will the Saints ever be New Orleans' home team again? Saints owner Tom Benson has made some insensitive, although perhaps honest and realistic, comments about the Saints' future. To the civilized and uncivilized sports world, the following scenario makes perfect sense:

Next year, the Saints play the full season in San Antonio.

In 2007, they either stay in San Antonio or move to Los Angeles, the city of Angels, where "Saints" will be an appropriate nickname. (Actually, "Saints" works pretty well in San Antonio, too).

Tatum, however, is convinced that the Saints will return to New Orleans.

"Everything we're hearing from the NFL - and we'll know in January because they're going to release the Saints' schedule early - is that they're going to play in Louisiana in 2006," he said. "They say the Superdome is going to be ready in October, although it might not be until December. The Sugar Bowl may be the first game played there. But I think they'll play here in 2006. We'll see. It's so hard to predict how fast the city will recover."

If there is one certainty, it is that New Orleans will eventually lose the Hornets, who are infinitely less important because they've been in New Orleans only three years. Last season, they ranked 30th in the 30-team league in attendance. This year in Oklahoma City, they rank sixth in the league in season ticket sales.

New Orleans city officials have stated that the Hornets have a contract to play next season in New Orleans if the facility is operable, which it will be. But the opinion here is that it won't matter. The Hornets may have to go back to New Orleans for one year, then move to Oklahoma City in 2007-08. You can bet lawyers for the NBA and the Hornets have already dissected the lease and know exactly how to get out of it.

But it makes sense. Why would the Hornets want to go back to being 30th in attendance? The NBA is simply being smarter about the issue than the NFL and the Saints, although NBA commissioner David Stern did slip when he said before a game in Oklahoma City: "I can say without reservation that Oklahoma City is now at the top of the list," for the next team.

Let's see. Oklahoma City is at the top of the list - a list that apparently didn't exist before, except, perhaps, for Las Vegas. But which team is most likely to move while Oklahoma City is at the top of the list?

Regardless of the Hornets' future, the Times-Picayune continues its coverage. Reporters Jimmy Smith and John Reid cover the team and alternate months living in Oklahoma City to cover "home" games. Smith also lost his house in the hurricane.

"It's been tough because people are out of town and unable to see their families," Tatum said. "But I think everyone is dedicated to their job and to seeing the city rebuilt. It's coming back slowly, but it's coming back. I was named sports editor on Oct. 24 and I've been trying to hire a deputy. I took three people out to lunch this week, and took them to the [French] Quarter. We had great meals. The Quarter's doing fine. It's not 100 percent, but it's open.

"I'm an optimist. I think city is going to bounce back pretty quickly. But a big part of our story has been what's going to happen with the future of the Saints because it impacts the city. When you rebuild a city, sports is part of it."

And when you are the newspaper covering that city, making sure readers are informed about the future is part of the job. So is covering the team every day and every game, no matter the cost monetarily or the sacrifices required of writers. The Times-Picayune has been determined and responsible in its coverage, which is more than you can say for some of the teams and institutions that it is covering.

Article 14

Mercury News

12.1.2005

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/sports/13291490.htm (now a bad link)

Top

Back

Oklahoma City has caught the pro basketball bug

BY MARK EMMONS

Knight Ridder Newspapers

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Their road uniforms still are emblazoned with "New Orleans." But forgive the NBA's Hornets for being a little confused about where exactly to call home.

This vagabond franchise, just a few years removed from Charlotte, was chased out of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina, which ravaged The Big Easy with heartbreaking fury. It found shelter from the storm, and a welcoming red carpet, in Oklahoma City.

But the Hornets don't know where they will play next year. And while their official temporary name is the New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets, it hasn't exactly stuck.

"No one has created a perfect moniker yet that's caught on," said Roy Williams, head of the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce. "Sometimes you see Oklahoma City/N.O. Other times it's New Orleans/OKC. Or it will be just New Orleans or Oklahoma City. Right now, they're still Jekyll and Hyde."

Here's another label to attach to the Hornets: surprising. In O-kla-homa, where the wind comes sweeping down the plain, the Hornets also have managed to find some victories. The team, which started last season 2-29 en route to an 18-64 year, is 6-7.

And the silver lining to this story of a team caught up in a natural disaster is that Oklahoma City - eager to make a statement about being a big-league town - has gone crazy over the Hornets. The team is averaging 18,656 spectators and has sold out three of its first six home games.

That warm reception has prompted the question of whether the Hornets will ever return to New Orleans. In many ways, the franchise is symbolic of the larger discussion about the city's future.

"From strictly a business standpoint, maybe it seems like a slam-dunk to stay here," said team spokesman Michael Thompson. "But we're from New Orleans. Our homes were under water and our friends are in dire straits. The last thing New Orleans needs to hear right now is that it's going to lose something else because of the storm."

Unlike the NFL, which has suffered a public-relations disaster with Saints owner Tom Benson seeming to posture for a move in the hurricane's wake, the NBA and the Hornets are being careful to take a wait-and-see approach about a return. Oklahoma City officials, who know all about tragedy after enduring the 1995 federal courthouse bombing, also are sensitive.

"From Day One we have acknowledged that this is New Orleans' team," Williams said. "If they go back to New Orleans, they'll return with our fondest memories and best wishes. But if circumstances arise where that can't happen, then our door is open."

In fact, it's wide open.

Oklahoma City is only the 45th-largest TV market and has about 1.25 million residents in the metro area. It also has no national standing.

When the Hornets had to relocate, Oklahoma City offered its 19,675-seat Ford Center, which was built as part of a failed attempt to lure an NHL expansion team and opened in 2002. The city also provided office space, employee housing and up to $10 million in guarantees to cover any revenue shortfalls. But the Hornets have been so popular - selling 10,000 season tickets - that the city will make money.

"What we've always suffered from here is a sort of non-image," Williams said. "But being able to support an NBA franchise conveys a message. It tells people that there's a real city there. It makes us a player."

If the Hornets do go home, Oklahoma City has proved - like other one-horse NBA cities such as Sacramento - that it has caught the pro basketball bug. Commissioner David Stern said if any other team were to move, Oklahoma would be the top destination.

The fan support has been off the charts. The Hornets traded former All-Star center Jamaal Magloire to Milwaukee for swingman Desmond Mason - a move that gave the locals more interest in the team (Mason attended Oklahoma State). But the Hornets also have played far better than expected.

Chris Paul, a candidate for rookie of the year, is averaging 16.8 points, 6.6 assists and 5.3 rebounds. Speedy Claxton, who came to the Hornets in the deal last season that brought Baron Davis to the Warriors, has been a revelation, averaging 13.2 points and 4.5 assists off the bench.

It's been a honeymoon - and one noticed by New Orleans' newspaper, the Times-Picayune. It noted Sunday that the temporary home could become a permanent one because "the NBA can't close its eyes to what's going on in a city where there's no competition for the entertainment dollar and very little to do in a city for night-time enjoyment. In that sense, New Orleans can't compete with Oklahoma City ..."

The Hornets leaving New Orleans would be much easier to take than a Saints departure because the NBA team arrived in 2002, while the NFL franchise has been part of the city's fabric for decades. Hornets owner George Shinn, who knows what it's like to be a community pariah after wearing out his welcome in Charlotte, has bought a house in Oklahoma. But with six games later this season scheduled to be played in Louisiana, Shinn says publicly that the team belongs to New Orleans.

It's still where the hearts of team employees reside. Thompson lived less than a mile from where the 17th Street Canal levee broke. He returned to his condo for the first time over the Thanksgiving weekend to find it an almost total loss. Now he, his wife and 6-week-old daughter - born just after the hurricane - are in corporate housing in Norman, Okla.

"All of us have those moments, where it's 2 a.m. in the morning and you think, `Man, how did we end up here?'" Thompson said. "Oklahoma City has been great to us, but this is not our house and it's not our stuff. You think sometimes, `I just want to go home. Can I do that please?'"

Article 16

Boston Globe

12.11.2005

http://www.boston.com/sports/basketball/articles/
2005/12/11/buzz_is_good_in_oklahoma/

Top

Back

Buzz is good in Oklahoma

By Peter May | December 11, 2005

You're doing fine, Oklahoma.

Sure, it could be the NBA version of First Baby Syndrome, sort of like the Red Sox last year. But something is going on in Oklahoma City that leads to one of two inescapable scenarios: Either the Hornets remain there or someone else relocates there.

The mayor of Oklahoma City, Mick Cornett, thinks that his city may well end up hosting the Hornets for another season. As Cornett put it last week in a telephone interview, ''I'm hearing there's a decent chance the team will be here for another year."

The NBA sees Oklahoma City, for now anyway, as the interim home of the Hornets. In a chat on ESPN.com last week, commissioner David Stern said, the Hornets ''are indeed doing great in OKC. But as far as we're concerned, it's an interim, temporary home. It is our present intention to keep the team in New Orleans."

Stern has promised the Oklahoma City folks he will let them know in January as to what is at stake for 2006-07. That's because in some cases, season-ticket renewals go out in February. It makes sense, then, to send the renewals to the right people. The people of Oklahoma City have spoken loud and clear: Send them to us. We will buy them and we will come.

They make a compelling case. The Hornets of OKC sold more than 11,000 season tickets, which, according to a team official, ranked them sixth in the NBA. The Hornets of NO were 29th in season-ticket sales. The Hornets of OKC were ranked seventh in attendance as of last week. The Hornets of NO were ranked 30th -- dead last -- in 2004-05. The OKC Hornets are drawing more than 4,000 fans a game more than the NO Hornets did.

It's been a remarkable tale. In a matter of weeks, the movers and shakers in Oklahoma City put together a number of lucrative sponsorships and the franchise now broadcasts games into two territories. The fans appear to be genuinely exuberant (although standing until the first Hornets basket is scored is a bit much) and more than 18,000 braved brutal weather last Wednesday to catch the Celtics in their only visit. The Ford Center was designed with NBA and NHL specifications and is a top-notch venue.

''It's real. It's there," local businessman/rainmaker Clay Bennett said of the breadth and depth of the community support for the team. ''We need to be cautious. But we want a team."

The return to New Orleans is a sticky wicket, both politically and economically. Much of the city and its environs are still in ruins. Some employees of the New Orleans Hornets, who were each given $1,000 in storm support money by owner George Shinn (and another $1,000 if they moved to Oklahoma City) still cannot return to their homes. The team's broadcasting director, Lew Shuman, has turned over his house in Slidell, which suffered minimal damage, to the team's equipment manager, whose family has moved in because its house is uninhabitable.

According to The New York Times, the post-Katrina unemployment rate was 15.5 percent, only 10 percent of the city's operational buses are up and running, and only one public school (out of 116) was open. While Shinn has said he sees the team returning to the Big Easy, how can the NBA go marchin' back in to that tune? I can't see it. Not when the decision has to be made in January.

Down the road, of course, there is the Shinn Issue: Specifically, if the league doesn't go back to New Orleans, is he free to move his team somewhere else (La$ Vega$?)?

For now, you have a city supporting a relocated team with a fervor unseen in New Orleans or, for that matter, in Charlotte the last couple of years. That should count for something.

''It is my opinion," said Cornett, ''that the NBA will find us a franchise. If it's not this one, there are always a number of teams looking for that better lease or a better opportunity. We can support one pro team, not two. We could be a one-team city like a Utah or a Portland. We can do the NBA or the NHL. I've told Stern and [NHL commissioner Gary] Bettman that the first one wins. We can't do both."

Agreed Bennett, ''We hope and expect that New Orleans does rebound in a healthy way. That aside, we have cultivated a very serious market for the NBA. And unlike [college] football, it's a central, unifying thing that the whole state embraces."

Article 17

Salt Lake City Tribune

12.12.2005

http://www.sltrib.com/sports/ci_3299444 (no longer available)

Top

Back

Cleamons: Fans make difference for struggling teams

By Jim Cleamons

This season, my team, the New Orleans Hornets, is playing its home games in Oklahoma City and, frankly, we're not the greatest team in the NBA. Yet the smallest home crowd we have played before thus far is 17,500 people.

From the perspective of a professional coach, that's a heck of a statement.

It takes a lot of energy to support a team that is struggling, like mine. Fans who stick with their teams during lean years should be commended for their faithfulness.

You can't overestimate what it means to the team.

My team, one of the league's worst last season, has been hovering around .500, and I think that's at least partially due to the support we have received from the fans.

Fans should know that players and coaches don't take them for granted, that they want and know they need their support to succeed.

There are a number of teams in the league in the same boat as mine, striving to successfully compete. Unfortunately, a lot of fans think their team is better than it really is, especially if it's getting beaten up night in and night out, and have unrealistic expectations. A lot of fans just don't really understand and appreciate what it takes to build a consistent winner in this league, and what a team has to endure in order to become competitive again.

One thing that's very important for fans to understand is that there's nobody out on the court trying to lose games. The players, the coaches, the organization itself, they all do truly feel the fans' pain from losing.

In fact, we feel it more profoundly than anyone.

The problem for many franchises is that they've drafted young players who are not yet ready to assume the type of responsibility it takes to win. When you have a young team, it's simply going to take time for it to mature. You have to look beyond tomorrow.

If I were to attend a game as a fan, I would not boo my struggling team. What I would insist on knowing, first off, is the big picture for my team. What's the owner's vision? Has he hired the right basketball people? What's the coach's philosophy? Have the players bought into it?

If so, then I see my job as being supportive of my team. I wouldn't get on the officials or the players. I'd support my guys, because this is the time they need it most.

Remember, when you have a bad day at the office, you suffer through it on your own. When ballplayers have a bad day, as they will as they are only human, then it's on display for the entire world. A fan's job, I believe, is to have empathy for his team and players on those days. Some nights they're just going to stink it up. That's when I'd be the biggest cheerleader that team has. Maybe two days from now, that team will find a way to get through a bad night, to win anyway, to mature.

There's an old saying in my profession: When things are going well, you're not as good as you think; when you're down, you're not as bad as you think.

Article 18

Times-Picayune

12.14.2005

http://www.nola.com/sports/t-p/index.ssf?/
base/sports-21/1134543356245240.xml

Top

Back

SOONER SURPRISE

The Hornets were wary of what to expect when displaced to Oklahoma City, but they have captivated the normally football-zany fans

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

By John Reid

Staff writer

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Throughout Oklahoma City last week, frigid temperatures forced the cancellation of several social events. But on the night the Boston Celtics were in town, a near sellout crowd of 18,753 still came out to cheer on the Hornets.

It was another example of the success the team has enjoyed in Oklahoma City.

Despite their temporary relocation from New Orleans because of Hurricane Katrina and having just 45 days for a ticket-sales campaign before the opening game, the Hornets now have a season-ticket base approaching 11,500 when full- and mini- plans are combined.

Entering tonight's home game against the Los Angeles Clippers, the Hornets are averaging an attendance of 18,738 per game and rank seventh in the 30-team league. That puts them ahead of larger-market teams such as the Cleveland Cavaliers (18,560), New York Knicks (18,130) and Washington Wizards (17,093).

The Hornets are also among the league's leaders in sellouts, with four in the first seven games played at the 19,163-seat Ford Center.

"We expected nothing like this," team president Paul Mott said. "The difference is all the season tickets we've sold. If you're going to try and build toward a sellout, it starts with full-season tickets."

That kind of support has turned the Ford Center into one of the loudest venues in the league, making it a difficult place for opponents to play.

"They're great fans for us and not for the visitors," Hornets coach Byron Scott said. "They're not throwing obscene gestures or anything like that, but they are loud and it's been a treat. I can't remember one game where I didn't have to scream out instructions to Chris (Paul) or had to use hand signals because he couldn't hear me."

Veteran P.J. Brown said it makes a difference, something he didn't expect when the Hornets initially made the move.

"I thought after football, there is nothing else," Brown said. "But people have another option, and they've shown big-time support for us. Everywhere we go people tell us how glad they are that we are here. It shows you how popular the NBA is around the country."

Until this season, the Hornets have not averaged crowds of more than 18,000 since the strike-shortened 1998-99 season, when they averaged 19,232 in Charlotte, N.C.

The Hornets led the NBA in attendance from 1990 to 1997 in Charlotte, averaging more than 23,000 per game. By the team's final season in Charlotte, Hornets owner George Shinn had begun to rub fans the wrong way and attendance dropped to an average of 11,286.

The Hornets averaged 15,651 and ranked 19th in the league during their inaugural season in New Orleans in 2002-03. By their second season, though, the Hornets had dropped to 28th with a 14,332 average. In their third year, the Hornets finished 18-64 and an average attendance of 14,221, worst in the league.

The Hornets were one of the eight teams that needed to improve sales and marketing strategies that was assigned to Mott, who was working in the NBA office as senior director of team marketing and business development.

"When I first started, I didn't feel the Hornets organization had done a good enough job of identifying existing fans and then making some new fans," said Mott, who was hired by Shinn as team president in April, eight days after the regular season ended.

"But I believed, over time, we were going to build our fan base in New Orleans. Like here, there are great sports fans in New Orleans, and all the fans I talked to knew the game, knew the players and were excited about it."

Some fans in Oklahoma City specifically purchased season tickets to help the city's chances of landing the Hornets permanently. There are others with no motive other than to see quality teams and all-star-caliber players, regardless of whether the Hornets stay beyond one season.

Before the Hornets' came, Oklahoma City was known as a metro area that supported its minor league hockey team and Triple-A baseball team, but the college football programs at Oklahoma and Oklahoma State garnered the most attention. Now nothing in town is bigger than a Hornets game.

"My wife and I are just basketball fans," said David Pagels, a season-ticket holder from Oklahoma City. "Before the Hornets came, we used to go down to Dallas and make a weekend by watching the Mavericks play. We're going to support the Hornets if they are back next year. If they're not back, we'll have to drive to Dallas."

Like in New Orleans before Katrina, the Hornets offered the same $999 lower bowl season ticket to Oklahoma City fans until the packages sold out. Most of the seating sections are priced almost identical to what was offered in New Orleans.

The attraction of seeing some of the top stars for the first time is what brought Oklahoma City resident Aaron Nees out last Wednesday to see Boston's Paul Pierce, despite a weather forecast calling for two inches of snow for the area.

"Hopefully, they be here again next year," Nees said. "I know they have an option in their contract to come back if they don't get New Orleans reconstructed. I don't think they'll get it done by next year. Maybe they will."

Article 19

Times-Picayune

12.17.2005

http://www.nola.com/sports/t-p/index.ssf?/
base/sports-21/1134808175125770.xml

Top

Back

Shinn: Hornets aim to return

Saturday, December 17, 2005

By Benjamin Hochman

Staff writer

BATON ROUGE -- Hornets owner George Shinn said Friday it's possible the team could split its home games next season between New Orleans and Oklahoma City, and he said a decision should be made by early February.

Speaking at the Hornets' first regular-season game in Louisiana since Hurricane Katrina, Shinn said his goal is to bring the team back to New Orleans.

"Fortunately, we're generating enough revenues (in Oklahoma City)," Shinn said. "And if we have to stay another year, it will help us so we can be strong so we can come back and be strong here. We're building and getting ourselves solid and strong, and we want New Orleans to help and do the same thing."

The Hornets have five more games scheduled for the Pete Maravich Assembly Center, where they lost 101-88 against the Phoenix Suns before 7,302 fans Friday night. Shinn said the two games scheduled for January will be played in Baton Rouge, but it is possible the three in March could be played at New Orleans Arena, which sustained minor damage from Katrina.

Shinn said it is imperative the team makes a thorough decision and doesn't rush back to New Orleans when the city isn't ready.

"It's important that we do the right thing, because if we play a game in New Orleans and 1,500 people show up, that's not going to look good for anyone, not the NBA or New Orleans," Shinn said. "What we've got to do is put our heads together with the state, city and NBA to make the right decision about what's best not only for us but New Orleans."

Hornets president Paul Mott, who toured damaged areas of New Orleans with NBA deputy commissioner Russ Granik on Friday, said he hopes that by mid-January a decision could be made on the Hornets' home for next season.

"I think the media in other parts of the country has portrayed a city that's dead and gone," Mott said. "And Russ Granik said it very well, when he was glad to see there are people here, business is proceeding, and the city is building and growing."

The hurricane displacement was frustrating for Shinn, who felt the team was economically rejuvenated after the hiring of Mott and other key marketing administrators.

"It turned that thing around," Shinn said. "So the potential's there."

In Oklahoma City, the Hornets have become the hottest ticket in town -- in a city where they're the only ticket in town. The Hornets, who finished 30th in the league in attendance last season, are seventh in attendance this season. But when Mott was asked if success in the Sooner State will affect a decision about moving to New Orleans, Shinn stepped in and said no.

"I look at that whole situation as us being blessed. We have been through hell," Shinn said. "And a lot of us, we're on our knees asking for help. And during this difficult time, if we weren't generating the revenues we're generating now, we'd really be suffering. We have a staff of people, and we have to pay everything from housing to cell phone to food. Plus their salaries.

"I've got all the confidence in the world that New Orleans is coming back. I think the question all of us have to answer is -- when?"

Article 20

San Antonio Express-News

12.18.2005

http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/stories/
MYSA121805.12C.COL.BKNmonroe.2a691f3.html

Top

Back

Mike Monroe: Oklahoma City emerges a gallant host

Web Posted: 12/18/2005 12:00 AM CST

San Antonio Express-News

One of the best story lines of the first quarter of the regular season — time flies when you're checking hemlines — has been the improved play of the Hornets, the NBA's Orphans of the Storm.

Oklahoma City opened its hearts — not to mention its pocketbooks — to the displaced franchise after Hurricane Katrina, offering a sweetheart deal for the team to play at its downtown Ford Center.

Politicians there were careful not to seem, ahem, like vultures, saying only that they understood civic tragedy, wanted to do what they could to help, and if the community could prove itself capable of having its own major league pro sports franchise some day, well, that would be a nice bonus.

The Ford Center has become a tough place for visitors to play, and Oklahomans filled it, even when it snowed. The Hornets' Ford Center attendance average of 18,559 ranks seventh in the league.

The first of six games the Hornets are scheduled to play in Baton Rouge took place Friday night. Only 7,300 showed up at Pete Maravich Assembly Center on the LSU campus to see it.

The Suns outscored the Hornets 37-10 in the fourth quarter in Baton Rouge to score a 101-88 victory, and you have to wonder if they would have been able to accomplish the same kind of comeback had the game been played before the howling assemblage typical of Ford Center.

This underscores the question the Hornets and the NBA now face: Should the team return to New Orleans Arena for three games scheduled for Baton Rouge in March?

Don't bet against it. For one thing, there seems to be little question the arena can be game-ready by March.

NBA deputy commissioner Russ Granik visited New Orleans Arena, along with Hornets president Paul Mott and officials of the SMG arena management company and the state of Louisiana, which owns the 3--year-old facility located just a few blocks from the Superdome.

Granik chose his words carefully in discussing the possibility of playing games in New Orleans Arena this season.

"I'm not certain about that," Granik said in a telephone interview Saturday. "They (SMG officials) certainly are very confident, and I have high regard for the SMG people. They seem very, very confident they'll have it ready by March 1. There are a couple of additional pieces of information they will provide us in the coming weeks, and we should make a judgment on that by the early part of January."

But having the Hornets play games at New Orleans Arena this season involves a lot more than just having the arena in shape to host the games. Given the tragedy the city endured when Katrina hit Aug. 29, team, league, city and state officials fret about the possibility of sending the wrong message if the Hornets do play a home game there and nobody turns out to see it.

"It's important we do the right thing," Hornets owner George Shinn told reporters who covered Friday's game in Baton Rouge, "because if we play a game in New Orleans and 1,500 people show up, that's not going to look good for anyone, not the NBA or New Orleans. What we've got to do is put our heads together with the state, city and NBA to make the right decision about what's best, not only for us, but for New Orleans."

By all accounts, the vast majority of the 7,300 who turned out for Friday's game had made the drive from New Orleans to Baton Rouge, so Shinn's pessimism about drawing only 1,500 in the Big Easy in March seems misplaced.

More to the point: The Hornets have a lease to play at New Orleans Arena. If they play there in March, could they reasonably assert next season they need to return to Oklahoma City?

Then there are the logistical problems associated with changing venues in midseason.

"We just have to make a decision about the building," Granik said Saturday, "and then with the state and arena people we have to decide what makes most sense, just from a practical matter. To be moving games around, back and forth, is not the ideal thing to do. In addition to whether the arena is ready, we have to decide what is practical."

The guess here is that the Hornets will, indeed, play in their true home arena this season, even if it is only for one game. Such a return would be an emotional, symbolic benchmark for a city trying to revive itself after Katrina's devastation.

A game like that might even draw a full house.

Article 21

The Oklahoman

12.20.2005

no link available

Top

Back

By Berry Tramel

The Oklahoman

Hornets owner George Shinn soon plans to solicit local investors for his NBA franchise that has been a stunning success in its three months in Oklahoma City.

Shinn, who took on a big debt when he bought out partner Ray Wooldridge last year when the franchise was in New Orleans, is seeking limited partners.

He does not want to relinquish control of the team that relocated to Oklahoma City after Hurricane Katrina swamped New Orleans.

"I think it's important, if you're going to have owners, have 'em from the community where you are," Shinn said.

Calls to Oklahoma City business leaders were not returned.

The New Orleans Times-Picayune reported that Shinn took on significant debt to buy out Wooldridge's 35 percent of the team.

Shinn paid Wooldridge at least $67 million, according to the reports, which would place the Hornets' value at approximately $191 million.

In Forbes magazine's 2004 list of NBA franchise values, the Hornets were estimated to be worth $225 million.

The three most recently sold franchises went for much more: the Phoenix Suns for $401 million in 2004; the Cleveland Cavaliers for $375 million in 2005; and the Boston Celtics for $365 million in 2004.

The Charlotte Bobcats became an expansion franchise for $300 million.

Hornets President Paul Mott said it probably is impossible to determine the franchise's worth, since it is in flux.

Shinn and NBA Commissioner David Stern have said the Hornets will return to New Orleans, if possible.

But the Hornets were 30th out of 30 NBA teams in attendance in 2004-05. With the rebuilding of New Orleans moving slowly and the success of the Hornets in Oklahoma City, there is speculation the franchise could remain here permanently.

Shinn said he would commit to buying back the shares of local investors should the Hornets leave Oklahoma City.

Shinn and Mott had begun a similar process in New Orleans but had not entered into any commitments when the storm struck that city.

Mott said the minimum investment level is two percent, which could range anywhere from $4 million to $6 million, depending on the settled value of the franchise.

Mott said the Hornets will present plans to prospective investors beginning in January.

Article 22

ESPN

12.21.2005

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2266712

Top

Back

Hornets owner says he's selling shares in team

Associated Press

OKLAHOMA CITY -- New Orleans Hornets owner George Shinn acknowledged Tuesday that he is looking to bring aboard investors for a minority stake in the NBA franchise.

Shinn said he has been seeking investors since he bought out Roy Wooldridge's 35 percent share of the team last year.

"Before I left New Orleans, I bought out my partner over a year ago and I was looking to retire that debt and to find investors," Shinn said Tuesday at the City Rescue Mission, where the team was distributing shoes to homeless people.

"I like to have investors. I like to have people I can consult with, talk to, get advice from because it does get lonely at the top when you're by yourself making multimillion dollar decisions."

Shinn disputed a report that he was seeking investors specifically from the Oklahoma City area, saying instead that they could come from anywhere.

"I'm looking for investors, not necessarily in Oklahoma, but all over the country," Shinn said. "There's people all over the country that are interested in investing."

Shinn said he had been looking for investors even before the Aug. 29 hurricane caused the team to relocate, and an investment group is resuming that effort now.

"I haven't called on one soul in this community. It's not a situation that I'm out here soliciting in this market," Shinn said. "It's something that we're doing nationally and have been doing before the storm and will continue to do."

Shinn and the NBA have both said they plan for the Hornets to return to New Orleans if possible. The team has a one-year agreement to play in Oklahoma City, with a team option for next season. He said the plan does "not to mean that I'm trying to get investors here so I'll stay here" and said investors could even come from New Orleans.

"We do have candidates from New Orleans that are very interested and the investment group that's working with us is talking to people there," he said.

The Hornets ranked last in the NBA in attendance last season in New Orleans, but have sold out five of their 10 games in Oklahoma City. Their average attendance of 18,669 at Oklahoma City games would rank seventh out of the 30 NBA teams.

If anyone in Oklahoma City invested in the Hornets on the contingency that the team remain there, Shinn said he would commit to buying back their shares.

"Community ownership is no doubt a key factor in the success of sports franchises," Clayton Bennett, the leader of a local business group that took on $3.3 million of risk if the Hornets' move to Oklahoma City was a financial failure, said in a statement.

"At this moment the NBA is engaged in a thoughtful process to determine where the Hornets will play next year. Until that decision is made, any discussion about local ownership is premature in my opinion."

Shinn said he didn't have a specific share of the team that he planned to sell.

"I would sell up to 49 percent," Shinn said. "I'm going to always maintain control, as long as I'm alive anyway."

Article 24

Times-Picayune

12.31.2005

http://www.nola.com/sports/t-p/index.ssf?/
base/sports-21/113603656455090.xml

Top

Back

CREATING A BUZZ -- ELSEWHERE

The Hornets say they are committed to returning to the city, but the success of the team in Oklahoma City -- on the court and financially -- could make for a difficult decision

Saturday, December 31, 2005

By Jimmy Smith

Staff writer

Murky or clear?

As it is with so many questions in the post-Katrina world, whether the Hornets return to New Orleans Arena will remain somewhat unanswerable in the short term.

But the long-term outlook is looking bleaker with every sellout, or near-sellout crowd the team draws in its temporary home in Oklahoma City.

NBA officials, and Hornets owner George Shinn, have continued to take the high road in the comments about the team returning to the Crescent City, saying the team will be back when New Orleans is ready to accommodate the club structurally and aesthetically.

Contractually, the Hornets are bound to return to the Arena when it is repaired to pre-storm conditions, as spelled out in the "force majeur" or "act of God" clause in the 10-year lease agreement with the state. The Arena would have to be approved for play by SMG, the facility's manager, and the league.

Since temporarily relocating to Oklahoma City in Katrina's aftermath -- when minor flooding on the Arena's first floor damaged the court and locker-room facilities, while major flooding devastated the city's infrastructure and shrunk its population -- Shinn, along with NBA commissioner David Stern, have stressed the "temporary" aspect of the stay in Oklahoma City.

The league negotiated a one-year option to renew the current deal in Oklahoma City that must be exercised by July, though Stern is pushing for a decision in January.

On Nov. 9, however, Stern, when asked specifically about the language in the Hornets' lease with the state, said: "I don't trust lawyers. The bigger question to me is not whether there's a building there that's structurally sound, but if there's a community around it. I would hope that there would be. I think that's the important thing."

Shinn has said he hoped to play one to three games scheduled for Baton Rouge in March at the Arena, which is expected to be repaired by then.

On Dec. 16, the first time the Hornets returned to Louisiana for a regular-season game in Baton Rouge, Shinn reiterated that hope with what has become his customary caveat.

Just as with the terms of their contract with the state of Louisiana, the Hornets cannot lose money during their stay in Oklahoma City.

But they can make more money in Oklahoma City than they can in New Orleans.

The Oklahoma City contract, heavily laced with incentives, includes language that the city will make up the difference if revenues from tickets, concessions and sponsorships fall below $40 million this season. A consortium of local business leaders have pledged their support in the guarantee, as has the city and Oklahoma.

The Hornets' lease with Louisiana expires in 2012, with two five-year options. It also is quite generous. The Hornets pay $2 million annually in rent if attendance is 11,000 or greater, a figure subject to adjustment, depending upon attendance, not to be less than $1 million per season.

The team gets 100 percent of revenue from premium seating, advertising, concessions, novelties and parking and if the Arena secures a naming rights deal, the Hornets would receive that money, up to $1.5 million annually. The state guarantees the Hornets would receive $18 million a year from premium seating and advertising, a figure that rises five percent each year of the contract, with the state making up any shortfall up to $2 million per year.

Louisiana also paid the NBA's $250,000 application fee, moving expenses, temporary office space up to $1.75 million and in-kind services and made $10 million in Arena upgrades before the Hornets relocated from Charlotte in 2002.

Breaking the lease in Louisiana would incur a $10 million penalty.

Article 26

ESPN

1.6.2006

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/
news/story?id=2281843

Top

Back

Hornets will play three March games in New Orleans

Associated Press

OKLAHOMA CITY -- The New Orleans Hornets on Thursday reached an agreement to play three games at the New Orleans Arena in March and move two other games scheduled in Baton Rouge this month to their temporary home in Oklahoma.

In their first games in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina, the Hornets will face the Los Angeles Lakers on March 8, the Denver Nuggets on March 18 and the Los Angeles Clippers on March 21.

"I'm looking forward to seeing New Orleans rebuilt," Hornets President Paul Mott said by telephone after the announcement. "This is not a city that is going to vanish. ... I think this is a city that is going to come back better and stronger, and I want to be a part of it."

The NBA, which announced the schedule change Thursday, also said it plans to announce the Hornets' home for next season by the end of January.

Mott said scheduling the games in Baton Rouge was the best option prior to the season, but he's now confident that management company SMG will have the New Orleans Arena ready in time for the March games. He's hoping there will be enough fans in attendance to provide a noticeable home-court advantage.

"We're doing this because I think it's the right thing to do," said Mott, who toured the arena in November and December.

Also, the Hornets will play their games Jan. 13 against Sacramento and Jan. 18 against Memphis in Oklahoma instead of at Louisiana State University's Pete Maravich Center in Baton Rouge.

The Hornets were disappointed by turnout last month at the first of six games scheduled in Baton Rouge, which were considered a gesture toward maintaining the team's connection to Louisiana and its intended return to New Orleans next season.

Only 7,302 fans -- or just more than half of capacity -- were in attendance Dec. 16 when the Hornets squandered a 15-point lead in a 101-88 loss to Phoenix in Baton Rouge. Afterward, Hornets coach Byron Scott approached general manager Jeff Bower about moving the other games.

"We had that game in hand," Scott said. "We thoroughly outplayed them for 36 minutes. In the back of my mind when I went into the locker room, I said, `If this game would have been in Oklahoma City, it wouldn't have been this close.' If we would have had a 14-point lead going into the fourth quarter, we'd have won the game."

Scott said he doesn't think moving the two games out of Louisiana will alienate fans in the state, noting that hurricane victims probably have better things to spend their money on than attending an NBA game.

"I think they would understand," Scott said. "All the people that were in Louisiana before the hurricane are not there right now, so I don't think the fan base is there right now for our basketball team, especially right now in this month. It might change in March."

Moving the games also eliminates a span of seven consecutive games scheduled outside Oklahoma for the Hornets. After a game against Detroit on Tuesday, the Hornets weren't scheduled to play in Oklahoma City for 15 days despite having two "home" games.

Scott said the Hornets' success made it more important to move the games. New Orleans entered Thursday 1½games behind Utah for the final Western Conference playoff spot.

"It would have been a killer trip for us," Scott said.

Due to a conflict with a Bon Jovi concert rehearsal at the Ford Center, the Hornets are still seeking a site for their Jan. 13 game against Sacramento.

The Memphis game will be played at the Ford Center, where the Hornets have sold out eight of their 14 games so far this season. The Hornets are averaging 18,720 fans at their Oklahoma City games this season.

After winning only 18 games all last season, the Hornets are off to a 14-17 start this season and are 9-5 at the Ford Center. San Antonio, Miami and the Los Angeles Clippers were all in first place when they lost at the Ford Center, where the Hornets also beat current Northwest Division leader Minnesota.

"Our guys feel real comfortable here. I think the fans have made them feel that this is their team, and our players feel that this is our home," Scott said.

The Hornets moved to Oklahoma City in September after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans and damaged the arena. The team was to play 35 regular-season games, plus two preseason games and any playoff games, at the 19,163-seat Ford Center.

Article 27

Times-Picayune

1.6.2006

http://www.nola.com/sports/t-p/index.ssf?/
base/sports-21/1136531029233490.xml

Top

Back

Silent treatment not a good way for city, state to keep NBA team

Friday, January 06, 2006

John DeShazier

Hear all that silence?

Deafening, isn't it?

It represents the noise created by the fight the city and state have to put up in the effort to keep the Hornets in New Orleans. And it explains, as much as anything, why the Hornets already seem to have one sneaker out the door.

The next two games to be played in Baton Rouge, at LSU's Pete Maravich Assembly Center, have been relocated. Now they'll be staged in Oklahoma City, which is looking less like a home-away-from-home, and more like a new hive for the bees.

The final three games of the Hornets' proposed six-game dip into Louisiana, team officials maintain, will be played at New Orleans Arena in the spring. But don't pant after that bone. The cameo depends on more variables than can be found in math class, perhaps the most significant of which is the kind of reception (read: attendance) the team can expect upon its arrival.

And if it's anything close to what it was greeted by in Baton Rouge, let's just say we probably have seen the Hornets our one and only time this season, and perhaps for the last time.

That turnout, for a December game against highly entertaining Phoenix, was an embarrassment, even when viewed through the rosiest-colored glasses. The attendance (7,302) was shameful by college standards; it absolutely, positively was grotesque by NBA standards.

Now if at this point you counter that by saying attendance also was spectacularly miserable for three of the Saints' four games in Baton Rouge -- and neither statement reflects particularly well on Baton Rouge's willingness to lend support, in the form of fannies in seats, to the efforts to keep the Saints and Hornets in the state -- you'd have a point. But, too, there's a counter to the counterpoint.

The Saints have done just about every imaginable thing to sabotage their return.

It was clear early that owner Tom Benson never wanted to return to New Orleans, that he wanted to relocate his Saints to San Antonio, that he and his allies were willing to go so far as to allege extensive damage to the team's clearly undamaged practice facility as a reason it could not go home.

Toss in a less-than-aggressive sales pitch in Baton Rouge, and Benson's apparently bogus allegation that he felt threatened after the first game and never wanted to return to the city because he feared for his safety, and you have a recipe for disaster.

If not for the muscle of NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue, the Saints likely never would have returned. But with a firm shove in the back, and the promise that the league would help subsidize the Saints and help out the franchise with free agents, the franchise is returning to its Metairie training facility.

No such shove has been executed, or likely will be, by NBA czar David Stern.

By indicating that the league likely would announce this month where the Hornets will be playing next season, he pretty much guaranteed they would be returning to Oklahoma City.

Still, though, from a public-relations standpoint, the Hornets have talked the talk, and walked the walk. Owner George Shinn always has stressed that Oklahoma City is a temporary pot of gold, that he intends for New Orleans to be the home for his franchise, that he would be on the front lines of the rebuilding effort, which he has.

The team, 14-17 after a victory over Miami on Wednesday night, is greatly improved. The response in Louisiana, in terms of support, hasn't even been lukewarm.

We have wailed and gnashed teeth over the franchise that would leave if it had half a chance, and barely made a peep over the one that, from the beginning, consistently and fervently has maintained it had no desire to go anywhere.

True, one has deep roots in the state and the other recently was planted. Still, though, it's a striking contrast -- the pursuit of unrequited love vs. the rejection of open arms.

The assumption is that it's rejection. It could be that there's a real passion out there for the Hornets, a real desire to see them return to New Orleans Arena.

Hard to tell, though, because it's so quiet. Which makes it a lot easier for them to skip town, almost unnoticed.

Article 28

Mike Barrett Trail Blazers Blog [Portland’s Play-By-Play Guy]

1.6.2006

http://www.nba.com/blazers/special_features/
Mike_Barrett_Trail_Blazers_Tra-152688-41.html

Top

Back

Oklahoma City: Tennis, A Crowd, and yes... County Music (1.6.06)

It's the final day of this 5-day road trip, and tonight in concludes with the Trail Blazers taking on the New Orleans / Oklahoma City Hornets at the Ford Center. We'll fly home following this game tonight, and will get to actually unpack and put the suitcase in the closet for a few weeks. Sunday, the Blazers begin their longest homestand of the season, eight games, against Shaquille O'Neal and the Miami Heat.

The Trail Blazers practiced yesterday, and had to drive to the University of Oklahoma in Norman, to do it. It was only about a 30-minute drive and wasn't too far out of the way. It was a fairly light practice, as Nate McMillan most likely sensed the veterans didn't have it in them to pound through a long, physical practice after playing back-to-back nights in Dallas and San Antonio. Following practice McMillan took the team out to dinner, which is fairly rare. They went to Toby Keith's restaurant here in Oklahoma City. I talked to several players in the lobby upon their return and a couple of them said it was great, "until they started playing country music." Wow, what a shock. I was upset that at B.B. King's in Memphis they didn't play any Metallica. The guys did say they had a good time.

I'm looking forward to seeing the atmosphere at the Ford Center tonight for this game. The community has really embraced this Hornets franchise and they've been drawing very, very well. Everyone here, of course, is hoping for a permanent move for the franchise, but that battle is far from over. The local paper has certainly joined the fight. Following Hornets games, they list the attendance, and then compare it to what the team drew last season, and how the home court results compare. It's obviously a better situation here. It'll be a delicate political move for the NBA if they move this team out of ailing New Orleans, but it's business, and this team never drew flies in New Orleans. Now, post hurricane, I can't imagine the fans would flock back, being they were never there in the first place. The corporate dollars aren't there either. They did announce yesterday the Hornets will return to New Orleans Arena for three games in early March. That's a good move, but I'd be surprised if they moved back there permanently next season. It's a tough situation, and could be a legal battle getting out of the lease at the arena in New Orleans if it is deemed to be inhabitable, which they think it will be. [Emphasis supplied]

I mentioned yesterday that we were going to get out and see a little bit of Oklahoma City. The only thing I really knew about the city, and I'm probably not alone here, was that horrible bombing back in 1995 took place here. Turns out the Murrah Federal Building stood only a few blocks from our hotel. We walked over there yesterday and saw the memorial and museum they now have. It's very well done. They've got a reflecting pool, where the street once went through, and a "field of empty chairs" where the building once stood. They've got 168 chairs placed in nine rows to symbolize each person lost in the attack. The hardest thing was seeing the 19 little chairs representing the absence of 19 children.

Rice and I did get a chance to play tennis yesterday, and did so at Oklahoma City University. Among Rice's excuses on this day were "it was too windy," and "the sun was in my eyes." Judging by the condition of the courts the tennis program at the college has really gone downhill since Brock Connelly won the 1994 NAIA Singles title (I saw an old wooden plaque hanging sideways on the fence).

In NBA news, the Ron Artest sweepstakes continues. I continue to get a kick out of NBA general managers who offer trades to the Indiana Pacers, and then after they become public, have to scramble back to the players rumored to be in the deal, and assure them they aren't on the block. I guess Denver now has the best chance at Artest right now, but Memphis and Minnesota are also taking a shot. It certainly sounds to me like Artest is headed to the Western Conference. I haven't heard much that makes sense coming from the East.

Seattle players continue to celebrate their new head coach, Bob Hill. This is so interesting to me, since it was the players who went to bat so hard for Bob Weiss after Nate left for Portland. Vladimir Radmanovic even said "it's a new start, and it's like Santa Claus for me." I still remember after Weiss was hired, the players talking about how things were too tough under Nate, and that Weiss was more of a player's coach. You tell me, what style do you think worked better? The lesson here is never let the players choose your head coach.

Congratulations to Shaun Alexander of the Seahawks, by the way, for winning the AP's NFL MVP award. I wasn't aware writers in the East knew there was a team in Seattle.

We get to come home following this game tonight, and Sunday, the Blazers open an 8-game homestand against Miami.

Article 29

Salt Lake Tribune

1.8.2006

http://www.sltrib.com/sports/ci_338258 (link no longer works)

Top

Back

Cleamons: Options abound in Oklahoma

By Jim Cleamons

Earlier this week, the league announced that my team, the New Orleans Hornets, will play three games back in our home city later this season.

Hurricane Katrina forced us to abandon our namesake city. We've been based in Oklahoma City this season and, frankly, it's been a huge success. We're right on the cusp of a playoff spot - admittedly, there are 50 games to go - but that's nonetheless notable, given we had the league's worst record last season.

Not surprisingly, our average attendance last season - 14,221 - also was the league's worst. In the coming months, many key decisions about this franchise will be made.

One of the questions is whether Louisiana can simply support a professional basketball team. The state government was basically helping subsidize our team and the NFL's Saints already. Now you've got a city that will be as half as big as it was and is facing bigger problems than its sports teams. New Orleans is a much different place than it was. In addition, when we played a home game in Baton Rouge on Dec. 16, the attendance was only 7,302.

As an assistant coach, my job is to coach my ballplayers and help my team get better, so I'm far removed from these issues. But you have to wonder about professional basketball's future there.

I can say how thankful we are to be in Oklahoma. Oklahoma City itself has welcomed us with open arms and is overwhelming, really, with its enthusiasm and encouragement. They've been wonderful hosts, and we appreciate that a lot.

Our average attendance now ranks about 10th in the league and, believe me, that makes a difference on the court.

The crowds have been terrific and the energy the fans bring makes it a real joy to come to the arena to play. There is such enthusiasm in the building. We've had six sellouts already. By comparison, the Jazz - who've always have had one of the best average attendances in the league - have had one.

One thing that's interesting about our team is that, with so many young players, a lot of our guys have never lived in New Orleans. They've been told about New Orleans, but as far as they know, Oklahoma City is where we're supposed to be.

Another thing is that Oklahoma City has a real collegiate environment, with fans who actually participate in creating the energy.

And although that's not typical in the league, it does help make our young players feel more comfortable because that's the environment in which they've had the most experience.

But, this is a business as well. We had one corporate sponsor in our old city, we have five here in Oklahoma. Doing the math, you have to wonder.

Still, we certainly are proud of New Orleans and feel a special responsibility as the city's representatives. We hope playing three games in the New Orleans Arena in March will make a small contribution toward this city's recovery.

We certainly will do our best.

Article 30

Detroit Free Press

1.10.2006

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/
article?AID=/20060110/SPORTS03/601100334/1051

Top

Back

THEY'RE OK NOW

Hurricane Katrina left the New Orleans Hornets without a home, but Oklahoma City has embraced the team.

January 10, 2006

BY SHAWN WINDSOR

FREE PRESS SPORTS WRITER

OKLAHOMA CITY -- It was a sunny morning, play-by-play radio announcer Sean Kelley recalled. And cold.

Especially for late November. Especially in Oklahoma City.

Kelley and the rest of the staff of the New Orleans Hornets were huddled together, making their way through the Oklahoma City bombing memorial on the north edge of downtown, watching old news footage, gazing at photos of the rubble, walking among empty chairs symbolizing 168 people killed by a truck bomb in April 1995.

Hurricane Katrina had forced the team out of New Orleans. The Hornets landed in another city familiar with tragedy. On this chilly day, they were learning about it.

"There was a somber silence," Kelley said. "We were collectively dealing with what we had gone through (in New Orleans) while learning what they had gone through" 10 years earlier.

It was then that the staff began to understand why the Hornets' presence in Oklahoma City meant so much. It wasn't just the arrival -- however temporary -- of the state's first big league sports team, or the NBA stars staying at downtown hotels, or the ESPN crawl at the bottom of television screens that lumped Oklahoma City with New York and Los Angeles and Detroit.

It was that residents thought no other city, with the exception of New York, could relate to New Orleans like they could.

Said Kelley: "As the season has gone on, they are not bashful about saying they'd really like us to stay, but -- and they always follow it with but -- 'If you guys go back, we understand.' "

Home for now is Oklahoma City, but the NBA will decide by the end of the month where the Hornets will be based next season. Publicly, everyone points to an eventual return to New Orleans. Commissioner David Stern, owner George Shinn, coach Byron Scott, players, staff, even fans all say it is the right thing to do. Three games scheduled this season for Baton Rouge, La., already have been moved to New Orleans Arena.

But the sellouts, the college-like noise at Oklahoma City's Ford Center, the season-ticket sales, the corporate sponsorships and the political reception have surprised the NBA and left its brass in a quandary. Before Katrina, the Hornets ranked last in the league in attendance. Now they're in the top 10, despite a 15-18 record entering tonight's game against the Pistons.

For sentimental reasons, the league doesn't want to move a team from a devastated city. But the Hornets might have found better economic success in Oklahoma City, tapping into a surprisingly pent-up desire for the NBA.

Neither the league nor Hornets management wants the negative publicity that surrounded the New Orleans Saints, whose owner wasn't so subtle about his wish to stay in San Antonio, his team's temporary home this season.

Stern was so mindful of avoiding a bad rap he persuaded the flamboyant Shinn to let his less-recognizable people tour the city's arena when the team was considering a move to Oklahoma City.

"David didn't want us to look like vultures," Shinn said.

Oklahoma City is the country's 45th-largest television market -- New Orleans and Memphis are ranked just above it. Roughly 1.2 million people live in the metropolitan area.

So far, no one in Oklahoma City is outwardly competing for the team. Besides, who knows how long the fans will pack the 19,000-seat Ford Center? Is the town another Sacramento, which has supported the Kings through good and bad for two decades? Or another Vancouver, whose Grizzlies were popular for a short time before fan interest waned and the team moved to Memphis?

Stern is betting on the former and has said the city is next in line for an NBA franchise.

What might make Oklahoma City different is what happened 10 years ago on an April morning, when a region without a national identity became known because of tragedy.

Great atmosphere

Three months ago, any contemplation of Oklahoma City beyond a Ryder Truck and a bombed-out federal building fell to Dust Bowl memories or clichis: cowboys, oil, God, an empty expanse bordering Texas. And Sooner football. (Norman, home to the University of Oklahoma, is 25 miles south.)

Last Wednesday night, in a standing-room-only arena, Shaquille O'Neal played his first professional basketball game in Oklahoma City. That same night, Texas -- Oklahoma's hated rival -- and USC unspooled one of the great college football games in the past 20 years.

The public-address announcer occasionally provided updates on the Texas/USC score, and a few televisions in the concourse offered the game. For the most part, fans stayed in their seats, and showered the Miami Heat with three hours of jet engine-like noise.

The night began with smoke, a thumping bass and a prayer -- Shinn invited ministers to say a few words on the court before tip-off when he started the team in Charlotte. He brought the invocation to New Orleans and Oklahoma City.

"Two things I've seen more of here than anywhere else are flags and people praying when I go out to dinner," he said last week.

When the Hornets scored their first basket, the crowd rose, and fans high-fived. Juiced on the vibe, the young Hornets dove and flew around the court, embarrassing the more talented, but uninspired Heat. Miami coach Pat Riley, all scowl and gel, kept calling time-outs to lash his team. The breaks in play only gave 19,326 throaty Oklahomans more inspiration.

The Hornets were up 19 at halftime. Bob Masterson caught his breath in the concourse.

"It's the buzz right now," he said. "Oklahoma has never been known for much."

But the NBA?

"Hard to believe," he said.

Masterson, who lives in nearby Edmond, owns a Ford dealership close to the arena. He was one of 10,000 who bought season tickets the first 10 days they went on sale. Now, he's a few rows from the biggest happening in town.

"I've been in the league 13 years and I've never seen anything like this," said Hornets forward P.J. Brown, a Louisiana native. "It's special."

Mick Cornett always believed it could be. Oklahoma City's mayor began selling his city to Stern long before Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. If he hadn't, the Hornets could be playing in Las Vegas now. Perhaps not the best place to offer courtside invocations.

TOUGH SELL

Cornett, elected in 2004, flew to New York a few months after he took office to pitch his booming city to Stern. Eight years earlier the town began a massive capital improvement project using funds collected from a one-cent sales tax.

They built the Ford Center. Rebuilt the convention center. Opened a new Triple-A baseball stadium. Dug a San Antonio-like canal in an old warehouse district known as Bricktown and populated it with restaurants, bars and movie theaters. The economy was booming, benefiting from the high price of oil.

All that was missing was a big league team. And Cornett, a former local television sportscaster and news anchor, was convinced the city was ready.

"We were branded by our tragedy," he said. "But what people didn't know outside of the region is how much we had changed since then."

Cornett also knew that the city had narrowly lost out on an NHL franchise in the late 1990s, when the league awarded teams to Columbus and Nashville. Still, when he met with Stern in August 2004, the commissioner, though impressed by the city's growth and demographics, told Cornett he had a better chance with hockey.

Then the hurricane hit. Two days later, Cornett called Stern.

"I offered up our town as a temporary home," he said.

Cornett also called local investment capitalist Clay Bennett, who had once owned part of the San Antonio Spurs, and who knew Stern. Shinn, meanwhile, was taking calls from San Diego, Nashville, Kansas City, Anaheim, and, of course, Vegas.

When Stern called him about Oklahoma City, "I said, 'Oklahoma where?' "

Two weeks later a deal was done. The state, city and local businessmen put up $10 million to cover any revenue losses by the team. The city also agreed to pay relocation expenses, provide housing for the team's staff in Norman and find a practice facility -- Southern Nazarene University offered its gym.

Sellouts and the season-ticket rush might actually help the city make money.

"This is a free shot," Cornett said. "Never before has a city had the opportunity to be given a trial run."

Or an owner a clean slate.

When Shinn's expansion Charlotte Hornets began play in 1988, they led the league in attendance for eight years. Then Shinn, who grew up in nearby Kannapolis (home of NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt), was charged with sexual assault and became the star of a sordid sex scandal on Court TV. He was exonerated, but not before admitting to an affair with a team cheerleader.

His wife left him. He quit attending games. He refused to talk to media. In 2002, after Shinn's personal controversy and a failed bid for a new arena, the team moved to New Orleans.

"Never have I been so humiliated in my life," he says now. "I made mistakes."

When he arrived in Oklahoma -- remarried -- he openly talked about his mistakes. Now he's the talk of the town, a colorful, cowboy boot-wearing, self-made millionaire fond of his courtside seat and pregame meals in the media room.

"Fans are familiar with the story and don't judge him," Cornett said.

In 16 games, Oklahoma City's Ford Center has become one of the toughest stops in the league -- the team is 10-6 there. (The Hornets also lost a home game at Baton Rouge.)

The Hornets are led by Chris Paul, a charismatic rookie who Willis Reed, the vice president of basketball operations, said reminds him of Isiah Thomas.

Paul leads the team in scoring, assists and grins.

"I had never been to Oklahoma City before," said Paul, who suffered a thumb injury Friday night but wasn't expected to miss more than two weeks. "I had no clue. Just heard there were a lot of tornadoes."

And now?

"Love every minute of it. We are the luckiest team in the NBA."

All of which will make the Hornets' return to New Orleans, if it happens, difficult.

At the bombing memorial last week, park rangers and security guards guided visitors around the reflecting pond and through the chairs, telling the story of the city's darkest moment.

A basketball team won't change that. Still, said Todd Cook, a guard who works at the memorial, "it's given us something to talk about."

And the rest of the country a different association.

Article 31

Ft. Worth Star Telegram

1.15.2006

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/sports/basketball/13632916.htm

Top

Back

NBA Insider

New Orleans has enough to deal with without NBA

By Dwain Price

Star-Telegram Staff Writer

It doesn't make any sense for the Hornets to play games in New Orleans this season. Don't the good people of New Orleans have more pertinent things to worry about?

When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans on Aug. 29, many homes were destroyed and lives were shattered. What's important now for the citizens of New Orleans is to get their lives in order.

Attending a Hornets game is not high on their to-do list.

After Hornets president Paul Mott toured the New Orleans Arena two months ago, he wasn't so sure playing basketball there this season was a bright idea. Mott should have followed his first instinct.

"It smelled, and when I came out, my eyes were itching and my nose got clogged up, and I was bothered by it and concerned," Mott said. "It was still really wet, and I didn't think it was healthy -- at least for the athletes."

We all want New Orleans to be rebuilt.

Still, the fact that the Hornets have announced plans to play three games there this season -- starting with a March 8 contest against the LA Lakers -- is disturbing.

Memo to the Hornets: The folks in New Orleans didn't come to your games pre-Katrina, and they sure won't be coming post-Katrina.

If the truth be told, New Orleans has never shown signs of wanting to embrace the NBA.

The Jazz didn't draw in five seasons, so they left in 1979 for Salt Lake City and haven't regretted it a bit.

The Hornets also have been unsuccessful at the gate since moving from Charlotte in 2002. The Hornets averaged 15,651 fans in their first season in New Orleans, 14,332 two years ago and 14,221 last year.

This season, the Hornets are 10th in the league in attendance, averaging 18,096 fans per game in Oklahoma City. And that takes into account the meager 7,301 fans that showed up when the Hornets played the Phoenix Suns last month in Baton Rouge -- another Louisiana city that has other matters on its mind.

In addition to the Lakers game, the Hornets will play in New Orleans on March 18 against Denver and on March 21 against the LA Clippers.

It's a noble gesture trying to give the folks in New Orleans some NBA entertainment. But you can't force-feed fans.

As Mott returned to check on the New Orleans Arena last month, he saw some progress.

"What I was pleased to see was they got that wet stuff out," Mott said. "The ceiling tiles had gathered humidity and were buckled, even though the water hadn't got up there. They pulled all of that out, and it probably helped a lot."

Maybe it did, but will families really pay to see the Hornets play this season?

New Orleans is a city in distress. Many of its citizens might never return to live there again.

And if they do, the last thing on their minds will be the NBA.

They need jobs, schools for their kids, a roof over their heads and someone to repair the levees so they can withstand a Category 5 hurricane.

They don't need the Hornets.

Article 32

Charlotte Observer

1.15.2006

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/sports/
basketball/nba/charlotte_bobcats/13630547.htm

Top

Back

Posted on Sun, Jan. 15, 2006

IN MY OPINION

Shinn's next team move the right one

RICK BONNELL

George Shinn isn't foolish enough to move his team back to New Orleans.

The Hornets will make their only trip to Charlotte on Monday, for a Martin Luther King Day matinee. Right now their name sounds like a run-on sentence: "The New Orleans-Oklahoma City Hornets.'' I suspect the best the Big Easy can hope for from the Hornets is a handful of games annually in the future.

That wouldn't be unprecedented in the NBA. When the Kings were in Kansas City, they played some regular-season games in Omaha, Neb., and the Celtics once did the same in Hartford, Conn.

Oklahoma City is already a phenomenon. Ford Center is packed or nearly packed every night and the volume would remind you of Charlotte Coliseum, circa 1990. The NBA loves virgin territory -- that was Shinn's original sales patch for expansion to Charlotte -- and OKC is just large enough to support one major-league team.

From what I hear, the Hornets generate about $1 million in revenue every home game there. Their lucrative cable-television deal with Cox transferred to Oklahoma City, because Cox operates both there and in New Orleans.

Shinn is genuinely conflicted about New Orleans for practical and sentimental reasons. I'm sure he doesn't want to be remembered as the guy who moved a team twice in five years.

But this time he bears no fault. Hurricane Katrina didn't just wreck New Orleans, it emptied the city. The arena can be fixed, and will be in time to host three Hornets games this season. But will there again be the population and corporate base to support a team, particularly with the NFL pressuring the Saints to stay there as well?

Whatever you think of Shinn, the man knows a good business deal. Whatever flaws the Ford Center has as an NBA venue can be fixed. Oklahoma City sees the Hornets as validation, and that town will keep buying tickets and T-shirts.

Who would turn his back on that?

Article 33

Memphis Commercial Appeal

1.19.2006

http://www.commercialappeal.com/mca/grizzlies/
article/0,1426,MCA_475_4398979,00.html (link may not work)

Top

Back

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Everybody in the NBA has been talking about the spirited crowds at the Ford Center in Oklahoma City. There was another such crowd here Wednesday night.

Unfortunately, it was mostly around Pau Gasol.

The Hornets lived up to their name and swarmed Gasol with double teams -- and sometimes triple teams -- and held him to nine points on 4-for-8 shooting in an 87-79 win that gave the Grizzlies a three-game losing streak for only the second time this season.

Yet despite the Grizzlies' failures on offense, the game was still there for the taking late in the fourth quarter. Trailing 79-76 with around a minute to go, point guard Bobby Jackson launched a 3-point shot.

He missed.

Eddie Jones ran down the offensive rebound and then Jackson fired an even quicker 3-pointer that also missed. The Hornets' Chris Paul then knocked down a 3-pointer with 37 seconds left and the deed was done.

"We had a chance to win the game," Jackson said. "We didn't shoot the ball well (37.8 percent). I didn't shoot the ball well.

"And Pau didn't shoot a lot. I need to be smarter about getting him the ball. I think I cost us the game by jacking up threes (he was 0-for-6) and not getting into our offense.

"But it's a learning experience. I can put that on my shoulders and bounce back from there."

Grizzlies coach Mike Fratello conceded that after the offensive rebound "we didn't get a good look at the basket."

Ideally, the Grizzlies would have either found Gasol inside -- a challenge all night -- or Mike Miller on the perimeter. Miller led the Grizzlies with 21 points and was 5-for-7 from 3-point range.

Meantime, Gasol's frustration was as evident as at any time this season.

"They were digging so hard and trapping me and trying to get the ball out of my hands," said Gasol, who is averaging 19.6 points. "We've got to make something happen offensively ... penetrate, get to the line, create something, because otherwise they're going to keep double-teaming me."

Jackson, too, feels that pain. This was the second time in the last four games that Gasol was held to nine points.

While the loss dropped the Grizzlies to 23-14, the Hornets reached .500 at 19-19. Hornets coach Bryon Scott pointed to the defensive job his team did on Gasol as another sign of development.

"We've really matured defensively since the start of the year," Scott said. "We played great defense against Gasol."

Even so, Gasol had five assists and might have had more had the Grizzlies shot better -- they were 8-of-22 for 36.4 percent from 3-point range.

"Pau takes what the game gives to him and what the team gives to him," said Shane Battier. "Pau's a smart basketball player and he's not going to force shots in double-teams."

Just to have a chance to win, the Grizzlies had to come back from a nine-point halftime deficit. Chris Andersen threw down four dunks in the second quarter when, as Fratello put it, "our defense disappeared."

After a third quarter in which the Grizzlies had two nine-point runs and the Hornets had one 6-0 spurt, the fourth quarter started with the teams tied at 62-62.

"All square and we had a shot to win," Battier said.

But as the Hornets started with a 5-0 run on the way to a 25-17 advantage in the quarter, several things stood out: Gasol played all 12 minutes and didn't take a shot or get to the free-throw line, and the Hornets' David West had seven rebounds -- six of them on the offensive glass.

The combination of those two things and Paul's eight points and three assists in the quarter doomed the Grizzlies.

Article 34

Times-Picayune

1.19.2006

http://www.nola.com/hornets/t-p/index.ssf?/
base/sports-1/1137655757115780.xml

Top

Back

Stern: NBA to return in long term

Thursday, January 19, 2006

Two weeks after the Hornets announced they will play three games at New Orleans Arena in March, the first professional sporting events to be held in the city since Hurricane Katrina hit Aug. 29, NBA commissioner David Stern said no decision has been made on where the Hornets will play next season.

Stern, in a telephone interview with Times-Picayune staff writer John Reid on Tuesday night, said the repeated sellout crowds the Hornets have gotten in Oklahoma City wouldn't play a factor in the league's decision. As for as the long-term future of the Hornets, Stern said he thinks repopulation projections for New Orleans will be sufficient to support an NBA team.

Your counterpart in the NFL, Paul Tagliabue, has been to Louisiana four times since Hurricane Katrina devastated the region. Why haven't you been able to find time to visit once?

Actually, I considered the priority to be to work hard to get the team settled, to play individual games in New Orleans, the need to raise money for the hurricane victims and send the appropriate people down there to make sure we could get back into the Arena, so there will be some entertainment as soon as possible. My own presence there would not have any particular meaning.

The NFL says extraordinary events demand extraordinary responses. What plans have the NBA developed to make the Hornets return to New Orleans successful this March and for the 2006-07 season?

We're working with the LSED (Louisiana Stadium and Exposition District) and the governor's office, the mayor's office. Obviously as soon as we got word that the Arena would be playable, we moved to put the (three) games back into New Orleans. They are going to be successful because we are going to make them successful, and that doesn't mean they have to be sellouts. But the important thing is that they are there.

Do you want a team in New Orleans?

The answer to that is yes.

According to the lease agreement, if the Hornets play the three games in March in the Arena, then they are obligated to return to play in New Orleans next season. The Hornets said they are not necessarily sure that clause is in their lease agreement. What is your take on the situation?

When the Arena is playable, we're supposed to come back. That's just the way it is.

How close is the league toward finalizing a decision on whether the Hornets will remain in Oklahoma City next season or return to New Orleans?

As I have said to everyone, we're going to make the decision by the end of the month. We're still consulting with the appropriate authorities in Louisiana. We're involved in discussions on an ongoing basis.

How will this decision be decided?

It will be a vote by an appropriate committee of the Board of Governors. It's called the advisory findings committee, and it has at least 10 members on it. That will be the group that will handle it.

Do you have concerns about a potential lost fan base and businesses in New Orleans because of Hurricane Katrina?

I think ultimately there will be two things. One is repopulation and the progress made in the short term, which means for next year. The other one is the repopulation in the long term. We're operating on the assumption that the repopulation on the long term will be complete in terms of having a population base that will support an NBA team.

Are you monitoring the repopulation that's occurring now in the metro area?

We are gathering data, and we're watching it and getting all the reports. We're keeping a close eye on it, and we're getting information from the (state) government.

You said from the start the team's relocation to Oklahoma City was only temporary, but how impressed have you been in regard to the enormous support the team has received from fans in Oklahoma, and will it have an impact on the decision for the Hornets to return to New Orleans?

They've done a great job in demonstrating they can support an NBA team. But that doesn't change our view that they will be coming back to Louisiana.

Would the Hornets return to New Orleans even if the decision was made to play next season in Oklahoma City?

We have an extra-year option (in the Oklahoma City agreement) for the questions that would be asked about whether (New Orleans) is repopulated, whether the concentration on the Saints or dealing with capping resources or the like. But those are separate issues for the short term. That's why we've got a one-year option. For the long term, our plans are to come back.

What was the result of the final report you received from deputy commissioner Russ Granik after he toured the Arena and visited devastated areas of the city last month?

The report was that there are some respects in which the Arena is not yet ready and won't be ready, but we decided that it didn't matter. We were going to somehow make do to play there.

What do you want to get from these three games played at the Arena in March?

It's really what we want to give. We want to have on-the-ground entertainment taking place in New Orleans at the earliest possible time, and those were the dates when they said they could get the building close enough to ready. And we said great, we're coming.

Can you talk about the response of many of the league's players to the hurricane?

Our players have responded with respect to goods and services, our league office, our owners, etc. We've raised well over $10 million, and they were deeply moved by the events and visited shelters in Houston and Louisiana. And they've done just a wonderful group of things to help people in need. I think it's their finest moment and they did it because it was the right thing to do and not because it was a photo opportunity. I'm proud to be associated for that effort.

Your league has never been in a situation like this before, one of your teams displaced because of a natural disaster. What are the real issues you have dealt with?

Actually, for us and for the Hornets, the real issue was the suffering of the people (in New Orleans), the devastation and the loss of life. It really made the sports issue, the relocation issues, really seem trivial by comparison. It proves that it's all about human life and being able to help others, and not the way you play the game.

Article 35

The Oklahoman

1.21.2006

no link available

Top

Back

Hornets' future? Only Stern knows

By Berry Tramel

The Oklahoman

When David Stern speaks, people with an interest in the Hornets listen. That would include most of us here in the Great American Desert.

Before the drought set Oklahoma ablaze, the Hornets set us on fire. We took in the homeless NBA team and quickly grew right fond of it, so much so that many of us are willing to admit what you’re not supposed to say in polite circles. Sorry, New Orleans, but we don’t want the Hornets to leave.

Of course, what we want doesn’t count. Stern, after much counsel from his cabinet, will decide.

The royal commish is the Oracle of Delphi. Oz’s great wizard. Moses on the mount. We wait on word from him.

Stern gave our brothers at the New Orleans Times-Picayune an interview this week, and as usual, interesting stuff emerged.

That will have to suffice, for now. The last time I called the NBA office for comment, I didn’t get past the PR people.

So what to make of Stern’s latest words, in which he was fairly encouraging for New Orleans’ NBA future?

Well, it’s all in code, of course. Stern is a wise owl. A sly fox. Smarter than the average bear. He reveals no clues he wants unrevealed.

You have to microscopically dissect Stern’s words, then put on a blindfold and throw a dart. So here’s my take on the latest cryptics from the commissioner:

On whether he wants a team in New Orleans?, Stern said, “The answer to that is yes.”

Short answer. Strangely short. Remarkably short. Historically short.

Stern is like a defendant on the witness stand. The less said the better. Don’t show your cards.

On whether the Hornets’ lease with the New Orleans Arena requires them to play there if the Hornets are able to play their three scheduled games there in March, Stern said, “When the Arena is playable, we’re supposed to come back. That’s just the way it is.”

Stern is dancing here. That New Orleans lease seems to have some teeth to it, even though two months ago in Oklahoma City, Stern said the Hornets are not necessarily bound by the agreement. Key words: playable and supposed.

Stern could be playing it coy, mapping out an exit strategy from New Orleans that could be difficult legally and would require plenty of sensitivity.

On when the NBA will decide the Hornets’ fate for the 2006-07 season, Stern said, “We’re going to make the decision by the end of the month. We’re still consulting with the appropriate authorities in Louisiana.”

No news there. The Hornets need to know by Feb. 1 so they can begin season-ticket campaigns, either here or in New Orleans.

But here’s something to consider. If there is no decision made by Feb. 1, that’s not a good sign for OKC. I can’t see the Hornets announcing they’re going back to New Orleans next season, with half of this season still to go.

The Hornets are in playoff contention. They don’t want to do anything to disrupt the support and homecourt advantage they’ve built at the Ford Center.

On whether he is concerned about a potential lost fan base and corporate base in New Orleans, Stern said, “I think ultimately there will be two things. One is repopulation and the progress made in the short term, which means for next year. The other one is the repopulation in the long term. We’re operating on the assumption that the repopulation on the long term will be complete in terms of having a population base that will support an NBA team.”

This is classic double talk here. Long term? What does that mean? The only two time frames relevant are 2006-07 and 2007-08. What New Orleans looks like in 2012 is not particularly germane to the Hornets. This isn’t the NFL; the NBA can’t subsidize a team while it waits five years for a city to possibly return.

Stern has taken the high ground since September, always being supportive of New Orleans. He’s politically savvy, which means he’s ultra sensitive to the greatest natural disaster in American history.

He’s also sharp. I think he knows that New Orleans is not coming back as a major metropolitan city.

I said it the week of the flood, before the Hornets were a gleam in Oklahoma City’s eye. The majority of those hundreds of thousands of New Orleans residents who migrated elsewhere are not coming back.

New Orleans’ pre-flood city population was 462,000; today it is 144,000, and city officials estimate it will rise to only 247,000 by September 2008. New Orleans still has a substantial suburban population, but again, the old New Orleans wasn’t adequately supporting both the NFL Saints and the NBA Hornets. How could a smaller, weaker New Orleans do so?

But don’t listen to a hack out here on the frontier. Listen to the Washington Post’s Eugene Robinson, who visited New Orleans earlier this month.

“Assemble the brass band and let the funeral march begin, because the old New Orleans is dead,” Robinson wrote.

“The passing of our most distinctive city ... became official (last week) when a blue-ribbon commission presented its plan to rebuild on the mud-caked ruins.

“One way or another - through a proposed moratorium on rebuilding in the areas flooded when the levees failed, or through protracted argument over whether to have a moratorium - the plan all but guarantees additional months of delay and rot. Every day, meanwhile, more evacuees will decide to make new lives for themselves elsewhere.”

On how impressed he’s been with Oklahoma City’s response to the NBA and whether that will impact the Hornet decision, Stern said, “They’ve done a great job in demonstrating they can support an NBA team. But that doesn’t change our view that they will be coming back to Louisiana.”

These are Stern’s strongest words that the New Orleans Hornets will live again and why some Oklahoma City officials are bummed by the Times-Picayune interview.

For those of us who believe if the Hornets leave town, they’re not going to New Orleans, this is the most solid rebuttal since September.

On the result of the final report from NBA officials after touring the New Orleans Arena and visiting devastated areas of the city in December, Stern said, “The report was that there are some respects in which the Arena is not yet ready and won’t be ready, but we decided that it didn’t matter. We were going to somehow make do to play there.”

Loophole city. The New Orleans lease says the Hornets have to play there if the arena is playable, but Stern says the arena isn’t completely ready, the NBA is just willing to overlook some things. That could be important at the bargaining table.

And Stern didn’t address the state of the city. That’s probably just a humanitarian gesture on his part.

So what does it all mean? Nothing really that we didn’t know before.

Stern did seem more verbally committed to New Orleans than in the past. Whether that means for the Hornets in the near future, or another franchise down the road, or an NBA All-Star Game to make up for a lost team, who knows?

Only the Oracle knows for sure.

Article 36

San Antonio Express News

1.22.2006

http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/stories/
MYSA012206.12C.COL.BKNmonroe.27e586e.html

Top

Back

Mike Monroe: Hornets gauge options

Web Posted: 01/22/2006 12:00 AM CST

San Antonio Express-News

Random, but meaningful, thoughts as the first half of the regular season is about to end ...

The league has promised a decision by month's end on the short-term future of the Hornets' locale.

A subgroup of the Board of Governors, an Advisory Findings Committee made up of at least 10 governors, will meet to discuss the advisability of having the Hornets return to New Orleans for the 2006-07 season, or return for another season in Oklahoma City, which has done a remarkable job of looking a whole lot like a community entirely capable of being host to a major league franchise.

The Hornets are going to play three games at New Orleans Arena in March, but it will be a surprise if the committee does not recommend an additional season in Oklahoma. Feel free to presume there have been some back-channel communications from Hornets ownership to fellow governors urging such a return. The team has a sweetheart deal with Oklahoma City to play in the Ford Center, which has turned into such a nice home-court advantage that Byron Scott would have to be a fool not to have lobbied owner George Shinn to push the board to let the Hornets return to Oklahoma City next season. And Scott is no fool.

John Reid of the New Orleans Times-Picayune had an interesting Q&A session with David Stern last week that provided a hint, if you know how to interpret Stern-speak, that the team will go back to Oklahoma City next season.

When Reid asked Stern if he had concerns about a potential lost fan base and businesses in New Orleans because of Hurricane Katrina, this was Stern's response: "I think ultimately there will be two things. One is repopulation and the progress made in the short term, which means for next year. The other one is the repopulation in the long term. We're operating on the assumption that the repopulation on the long term will be complete in terms of having a population base that will support an NBA team."

Translation: No way we're going back to a diminished fan base next season and try to compete with the Saints, being subsidized by the NFL to play at the Superdome. But we're committed to the Hornets' eventual return, as long as that long-term repopulation gets The Big Easy back to a population approximating pre-Katrina level.

Here's one more question we'd like Stern to answer: Should the Hornets make this year's playoff field — don't laugh, they went into Saturday's game at New York just one game below .500 — would the league split their home playoff games between Oklahoma City and New Orleans?

Article 37

The Oklahoman

1.22.2006

no link available

Top

Back

Ford Center crowds energize Hornets

By Andrew Gilman

The Oklahoman

The old Charlotte Coliseum was rocking that day back in November of 1988.

The PA system blared “Shout,” a favorite tune of fans that first season, when the Charlotte Hornets joined the NBA as an expansion team in 1988.

The place wasn’t full, but it was loud, said Leonard Laye, the reporter assigned to cover the Hornets that season for the Charlotte Observer.

It was always loud at the Charlotte Coliseum, a place that would be so full, so often, later when the Hornets led the league in attendance for seven years running. The Hornets beat the woeful Los Angeles Clippers that day, but the crowd treated the win as if it were the Lakers instead.

“It was just crazy,” Laye said. “The place was going nuts. Everyone was happy, and a friend turned to me and said, ‘Forgive them, Lord. They know not what they are cheering for.’ ”

What they were cheering for was the same thing folks in Oklahoma City are clamoring about these days. And the result is a home-crowd advantage that will certainly take hold again tonight when the Memphis Grizzlies come to town for a 7 p.m. tip at the Ford Center.

But what makes a home court rock and visiting teams roll (over)?

It may be the winning - the Hornets are 18-19 headed into tonight’s game - but it may be the uniqueness of the NBA in Oklahoma City, a new market for the league and a new experience for local fans.

As of Tuesday, the Hornets are 11th in the NBA in attendance, getting 17,721 fans per game. But take away the two “home” games in Norman and Baton Rouge, La., and the average jumps to 18,773 - eighth-best.

“Maybe it’s the newness,” said Hornets coach Byron Scott of the NBA landing in Oklahoma City for the first time. “Maybe it’s the winning. I don’t know, but the players love the energy they get from the crowd and the coaches love it because the guys are feeding off that.”

This season, the Hornets are 10-6 in the Ford Center, with wins against San Antonio and Miami, but just 8-13 away from downtown OKC, including a loss to hapless Atlanta.

“The fans are up and they are loud no matter what,” Hornets forward Desmond Mason said. “A lot of the fans at the Ford Center are college basketball fans and are bringing that atmosphere for us.”

And there it is. The Hornets’ home advantage was born out of a body of a college sports town and born at just the right time. This season, the college sports scene has been more down than in years past. No national championship contender at Oklahoma, no bowl game at Oklahoma State. NCAA Tournament prospects dimming at both places. And with no other major-league franchises around, fans have come out in a way not seen in very many places around the NBA.

“They’re not used to seeing NBA games,” Hornets guard Speedy Claxton said. “That’s what’s got them so hyped.”

Hyped because the team is winning at the Ford Center at a higher-than-anticipated rate and hyped thanks to prodding from the Hornets’ game-operations crew.

No team in the NBA on game nights is as involved in getting the fans involved as the Hornets are.

While NBA commissioner David Stern has suggested there is too much piped-in music in NBA arenas, the Hornets apparently haven’t gotten that message. At the Ford Center, the crowd is really loud, but the music is louder, and plays longer than other arenas. Public-address announcer Michael Thompson keeps a running dialogue throughout the game, unmatched by other announcers, while fans stand and cheer at all the right times.

Meanwhile, fans who sit in the cheap seats are embraced at the Ford Center, but are just an afterthought in other places.

In Oklahoma City, a ride up the Ford Center escalator means a trip to “Loud City,” where there are giveaways reserved for those who bought the $10 seats.

Hornets officials say they are playing the same music and running the same routines they did back in New Orleans, but the team didn’t win and didn’t draw fans the same way they are here. The Hornets were last in the league in attendance a year ago.

“When you’re almost the only game in town, the fans get behind you and are a little more interested in what you are doing,” said Scott. “A lot of it is because it was a small community and a college-type atmosphere, that’s what we have in Oklahoma City.

“When you’re the only pro team in town, the fans have a starvation for entertainment, or pro sports, it makes it easier.”

Easier to fill the arena, easier to cheer and in turn, easier for the home team to win.

“Having that new team in town creates a status that evokes civic pride,” said Laye, once again comparing the new Hornets to the old Charlotte Hornets, a team that took over in North Carolina. “When you can say you have a major-league team in town, it means something.”

It used to mean something in Charlotte, but eventually those Hornets lost it.

In 2002, the last year the Hornets were in Charlotte, the team made it to the second round of the playoffs, but had a crowd of 9,505 in one playoff game and never had a home crowd of more than 14,000 in four other playoff games.

Two seasons ago in New Orleans, the Hornets went 41-41, but didn’t even sell out their home opener. And the two times the Hornets made the playoffs while in New Orleans, they managed two sellouts in five home games.

But in Oklahoma City, the Hornets are not only benefitting from the newness of the NBA, but they are getting wins at a rate no one expected.

“I don’t really care why they are there,” Mason said. “It doesn’t matter the reason, whether they say it’s new or there’s nothing to do, it doesn’t matter how you look at it. Our fans are coming out and cheering for us, and for a team that’s so young, for them to support this way, makes it really good.”

And it’s made the team pretty good, too. Good enough that Scott asked team officials to move games. Tonight’s game was supposed to be played in Baton Rouge. Scott’s concerned about wins, and the best way to get more, as evidenced by this season, is to use that home-court advantage.

“Winning always makes it easier to support the team,” Scott said. “Now, it’s not always that way. Some places they will support the team no matter what.”

That remains to be seen in Oklahoma City. But for now, the Hornets’ home-court advantage is alive because of a packed house, good players and a lot of noise.

“Winning means more fans are in the seats,” Mason said. “And the more fans there are, the louder it gets.”

Article 38

Boston Globe

1.24.2006

http://www.boston.com/sports/basketball/celtics/
articles/2006/01/24/entire_season_blown_off_course/

Top

Back

Entire season blown off course

By Dan Shaughnessy, Globe Columnist | January 24, 2006

Some of them left on Friday night and drove to Houston. Some of them waited until Saturday, then went to higher ground in Lafayette, La. None of the New Orleans Hornets anticipated the magnitude of nature's fury.

It's been almost five months since Hurricane Katrina made landfall, and the New Orleans Hornets haven't been back to their own gym yet. They've played home games in Oklahoma City, Baton Rouge, and Norman, Okla. They won't play their first game in New Orleans until March 8 against the Lakers (wonder how many Kobe will get? Larry Bird once went for 60 in New Orleans). It will be one of only three true ''home" games for the Hornets this year.

''That will be special," veteran forward P.J. Brown said before last night's game against the Celtics at the Garden. ''It'll be the first professional sporting event in New Orleans since the storm. It will be symbolic to show that the city is coming back. It will send a message around the country."

The Hornets were the second-worst team in the NBA last year (thank you, Atlanta), winning only 18 games, but they left Boston with a 20-21 record and would be a veritable lock for the playoffs if they played in the Eastern Conference. It's a pretty good showing considering their status as true NBA Globetrotters.

Coach Byron Scott said, ''We've just got a group of young guys who understand exactly what's going on in New Orleans. Basketball's been a safe haven. It's the one place where we could go where this did not touch us. All of us have friends and loved ones in New Orleans. It's been a tragedy, but it also brought us closer together."

Training camp was still a month away when Katrina brought hell on earth to the Big Easy. Many of the Hornets scattered around the United States. Rookie-to-be Chris Paul had yet to find an apartment in the city where he'd had his party after being picked third in the 2005 NBA Draft.

Brown, getting ready for his 13th NBA season, had more at stake than most of his teammates. He went to high school and college in Louisiana and he was at home with his wife and four children when the mayor told everybody to get out of town.

''We're used to it," said the 6-foot-11-inch franchise anchor. ''We thought there was going to be some damage but we thought it would be minimal. So I waited until the last minute, but Saturday night, we left. We drove to Lafayette. Four days later, I came back. I'd seen a lot on TV, of course, but it's not the same as when you go back in. We were lucky. We had some damage, but none of the total devastation that so many had."

Coach Scott was similarly fortunate.

''The mayor was already saying to get out on Thursday, but I'm hard-headed and we waited until Saturday night," said the former Laker guard. ''My wife and kids and I drove to Houston. About 5 1/2 hours. We were there for a week."

It was a little different for equipment manager David Jovanovic, who's been with the Hornets since their first days in Charlotte in 1988.

''People don't realize how little time there was," said Jovanovic, who lived in Slidell, La. ''We left on Friday in our minivan. My wife, two kids, and me. We didn't bring the four cats. You take what you think you will need and you drive thinking that when you come home everything will be OK. That's what had happened in the past.

''But this was the big one. When I finally got back three weeks later, my house was half-destroyed. The wind took off three sides. We lost everything downstairs. The cats survived, but they were pissed off."

Jovanovic's family is staying in another New Orleans home while theirs is rebuilt. A pile of insurance claim forms has been filled out and the home is almost habitable again. Brown's family has temporarily relocated to Houston. The Scotts are in Oklahoma City, where the Hornet players and front office workers have been living since September.

A lot of other NBA-hungry cities offered shelter to the team, but Oklahoma City had the arena (the 19,163-seat Ford Center) and the location. The NBA schedule was already set when Katrina struck, so moving the Hornets to the West Coast was not feasible. The temporary site had to be somewhere near New Orleans.

Celtics radio announcer Sean Grande was impressed with the home crowd when the Green visited Oklahoma City in December.

''It was refreshing and cleansing," said Grande. ''The way you'd treat a new girlfriend, that's the way they were treating the Hornets. There's a certain purity about it. Almost a college atmosphere. And I think it's a huge part of their resurgence."

The Hornets are averaging more than 17,500 at home and have had 10 sellouts.

''Good people there," said Brown. ''They've embraced us."

Still, it's a strange situation. The front of the uniforms reads, ''New Orleans." The standings indicate that ''New Orleans" ranks fourth in the Southwest Division, below Memphis and above Houston. The Hornets are covered by the New Orleans Times-Picayune, and their games are broadcast on WODT radio in New Orleans.

They have New Orleans written all over them, but the NBA season is exactly half-over and they haven't been home yet. Not even close.

Article 39

Loyola Maroon

1.27.2006

http://maroon.loyno.edu/media/paper542/news/
2006/01/27/Sports/Support.The.Home.Team-1514273.shtml

Top

Back

Support the home team

By Melanie Newman

Published: Friday, January 27, 2006

The Oklahoma City Hornets and the San Antonio Saints?

It just doesn't seem right. For the Hornets, there has to be something to the turnaround, considering they were the lowest scoring team in the NBA last year. This year is a little different. They are 20-21, with a surprising hope of a playoff birth. While in New Orleans, they were 18-64.

In Oklahoma City, attendance at Hornets games is up by more than 4,000 from the 14,221 average attendance in New Orleans. The Saints were also warmly welcomed by San Antonio and rumors surfaced that the team might relocate to Texas, but the Saints announced a return to the Superdome next season.

In an interview with The Times-Picayune, NBA Commissioner David Stern said that the repeated sellouts in Oklahoma won't factor into the league's decision to bring the Hornets back to Louisiana. An agreement was made in early January to play three home games at the New Orleans Arena in March.

On March 8, the Hornets will play the Los Angeles Lakers in the first professional sporting event in the city since Hurricane Katrina. They face the Denver Nuggets on March 18 and the Los Angeles Clippers on March 21. The final decision on the Hornets' home next season is expected to be announced by next week.

An easy thing anyone can do, for the love of sports, for the love of New Orleans, will be to attend one, or all, of these three games and support the Saints this fall. New Orleans has to show our athletic teams and their leagues that we can and will support professional sports or else we run the risk of losing them. Oklahoma City and San Antonio, two relatively sleepy towns, have given our teams tremendous support.

We can do much better, and I'm optimistic that we will. Everyone talks about the necessity of New Orleans to return to normalcy, but how normal will it be if our professional sports teams leave us? Before the hurricane, the possibility of the Saints jumping ship was plausible. Though it is true that both teams had dismal seasons in New Orleans, this city isn't exactly home to the greatest fans in the leagues.

Pre-Katrina, we certainly took our NBA and NFL franchises for granted at times, and I hope that changes. After everything that we have been through, city pride should be at an all-time high, and that pride should be reflected in attendance at sports events.

Losing a sports team may seem trivial compared to everything else this city has lost. But through supporting our professional sports teams, we can gain a lot as a city. We can gain respect because, as evidenced by the Hornets massive improvement, teams play a lot better when they have a community behind them.

We can only hope that the improvement will continue and the national media will look beyond pitying New Orleans and begin to praise us for our victories on the field and court. A winning team will also bring self-respect and increase city pride.

We all came back to New Orleans. Our professional sports teams will come back, as well, despite tempting offers from Oklahoma City and San Antonio.

We all love this city, and so we, as fans, should show our sports teams more love.

Article 40

Times-Picayune

1.27.2006

http://www.nola.com/sports/t-p/index.ssf?/base/
sports-22/1138347537148660.xml

Top

Back

Scott explains desire for OKC

Coach doubts N.O. can back team in '06-07

Friday, January 27, 2006

By Benjamin Hochman

Staff writer

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Hornets coach Byron Scott, enraptured by fan support in Oklahoma City and wary of what awaits him in New Orleans, elaborated on why he said Wednesday night that he wants the Hornets to play in Oklahoma City next season.

"I think we have an obligation to be back to New Orleans when economically they can support a team," Scott said Thursday. "And the reason I said I feel comfortable here (in Oklahoma City) and would like to play here next year, is because I don't see that happening next year. I really don't think they'll have the residency, the economics to support a second franchise. I think our attendance would probably be worse because I don't think you have enough people.

"That's my main concern," added Scott, who has been in New Orleans once since the season started. "(The Hornets players) are getting used to playing in front of a nice, packed crowd every night, where fans are really into the game. It would be a big letdown if you don't have the type of fans back in New Orleans that we hope we would get."

A decision is expected from the NBA by the end of the month about the Hornets' plans for next season. Team owner George Shinn said he ultimately wants to return to New Orleans, but it's possible the team will remain in Oklahoma City for another season.

The team started selling tickets Wednesday to the three games it has scheduled for New Orleans Arena in March. Team officials said they were cautiously optimistic that they will have good crowds for the games against the Los Angeles Lakers (March 8), Denver Nuggets (March 18) and Los Angeles Clippers (March 21).

Although Scott, who is in his second season as Hornets coach, has little influence over the decision, he is the day-to-day face of the team, and Wednesday was the second time he's indicated a preference for Oklahoma.

A few weeks after the Hornets lost the first regular-season game they played in Louisiana, 101-88 to the Phoenix Suns on Dec. 16 before a sparse crowd at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge, Scott said he thought the Hornets would have won if the game had been played in Oklahoma City.

"When that game was over," Scott said then, "I was upset at the players and myself for allowing that game to get away from us. But in the back of my mind, when I went to the locker room, I thought, if this game was in Oklahoma City, it wouldn't have been this close. If we would have had a 14-point lead going into the fourth quarter, we would have won the game."

The Hornets announced Jan. 5 that they were moving the remaining five games that had been scheduled for Baton Rouge to Oklahoma and New Orleans. The proceeds from the two games played in Oklahoma went to the team's Hoops for Homes program in New Orleans.

With the drafting of stellar point guard Chris Paul and several other key offseason moves, the Hornets are a much improved team from the 2004-05 season. A big reason for this season's 20-22 record, Scott and some players said, has been the home fans. The team is 12-7 in the Sooner State. On Wednesday night, after a home loss to the San Antonio Spurs, Scott said, "I would love to play here, stay here and play in Oklahoma City. I think our guys are enjoying it. I think the fans have been unbelievable. Out of our 12 home wins, I think the fans have won half of them, just with their energy."

The Hornets are 11th in the NBA in attendance with an average of 17,641, a number skewed by two games in college venues: 7,302 fans at LSU, and 11,343 at the University of Oklahoma in Norman on Jan. 13. On Wednesday against the defending-champion Spurs, the Hornets had a sellout crowd of 19,289 at the Ford Center.

Of course, the NBA is the first major league team to call Oklahoma City home, and the novelty of the NBA has made the Hornets a hit. While future sustainability is up for debate, Scott looks at the present. And the present is -- his team is pushing for a playoff spot, and his team plays well in Oklahoma City.

"It's a college atmosphere," Scott said of home games. "The fans are crazy about the Hornets."

Last season in New Orleans, the Hornets were dismal. At one point they won two of 31 games and were on pace to set the league record for fewest wins in a season before finishing with a franchise-worst 18-64 record. The Hornets averaged 14,221 fans last season with three sellouts, last in the NBA. But from a business standpoint, the team felt a corner was turned in the spring when Paul Mott became team president and rejuvenated the executive office. Last June, Hornets officials said the team was recording its highest sales figures since the franchise relocated to New Orleans in 2002.

"(New Orleans) is where we're supposed to be, but the most extreme disaster in the history of our country forced us to leave," said Hornets center P.J. Brown, a Louisiana native who lives in Slidell. "Right now, they're trying to do things to get their lives back on track. Would I prefer the team to eventually go back there one day? Yes. But as of right now, I just don't know if we're able to support a team right now. That's the question I don't know (the answer to)."

Scott admits he is in a "sticky situation" trying to be politically correct, but also trying to do what's best for his players.

Asked if the Hornets have an obligation to be part of the city's rebuilding process, Scott said: "That's probably true, but I also say the NBA is in the business of making money, and Mr. Shinn is in the business of making money -- he's the owner of the team. If we go back there, even if we're only getting (a smaller number of fans), that means he's losing a ton of money -- and so is the NBA. I do understand the obligation. We're all in a tough situation because this is New Orleans' basketball team. You had something that drastically changed that in Hurricane Katrina. . . .

"But the truth of the matter is -- can they support a basketball team? And a lot of people are saying by next year, they don't think there's any way the city will be rebuilt enough to where they can support two (professional) franchises. As a coach, that's my concern. I want these guys to be able to play in an environment where it generates the energy. We went to Atlanta to play, and we all looked around, and even the players were like, 'Geez.' There were like 7,000-8,000 fans there. It's tough to get up and play every single night when you don't have the type of fan base we have here right now (in Oklahoma City)."

Because of a dramatic reshaping of the roster last offseason, most of the Hornets' players don't have ties to New Orleans. Five of the 14 Hornets were attained in the summer or fall and spent only days in the city.

Brown, in his 13th season in the NBA, understands the mindset of New Orleanians: "From a mental standpoint, just having the team back there, it's showing the country that we're taking steps to get back to where we were. And the Hornets were becoming a big part of the business community...

"I know the Hornets are going to be OK, no matter what. I want what's best for the state of Louisiana and the city of New Orleans. That's where I'm from, and that's where my heart is. Not only just now, but I mean 10 years from now, 20 years from now."

Article 41

The Oklahoman

1.27.2006

no link available

Top

Back

Some Hornet players wouldn’t mind staying in Oklahoma City

By Andrew Gilman and Darnell Mayberry

The Oklahoman

Hornets players are being careful about what they say concerning matters of location for next season.

Advisors to suggest Hornets' fate

Notes

But when it comes down to on-court issues, those same Hornets are speaking their minds.

“I just hope they (the decision makers) are taking into account the response we’ve gotten here,” said Hornet forward David West. “They keep telling us playing in Oklahoma City is temporary, it’s temporary, it’s temporary, but we want to win and we want to perform in front of people.”

When asked about where they want the team to be next season, not one player on the Hornets roster said New Orleans, without also mentioning the positives of Oklahoma City. Coach Byron Scott has already said he would prefer the team return to Oklahoma City next season.

While the players want to avoid offending fans in New Orleans and Oklahoma City, the bottom line is the importance of wins and losses.

The Hornets’ record is important enough that the league has taken notice, already moving a pair of games out of Baton Rouge, La., due in part to low turnouts for a preseason game and a regular-season game in December.

And with the Hornets averaging 18,565 in 18 games in Oklahoma City (eighth-best in the NBA), a season-ticket base of more than 10,000, the home court is the main reason the players are saying they want to come back.

While some players, like forward Rasual Butler suggested the team should return to New Orleans, the comments were tempered by affection for Oklahoma City.

“This team belongs to New Orleans,” Butler said. “I would think it would be better for the city of New Orleans to go back. But at the same time, Oklahoma City is a great host to us right now. It’s showing a lot of hospitality with their fan support.”

Scott said Wednesday night, after the Hornets were ripped by San Antonio 84-68, that the fans were responsible for at least half the team’s 12 home wins.

“So I would prefer to stay here,” he admitted.

His team seems to feel the same way.

“Right now, I’d say here (would be better),” said guard J.R. Smith. “I don’t think New Orleans is ready, especially for a pro team right now. And I think Oklahoma City has really embraced us with sold-out crowds every night. So from a team standpoint, I think we need to stay here.”

The players feelings aren’t being considered by the league, and even PJ Brown, who is the NBA Players Association representative, said he hasn’t been asked. Brown, who is from Louisiana, did not offer an opinion on what he prefers for the Hornets next season.

“Ask me in five months,” Brown said. “I can tell you then.”

But the decision is expected to come much sooner. The NBA’s finance committee, made up of 13 owners from around the league, is expected to make a decision by next week. By Wednesday, the Hornets should know where they are playing next year.

“I like the way Oklahoma has been,” said guard Speedy Claxton, who was one of the few Hornets who was opposed to the team moving to Oklahoma City in the first place. “I would like to stay here, but I really don’t have that much of a preference. It isn’t my decision.”

Even Brandon Bass, who is from Baton Rouge, and played at LSU, has mixed feelings.

“I’d rather it be New Orleans because it’s close to home,” Bass said. “But I’d rather stay here because of the fans. They’re crazy here.”

Article 42

Tulsa World

1.27.2006

no link available

Top

Back

Hornets, fans wait for news about home

By Bill Haisten World Sports Writer

1/27/2006

Commissioner Stern to announce where the team will play next season.

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Byron Scott owns homes in Los Angeles and New Orleans. The Hornets' head coach is renting a house in Oklahoma City. He would prefer to buy -- and stay.

"I think all of those guys in that locker room like playing in front of 19,000 people every night," Scott said after the Hornets' Tuesday night loss to San Antonio at the Ford Center. "I would like to stay here next year."

Every aspect of the Hornets' Oklahoma City experience has been positive, but the team and its fans are shackled by uncertainty.

Within days, NBA Commissioner David Stern is expected to announce whether the Hornets will remain in Oklahoma City or return to New Orleans for the 2006-07 season.

"The announcement will come soon, and I don't like to comment on what it's going to be," Hornets owner George Shinn said. "If I do that, I might get some people upset or mad. It's very, very sensitive.

"I have a plan in place. If we can stay here another year, it will give us some breathing room. I want to meet with the powers that be in Louisiana and say, 'Hey, I've got a business here and I want it to work.' If the state (of Louisiana) is willing to backstop me (by providing financial assurances), then we can do business."

According to the Hornets' lease agreement with the New Orleans Arena, if they play three games in the arena in March, as they are scheduled to do, then they are obligated to play in New Orleans next season. The overriding issue is whether the New Orleans area, devastated by Hurricane Katrina, has the population and economic ability to support an NBA franchise.

"When the arena is playable, we're supposed to come back," Stern told the New Orleans Times-Picayune. "That's just the way it is."

At the midway mark of the season, the Hornets already have two more victories (20) than they recorded during the entire 2004-05 season. In New Orleans last season, the Hornets were last in the NBA in home attendance (14,221 average). This season, the Hornets are 11th with an average of 17,641. That figure is misleading. Two of the team's designated home games were played elsewhere, drawing crowds of 11,343 in Norman and 7,302 in Baton Rouge, La.

For 18 Ford Center dates, the Hornet average is 18,565. That's a number that would rank eighth in the league.

"Obviously, I think the Hornets will be (in Oklahoma City) next season. After that, we'll just have to see what happens," said Bill Land, a former Tulsa broadcaster who now does Spurs television play-by-play. "The Hornets weren't drawing in New Orleans, anyway. People didn't care about the team. If you're just very honest, I don't think most of the people in New Orleans would care at all if this team left.

"Early in the season, I traveled with the Spurs, and I'd talk with people around the league who had seen games in Oklahoma City. They all said, 'You won't believe it. It's just like a college game.' One thing I notice is that the fans are all here when the game starts. In most NBA cities, a lot of fans are fashionably late. Here, the fans don't want to miss a moment of it."

Scott said most of his NBA associates have been "shocked" by the Hornets' popularity in Oklahoma City. Reminded that Oklahoma is known as a football state, Scott said, "Yeah, I know, but you couldn't tell by the way the crowd comes to our games. What I love about (the Ford Center) is that you get that college atmosphere."

On Tuesday, the Hornets played before their 10th Ford Center sellout. In 41 New Orleans dates last season, the Hornets managed only three sellouts.

"We're thankful and blessed with the way this community and state have helped us," said Tim Hinchey, the Hornets' senior vice president of corporate development. "But at the same time, we're not prepared yet to just shutter the doors down (in New Orleans).

"Somebody's going to make a good decision at some point. What this is, I have no idea."

Among the 19,289 fans who attended Tuesday's Spurs-Hornets contest was Oklahoma Secretary of State Susan Savage, the former Tulsa mayor. She sampled an NBA game for the first time since the 1980s, when she lived in Philadelphia and watched the Julius Erving-led 76ers play at the Spectrum.

"It was great fun," Savage said. "Very fast-paced. Great family entertainment. I saw several people from Tulsa at the game, so I know the Hornets are being supported by citizens throughout the state."

From a business standpoint, the Hornets are paralyzed until Stern makes a decision. Shinn would consider selling a percentage of the team to Oklahoma investors, but, he says, "you can't even really proceed on that deal because you're not sure where you'll be next season."

"Everything is on hold," Shinn said. "For the next season, everybody in the league launches their campaign in the very beginning of February. We've got to get rolling."

Article 43

Times-Picayune

1.28.2006

no link available

Top

Back

Saturday, January 28, 2006

By John Reid

and Benjamin Hochman

With an NBA-imposed deadline just days away, it appears likely that the Hornets will be based in Oklahoma City next season and visit New Orleans for just a handful of games with an understanding the team would return to the Crescent City for the 2007-08 season, league sources said Friday.

It's not known how many games will be played in New Orleans, the Hornets' home since the 2002-03 season until Hurricane Katrina forced the team to relocate to Oklahoma, but league sources indicate it likely will be six to eight games.

Earlier this season, Hornets officials said playing a split schedule for the 2006-07 season was a possibility, but this week they said dividing the 41-game home schedule equally between the two cities would be impractical because the team would have to keep a sizable work force in both markets.

Though team owner George Shinn has consistently said he wants to be part of the city's rebuilding efforts, he also has consistently said he wants to bring the team back when the city is ready to support it. Last week, NBA commissioner David Stern said the league is operating on the assumption that the city's long-term repopulation projections will be sufficient to support an NBA team. "Our plans are to come back," he said.

But Hornets coach Byron Scott questioned this week whether next season is the time to return.

"I really don't think they'll have the residency, the economics to support a second franchise," Scott said Thursday. "I think our attendance would probably be worse, because I don't think you have enough people. That's my main concern."

Hornets and NBA officials have been in discussions with state and SMG officials since mid-December about possible options. The Hornets do not have an out clause in their 10-year agreement, but if they decide to leave after the final year of the contract, 2012, they would have to pay a $10 million penalty.

"We believe the Hornets' lease agreement requires them to return to New Orleans for the 2006-07 season," Superdome Commission chairman Tim Coulon said in a statement. "We are aware of their concern regarding the ability of the market to support a 41-game season.

"The state, through the LSED and SMG, has been diligently working with the Hornets and the NBA toward the same mutual goal: to assure the long-term success of NBA basketball in New Orleans. We have made every effort to make accurate, objective information and projections available to them. We believe they have made a long-term-commitment to New Orleans."

The Hornets will play three games at New Orleans Arena this season, beginning March 8 against the Los Angeles Lakers. Tickets for the three games went on sale Wednesday, and in a statement issued by the team, the Hornets said they are cautiously optimistic they will have good crowds for what will be the first professional sporting events in New Orleans since Katrina.

Arena general manager Glenn Menard said the Arena is on schedule to be ready for the March 8 game. The most extensive work involves the two locker room areas, which suffered water damage from Katrina.

As part of its lease agreement with the Hornets, there is a clause that if the Arena is deemed playable for the three games scheduled, the Hornets are obligated to return to New Orleans next season. But it appears state officials are willing to work with the Hornets to accommodate their wishes for the short term as long as they commit to returning after the 2006-07 season.

When the Hornets signed their lease agreement with Oklahoma City in October, they had an option to return for the 2006-07 season if the league determined that New Orleans had not fully recovered economically from Katrina or repopulated to a sufficient level to support an NBA team. The team's lease deal in Oklahoma is generous, and fan support has been very strong at the Ford Center. The franchise is guaranteed to earn between $35 million to $40 million, and the deal pays for housing the team's employees and the team's furnished office space, which is within walking distance of the Ford Center. The Hornets can extend the lease for another season with the same revenue guarantees. The team also has signed five major sponsorship deals with Oklahoma City-based companies.

The Hornets have concerns about their corporate sponsorships in New Orleans. The team said that all but three of their corporate sponsors either suspended or canceled their deals. Team officials also said one in three season ticket-holders no longer lives in Louisiana, according to information they gathered when refunds were made available for New Orleans season ticket-holders for the 2005-06 season.

"Sports partnerships and sponsorships, in a lot of the cases, are going to take a back seat," said Michael Thompson, the Hornets' director of corporate communications. ". . . There's a lot of that adjustment going on in New Orleans. I have every reason to believe they're going to come back. Eventually, the population base is going to return."

"It comes down to business," said Hornets center P.J. Brown, a Louisiana native. "That's a business decision for Mr. Shinn and David Stern. If the team goes back there, they're going to want the team to make money. We all know that.

"If the fans are not able to come to the games and support the team, they're not making any money. I don't know if that's in the best interest of the team or the city of New Orleans -- I don't know yet."

Oklahoma City mayor Mick Cornett said the city has not been involved in any negotiations with the Hornets regarding next season, nor has he received any information regarding the league's pending decision on where the Hornets will be based next season.

"If this team is going to return to Oklahoma City next season, it needs to be because the city of New Orleans is not yet ready," Cornett said. "We have not been negotiating for next year, and it wouldn't be appropriate to do so until they determine that they cannot play in New Orleans. And I haven't heard that word yet."

Article 44

Yahoo Sports

1.28.2006

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;
_ylt=AkpdmdB9.2sOF.VtqgnLR728vLYF?slug=ap-hornets-neworleans&
prov=ap&type=lgns

Top

Back

Shinn says best for Hornets to stay in Oklahoma next season

January 28, 2006

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) -- New Orleans Hornets owner George Shinn said Saturday the team should remain in Oklahoma City next season.

"Right now, I think everybody's got to accept the fact that New Orleans is not ready for this coming season," Shinn said. "They're not ready, so we should play in Oklahoma City next year, and then start working and putting everything together to come back."

The NBA said that commissioner David Stern has planned to announce a decision on the Hornets' status by the end of this month.

"The NBA said we'll be announcing it at the end of the month, and I'm predicting a few days after that," Shinn said before the Hornets played the Memphis Grizzlies. "The end of the month is not until Tuesday, I think, so just hold your breath until then."

The Times-Picayune reported Saturday that the Hornets would be based in Oklahoma City next season and play "a handful of games" in New Orleans.

Shinn initially downplayed the report and continually referred to the legal wrangling between his representatives and the state, at one point saying lawyers are "overpaid and underworked."

Shinn added that the Hornets have "already agreed" to play six games in New Orleans next season, but as for the rest of the matter, nothing is settled. He said until he hears from his attorney or the NBA, "that a deal's done, there's no deal."

The Hornets have played almost all of their games this season in Oklahoma City because of the damage to New Orleans and the surrounding Gulf Coast from Hurricane Katrina.

Coach Byron Scott said last week he also hopes the Hornets remain in Oklahoma City next season.

Shinn said the Hornets have a signed lease to play in New Orleans and he will honor that, but he wants to make sure the agreement is fair to all parties, including himself. And with the city's future uncertain, he wants to make sure he is not forced into something unfair to his franchise.

"What if next October there's 10 feet of water in the city?" Shinn asked. "You expect me to come back? Give me a break. Just be reasonable about things. That's all I'm asking."

Shinn expects his attorneys, and possibly even himself, to continue discussing the deal with Louisiana officials. Shinn said he is even willing to fly to Baton Rouge early next week to discuss the matter with Gov. Kathleen Blanco. And, at times, he sounded frustrated by the process.

"I feel like the guy that's got two women that's fighting over him," Shinn said. "It would be nice if it was two women instead of two states."

Article 45

Times-Picayune

1.28.2006

http://www.nola.com/sports/t-p/index.ssf?/
base/sports-22/1138431413243320.xml

Top

Back

Coach's remarks about next season aren't OK

Saturday, January 28, 2006

John DeShazier

Hornets owner George Shinn has professed an undying love for, and every intention to return his franchise as soon as possible to, New Orleans.

All he has to do now is make sure Byron Scott has the memo and advise his head coach to, at least publicly, toe the company line. Because for all the wonderful things Scott has done with the Hornets on the court this season -- taking a team with some not-so-great parts and molding it into a competitive 20-22 team when everyone would've bet good money the Hornets would've been 10 or 15 games under .500 by now -- he's at the point where it'd be in his best interests, and the best interests of the franchise, that he turn mute about things off the court.

First, Scott implied that the Hornets lost their December game in Baton Rouge against Phoenix because of a lack of enthusiasm by the 7,302 fans in attendance, rather than his team's reluctance to guard with a little more zest than a fence post in the fourth quarter.

Now, he has stated that he'd prefer to stay and play in Oklahoma City next season, where the Hornets have been warmly received and buoyed by an average attendance of about 19,000 per game at the Ford Center.

It's a double-edged sword, Scott's honesty, because we love him for it when he applies it to players he's disappointed with, etc. He doesn't turn it on and off like a faucet, isn't a player of politics.

And in this case it's probably not even wise to place an excessive amount of emphasis on what he has said about staying put. Ultimately, Shinn calls the shots for the Hornets and NBA commissioner David Stern will call the shots for Shinn. Where the Hornets will or won't play next season won't be a decision made by Scott.

But, that said, it's not exactly a boost to New Orleans' collective psyche that the coach of New Orleans' NBA franchise seems not to be in the least bit of a hurry to return to the city that his franchise calls home.

Imagine the effect Scott's desire to return to OKC might have on ticket sales for the three games that will be in New Orleans. Who wants to date a person who's salivating over someone else?

You'd hope that, at least, Scott and every Hornet would be expressing a desire to return to New Orleans and to play in New Orleans Arena as soon as possible. That, after witnessing how callous and detached the Saints' players looked after professing a desire not to return to New Orleans while the city struggles to regain its footing, everyone in the Hornets' organization would understand how much it means to the community that everyone associated with it show and express an intent to return and help rebuild.

True, support and attendance in OKC are undeniable. From all that can be seen and has been reported, the Hornets have been recipients of a suffocating hug, and OKC doesn't want to pry loose. The city wants an NBA team; logically, it would want to keep the one it's already familiar with even though it hasn't publicly made a play.

But, too, it would be wise to remember that the Hornets still are New Orleans' franchise. Attendance wasn't booming last season when the city was at full strength, but perhaps there was an extenuating circumstance.

The Hornets stunk.

An 18-64 team, which more often than not seemed to have no clue what it was supposed to be doing on the court, isn't going to play to rousing crowds and packed houses at home. Whatever attendance was last season, in which the Hornets had the worst record in franchise history, should be considered a blessing.

The same theory can apply for this season, with regard to the three games that will be played in New Orleans.

Considering all that has happened -- and all the other, more important things that money is needed for these days -- the people who show up for those games are the ones who should be applauded, not put in position to feel unappreciated or forgotten or brushed aside, yet again.

There'll be time enough to worry about the repopulation of New Orleans, the possible Hornets fan base, whether or not the region can support two major pro sports franchises. Stern and Shinn will address those issues, make a decision and, hopefully, it'll be one that plays to the best interests of the city and franchise.

Of more immediate importance is the fact that everyone in the organization at least should be willing to show support to the people who supported it when it was at its lowest point.

You'd hope they'd at least say something nice, or nothing at all.

Article 46

Times-Picayune

1.29.2006

http://www.nola.com/sports/t-p/index.ssf?/
base/sports-22/11385775703340.xml

Top

Back

Shinn won't commit for '07-'08

He wants state to be 'reasonable'

Sunday, January 29, 2006

By John Reid

Staff writer

MEMPHIS -- Hornets owner George Shinn said Saturday he's not opposed to playing six games in New Orleans next season. But he doesn't want to be forced to sign a guarantee that the franchise will honor its lease agreement and return to New Orleans for the 2007-08 season, after it plays a majority of its games again in Oklahoma City next season.

The Hornets' current lease with the state does not expire until 2012 and has no out clause. But if the team decides to leave after the final year of the contract, they would have to pay a $10 million penalty.

"We already have a contract, and if they want to go court, they have a right because I signed the (lease) deal," Shinn said. "To put something in that ties me down that much more is unfair. I can't predict what's going to happen to New Orleans. What if next October, there is 10 feet of water in the city, do they expect me to come back? If they want to put on the gloves, I can put on the gloves, too. Just be reasonable about things, that's all I'm doing.

"I want to work with them, and I want to do everything I can to make this thing good. But it's got to be good for everybody, not just this person or that community but everybody. I want it to work. I want people to work with me. I don't want people to say you've got to do this and you've got to do that. I don't have to do that."

The Hornets and the state remain in negotiations, and Shinn said he may request a meeting with Gov. Blanco on Monday to clear unresolved issues.

The league is likely to announce Tuesday that the Hornets will play 35 games in Oklahoma City and six in New Orleans next season, but Shinn said that announcement could be delayed by a day or two.

"As far as I'm concerned, we do not have a deal with the state of Louisiana and will not until I hear from the NBA or from my attorneys," Shinn said. "My attorneys and the attorneys from the state are talking and discussing it, but I have to make the final decision and they know what guidelines and parameters they have from me. We're not there yet.

"Until we get there, there is nothing to announce. The NBA said we'll be announcing it at the end of the month and I'm predicting maybe a little bit, two days after that. But the end of the month is not until Tuesday. So just hold your breath until then."

Larry Roedel, an attorney for the Louisiana Stadium & Exposition District (LSED), said negotiations with the Hornets and the NBA have been productive.

"The exchange of proposals for next season and beyond has been in good faith and the NBA staff and the Hornets are both professional and helpful," Roedel said by e-mail Saturday. "We do not yet have a definitive agreement on all key issues with the NBA and the team. Where the team will play its schedule next season has not been set. Jan 31st was the date set by the NBA for that decision to be made. Neither the state nor the Hornets selected that date."

But Shinn said everybody must accept that New Orleans will not be ready by next season, from a business or population standpoint, to adequately support a 41-game home schedule at New Orleans Arena.

"They're not ready, so we should play in Oklahoma City next year and then start working to put everything together to come back," Shinn said.

Shinn said, "I feel like the guy that's got two women that's fighting over him," when describing the pursuit of his franchise between Oklahoma City and New Orleans. "It would be nice if it was two women and not two states. It's a situation that I want to do what's best."

The Hornets' lease with Oklahoma City, signed in October, gives the team an option to return for the 2006-07 season if the league determines that New Orleans has not fully recovered economically from Katrina, or repopulated to a sufficient level to support an NBA team. The team's lease deal in Oklahoma is generous, and fan support has been very strong at the Ford Center.

The franchise is guaranteed to earn between $35 million to $40 million, and the deal pays for housing the team's employees and the team's furnished office space, which is within walking distance of the Ford Center. The Hornets can extend the lease for another season with the same revenue guarantees. The team also has signed five major sponsorship deals with Oklahoma City-based companies.

"We believe the Hornets' lease agreement requires them to return to New Orleans for the 2006-07 season," Superdome Commission chairman Tim Coulon said Friday. "We are aware of their concern regarding the ability of the market to support a 41-game season.

Article 47

USA Today

1.30.2006

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/basketball/
nba/hornets/2006-01-30-20-second-time-out_x.htm

Top

Back

20-second timeout: Brown says city comes first, Hornets 2nd

The NBA has said it would decide by today if the Hornets, who relocated to Oklahoma City this season after Hurricane Katrina, will return to New Orleans next season or remain in their temporary home. The Hornets are 12-6 at "home" this season and averaging 17,541 fans. But forward P.J. Brown's interest in the decision goes beyond the basketball court. He is a native of Louisiana and had relatives who were displaced by the storm as well having his home in Slidell, La., damaged. Brown talked with USA TODAY NBA reporter Roscoe Nance about the Hornets' future.

Q: How trying has this season been?

A: The toughest part of it was when the storm first hit and not knowing where we were going to be. For a couple of weeks we didn't know if we were going to be in Oklahoma City, Kansas City or St. Louis. After getting (to Oklahoma City), the people embraced us with open arms. That's what has made the transition a little bit easier, their courtesy and their graciousness. Oklahoma City has been a lot better than I thought. You got 17,000, 18,000, 19,000 people every night. It's like a college atmosphere. They don't sit until we score our first basket. You don't see that in the NBA. They're excited and enthusiastic. It's been a good combination. We're in a unique situation. We're playing for two cities.

Q: Would you prefer to stay in Oklahoma City or return to New Orleans?

A: That's a tough question. You're asking a Louisiana guy. Who knows what's going to happen. In my mind, the No. 1 thing is trying to get things right in New Orleans, get the region back on its feet. It's tough living conditions down there. A lot of people who had jobs are jobless. You have to get schools rebuilt and get them back to where they need to be. There are a lot of priorities that are more important than a professional sports franchise. If we can fit back in the stream of things economically and it's good, I'm all for going back. But I want to see those other things in place and taken care of before people are talking about teams going back because money is hard to come by.

Q: Do you think New Orleans' economy would be able to support the Hornets?

A: As of right now I don't think so. I think everybody would agree right now, no. In the future, that's the question — how soon would they be able to support us? I don't know what the political powers feel and what they think. But as of right now it would be pretty tough for us to be there.

Q: How excited are you about returning to New Orleans to play three games?

A: I'm excited. That's home. I have friends and family I'll be looking forward to playing in front of. It will mean lot to have us back in the city. Hopefully it will uplift the city even more than where they are and help people feel a little bit better about the situation.

Q: How disappointing was the reception for the game in Baton Rouge that drew 7,302 fans?

A: It was tough. But me living there and knowing the situation, I understood. People are trying to live. Money is tough. People are trying to get their lives back on track. The ones who could make it came out to support us as much as they could.

Article 48

USA Today

1.30.2006

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/basketball/nba/
hornets/2006-01-30-future-location-decision_x.htm

Top

Back

Hornets' future now in hands of NBA

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The owner and head coach of the New Orleans Hornets have already said where they think the team should play next year.

The NBA will have the final say.

A decision is expected this week, perhaps as early as Tuesday, on where the Hornets will play their 41 home games next season.

Owner George Shinn and coach Byron Scott took turns last week expressing their desire to return to Oklahoma City, where the Hornets are 12-6 and averaging 17,541 fans since being displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

After Scott said that "fans have been unbelievable" in Oklahoma City, Shinn added that "New Orleans is not ready for this coming season" — a combination that would seemingly point to a second season in Oklahoma City.

The Hornets have until July to exercise an option to return to Oklahoma City for the 2006-07 season. But NBA commissioner David Stern has said he wants a decision by the end of January, enabling the Hornets to begin season-ticket sales for next season.

Even in a shortened time span, the Hornets had no trouble selling tickets in Oklahoma City following the September relocation. By opening day, a SportsBusiness Journal report ranked the team sixth in the NBA in season ticket sales. The Ford Center has been sold out for 10 of the team's first 18 games.

Still, the NBA and Hornets officials have said they want the team to eventually return to New Orleans, although the team ranked last in attendance last season while finishing 18-64. What's uncertain is when a full-time return to the city will be feasible from a business standpoint, especially given the strength of fan support in Oklahoma City.

However, a return to Oklahoma City could require some work on the legal end.

The team's lease agreement with the New Orleans Arena contains a covenant requiring that all home games be played at the arena if it meets the NBA's standards. The Hornets are scheduled to play three games at the New Orleans Arena in March, and Shinn said this weekend that the Hornets "already agreed" to play six games in New Orleans next season.

The rest of the schedule is in the NBA's hands.

Article 49

Times-Picayune

1.31.2006

no link available

Top

Back

Strong N.O. turnout essential to send right message

Tuesday, January 31, 2006

John DeShazier

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Take George Shinn's contrition however you like. Believe the Hornets owner as far as you can toss him.

But understand that it's important to show up for the team's three-game cameo at New Orleans Arena in March. Understand, New Orleans, that when the curtains open against the Los Angeles Lakers on March 8, the nation will tune in and, fairly or unfairly, will equate it with the level of recovery.

Know that because it really is New Orleans' first "big" sporting event since Hurricane Katrina, the spotlight will shine bigger and brighter than it did even in the Hornets' first game in New Orleans, after the franchise relocated from Charlotte.

So the biggest thing is to show.

Even if you don't like what Shinn said last week about taking off the gloves and scrapping with the state about his lease agreement. Even if you cringed when Coach Byron Scott said his preference was to return to Oklahoma City for the 2006-07 season.

"I just want the people to understand, this thing has been stressful for me," Shinn said Monday night from the Ford Center, where the Hornets beat Milwaukee 94-93 on David West's jumper with a tenth of a second left.

"I'm trying my best not to upset anybody."

Fact is, though, it's going to be impossible for someone to not feel slighted.

It's either New Orleans, which absorbed the mother of all gut punches and still, at times, appears to be walking in quicksand. Or Oklahoma City, which graciously and generously opened its heart and bank account and poured its love into the Hornets in an effort either to attract them permanently or prove itself NBA-ready for Commissioner David Stern.

That's the tough part of the deal, knowing that whichever way the wind blows, someone still will have a nostril full of stink.

"I just want the people of New Orleans to understand that I'm still on track," Shinn said. "I want to be a part of rebuilding New Orleans."

Chalk up his prior defiance to anger, Shinn said, over the state's attempt to have him sign an unconditional guarantee to return on top of the lease agreement.

If, truly, that's the case, perhaps that was overkill. Especially if the lease is as ironclad as it appears to be, and the Hornets are locked into their marriage with New Orleans until at least 2012.

But, perhaps too, maybe the state's negotiators felt compelled to seek more assurance when word began to waft that the franchise wanted to stay put, without knowing whether or not it could be sufficiently supported in New Orleans next season.

The realistic likelihood is that it can't -- not with the population depleted and infrastructure devastated and leadership still, even now, unable to tell people whether they can return and rebuild. But it's too easy for a one- or two-season suspension to turn into something longer, too easy for the out-of-sight, out-of-mind syndrome to set in.

Amid all that legal entanglement and emotional posturing and uncertainty, the franchise wants, and needs, a good showing in March.

For itself, certainly, because no team wants its home crowd to be comprised mainly of vendors and dancers. For the league, which never has been in the business of subsidizing franchises and doesn't seem the least bit interested in starting now, of course.

But, just as much, a good showing is needed by New Orleans, for New Orleans.

"I don't know how critical it is," Shinn said. "(But) I think it's very important. Every little positive stacks up.

"The (Hornets') plan and the goal is to come back. Nothing has changed. I want New Orleans to look good."

Doesn't really matter how much you do or don't believe him, how much or little you take offense to what was said last week. Because ultimately, it's about supporting the franchise, about showing the nation that it's not all confusion, gloom, doom, dust and rubble in New Orleans.

Article 50

Sporting News

1.31.2006

http://www.sportingnews.com/yourturn/viewtopic.php?t=58082

Top

Back

No way Hornets return to New Orleans

By Michael Deuser

January 31, 2006

Hornets owner George Shinn sounded on Monday like a man who has spent a lot of time poring over contracts and talking to lawyers. He told reporters: "They were asking for an unconditional guarantee. I can't forecast any acts of God or any other thing, so how can I guarantee something that I can't? I'm not God, I can't do that." "They" was the state of Louisiana, which was pressing Shinn for a guarantee that he would return the Hornets to the city of New Orleans in 2007-08, two seasons after their hurricane-induced departure. Fact is, in my opinion, there's virtually no chance of the Hornets returning to the Crescent City; Shinn has stumbled onto a basketball goldmine better known as Oklahoma City.

Thanks to the basketball-crazy fans in Oklahoma, the 22-22 Hornets are 11th in the NBA in attendance this season despite having the league's second-lowest payroll (only the Bobcats spend less). Chris Paul and Co. are drawing 17,667 fans per night (including a game in Baton Rouge where they failed to clear the 8,000 mark), which is more than 3,000 more fans -- per night -- than the Hornets drew last season in pre-Katrina New Orleans. Considering that the average cost of an NBA ticket is around $50, that's an additional nightly revenue of around $150,000 -- or additional seasonal revenue of over $6 million -- before even one of those fans buys a hot dog or a jersey.

George Shinn isn't a god, and he doesn't aspire to be. George Shinn is a businessman, plain and simple. In Oklahoma City, the Hornets promise to be a profit-creating machine. In New Orleans, even before Katrina, they were guaranteed to generate a loss. Shinn has more than enough money to pay a team of talented lawyers very well. Something tells me they'll be able to find a loophole that will allow the team to bail on its New Orleans stadium lease before its contractu