MisterE Posted February 1, 2006 Share Posted February 1, 2006 Hornets to Return to Oklahoma CityTuesday, January 31, 2006 OKLAHOMA CITY - The Hornets will play most of their home games in Oklahoma City next season with New Orleans still recovering from Hurricane Katrina.The NBA announced Tuesday that the Hornets will play 35 games in Oklahoma City and six in New Orleans in 2006-07.NBA commissioner David Stern said in a statement the league remains committed to returning to New Orleans, but "for now, our collective interests are best served by having the team play the bulk of its 2006-07 schedule in Oklahoma City."However, we are hopeful that the team will be in a position to return to New Orleans full time beginning in the 2007-08 season."The agreement reached between the state of Louisiana and the Hornets allows the team to amend its lease agreement with the New Orleans Arena."The agreement reached today will ensure the Hornets stability while the New Orleans market fully recovers and, at the same time, maintains our presence in the NBA," Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco said.Stern also said the NBA will enter exclusive negotiations to bring the 2008 All-Star Game to New Orleans."From everything we have seen and heard, we have little doubt that New Orleans will soon regain its place among the world's premiere cities for hosting major sporting events," Stern said.The NBA has also agreed to hold its annual marketing meetings in New Orleans in October, with some 300-400 people expected to attend."The permanent identity of New Orleans as an NBA city is important to the economy of our entire region," Blanco said. "New Orleans has always been a great city for big events, and we are confident that we can quickly negotiate a deal to bring the All-Star Game to New Orleans."In 19 games at Oklahoma City's Ford Center this season, the Hornets have averaged 18,546 fans, including 10 sellouts. The surprising young team is 22-22.Last season playing in the New Orleans Arena, the Hornets averaged a league-low 14,221 fans and finished with a franchise-worst 18-64 record."I think the energy in the crowd has been a tremendous boost to our team. We've got a lot of young guys and they feed off that type of energy," Hornets coach Byron Scott said earlier Tuesday. "When you have a college atmosphere and you have a young team, this is what they like to play in front of."After the Aug. 29 hurricane devastated New Orleans, the Hornets scheduled 35 games in Oklahoma City and six others at LSU in Baton Rouge. But after fans filled only half of the LSU arena for a December game, the Hornets moved the remaining five games - two to Oklahoma and three to the New Orleans Arena in March.The Hornets are 13-7 in Oklahoma, including one win at the University of Oklahoma's Lloyd Noble Center."The fans have been wonderful," veteran center P.J. Brown, a Louisiana native, said after the Hornets' practice Tuesday. "We don't win a lot of those games at home without those guys. They really bring it."The decision takes the Hornets in the opposite direction of the NFL's Saints. NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue has said he expects the Saints to return to New Orleans for their eight home games next season, after splitting last season between Baton Rouge and San Antonio.This weekend, Hornets owner George Shinn questioned whether New Orleans was ready to host a 41-game NBA home schedule."There's no real winner here. Somebody's going to lose," Brown said before the announcement. "You don't know who that's going to be. It's tough. As a player, you're very sensitive to the fans' feelings and you want to make them happy. You want to make them feel good as much as possible on and off the floor. It's a tough situation to be in."Article from peoplepc.comNot sure what to think of this. Stern sounds sincere when he says he wants the 08 All-Star Game in New Orleans, but I still think the NBA secretly wants to bring a team to Oklahoma and with the Hornets attracting at least 16,000 a night, I wouldn't count on the team going back to Louisiana. We'll see how those six games in New Orleans go next season. Get Ron Santo in the Hall of Fame. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dilbert Posted February 1, 2006 Share Posted February 1, 2006 I think the Hornets are better off in the OKC. I think its a little too soon to think about an All Star Game in NO. Sure the New Orleans Arena may be fine, but the rest of the city would still be rebuilding. Rome wasnt built in a day and neither will New Orleans be rebuilt in a day. Signature intentionally left blank Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yh Posted February 1, 2006 Share Posted February 1, 2006 The owner of the Hornets has expressed reservations about returning to New Orleans. Stern says the league is committed to returning to New Orleans. Seems to me that the compromise solution here will end up being the Hornets staying in OKC and the league awarding an expansion franchise to New Orleans. The NBA has traditionally put expansion teams on the court about 18 months after awarding a franchise, so there's still quite a bit of time for the league to sniff out parties interested in owning the team. My guess is that there would be subsidies and other economic enticements to lessen the risk that a new owner would have to bear to get a new team into the Crescent City. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cyandlux Posted February 2, 2006 Share Posted February 2, 2006 Man, crazy. I think the NFL is wrong by moving the Saints back too soon. I like the idea of an OKC team, its pretty interesting. But the Hornets might just stay!?! So that leaves out NO, so NO gets an expansion deal. But the Sonics want to move, so they move to Vegas. And then the Sonics name stays in Seattle for another expansion team.....and then Stern expands to Paris, Madrid and London with future plans of Mars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Admiral Posted February 2, 2006 Share Posted February 2, 2006 So I see we're not really considering the ramifications of expanding the league to 31 or 32 teams, are we? You can't just start handing out expansion teams to every town that can't keep a club, just so that nobody's feelings are hurt. New Orleans was dead last in attendance. Can't lose that! ♫ oh yeah, board goes on, long after the thrill of postin' is gone ♫ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cyandlux Posted February 3, 2006 Share Posted February 3, 2006 So I see we're not really considering the ramifications of expanding the league to 31 or 32 teams, are we? You can't just start handing out expansion teams to every town that can't keep a club, just so that nobody's feelings are hurt. New Orleans was dead last in attendance. Can't lose that! You realize that was sarcasm, right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Admiral Posted February 3, 2006 Share Posted February 3, 2006 Oh no, that was in response to yh. Sorry if it was unclear. ♫ oh yeah, board goes on, long after the thrill of postin' is gone ♫ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cyandlux Posted February 4, 2006 Share Posted February 4, 2006 ok Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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