Deberg_1990
02-17-2008, 12:07 PM
Interesting read.
Could KC be a "Player" if the Hornets decide to move???
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=jo-biguneasy021508&prov=yhoo&type=lgns
NEW ORLEANS – Posters and oversized banners heralding the arrival of Sunday’s NBA All-Star game fill storefront windows and canvas downtown office buildings. A current of excitement has rippled through here as the NBA’s annual celebrity-filled weekend comes to town.
Yet only a week ago that same enthusiasm was shrouded by a layer of anxiety.
The Memphis Grizzlies were in town, and it’s a downtrodden team like the Grizzlies that tests a city in danger of losing its own NBA franchise because of poor attendance.
When the New Orleans Hornets play their home games – point guard Chris Paul running the fastbreak, forward Peja Stojakovic draining three-pointers, big men Tyson Chandler and David West corralling rebounds and throwing down dunks – huge sections of the arena often look as barren as the Ninth Ward. The Hornets are tied with the Phoenix Suns for the best record in the Western Conference, yet play before some of the smallest home crowds in the NBA.
More than two years after Hurricane Katrina slammed into New Orleans and unleashed deadly floodwaters, a city still struggling to recover has yet to prove it can – or wants – to support professional basketball. The team’s average home attendance is 12,465, ranking ahead only of the Indiana Pacers. But this isn’t just about basketball anymore.
This is about a league and team that say they must confront economic realities yet also admit they fear moving the franchise from New Orleans would be viewed as shameful abandonment. This is about a city whose residents have shown tepid support for the Hornets but who fear losing the team would damage civic pride, undercut efforts to attract new business and further slow the recovery. Ultimately, this is about the intersection of sports and society hinging on one simple issue:
How many people and businesses here will pay NBA prices to watch superstars – and the not-so-super that litter rosters like the Grizzlies.
Fans come out in droves to watch Kobe Bryant and LeBron James. But there are nights like the one last weekend – too many nights for an NBA team with sagging attendance – when a team like the Grizzlies staggers into town without a marquee player. On that Saturday, two hours before tipoff, Hornets officials marched toward the box office hoping for the best but bracing for the worst.
The same could be said for everyone involved in a situation that, as far as the Hornets are concerned, has turned the Big Easy into the Big Uneasy.
“The future of the Hornets?’’ said Bob Lanier, special assistant to NBA commissioner David Stern. “That’s a big question.’’
A more revealing question is one Hornets coach Byron Scott and his players faced before the start of this season. When they were pumping gas or shopping for groceries or out eating dinner in New Orleans, people approached them with bewilderment.
“What are you doing here?’’ the locals asked.
“We’re back,’’ the Hornets told them, although cynics wondered what the team was doing here in the first place.
RELOCATION WOES
Despite months of negotiations that led up to May 10, 2002, the announcement was still stunning: The Charlotte Hornets were moving to New Orleans.
Lured by a new arena and millions of dollars in annual subsidies, the Hornets ignored skeptics who warned them that New Orleans and the rest of Louisiana was football country, that unless they could reincarnate the mop-haired, floppy-sock wearing Pistol Pete Maravich – the basketball wizard who entertained crowds at the Superdome as a member of the New Orleans Jazz before the team bolted for Utah in 1979 – the Hornets should keep the moving trucks idling.
But there was no Pistol Pete reincarnate. There was no Hornets fever.
The team started struggling at the box office even before they started struggling on the court, winning just 18 games during the 2004-05 season. Then, like thousands of evacuees, the Hornets fled.
After Katrina hit in August 2005, the Hornets headed for Oklahoma City while the New Orleans Saints relocated to San Antonio. When the Saints vowed to return from their temporary home, the Hornets’ prospects here grew even cloudier.
A city of 500,000 had shrunk to half its size a year after the flood claimed more than 1,800 lives and displaced tens of thousands of people. And with the city’s beloved football team competing for entertainment dollars, how could the Hornets hope to survive?
Team owner George Shinn sent mixed signals.
The Hornets played three games in New Orleans during the season after Katrina hit, played six games here during the 2006-07 season and Shinn repeatedly stated it was his intention to return when the city was ready. But in May 2006, Shinn used an interview with the Associated Press as an opportunity to express his concerns about New Orleans’ “high crime,’’ “bad educational system” and “inability to keep the city clean.”
“I’ve been back to New Orleans probably a half-dozen times since the storm, and each time we go back, I have a car there and we go back through the areas,” Shinn said in the interview. “I hear all the politicians talk about all the great things that’s happening: ‘We’ll be back in a year. We’ll be back in five months.’ You know, crazy stuff.”
As if that wasn’t enough to insult the fan base in New Orleans…
Saying the team’s gross income had doubled since it had relocated to Oklahoma City, Shinn added, “From a pure business model, if I was just a cold-hearted businessman the decision would be pretty easy, but I’ve got to make a decision based on my head and my heart.”
If that was Shinn’s attempt to win over New Orleans, it certainly wasn’t working. Not surprisingly some locals didn’t expect to see the Hornets back for the 2008 season, and even then people had reason to worry if they’d stay.
Facing a financial crisis stemming from the flood, the city balked at its pre-Katrina promise to build the Hornets a new practice facility. The team demanded a new lease for New Orleans Arena. Negotiations ensued. A new lease was signed last month, and it shifted the burden onto fans.
If the Hornets fail to average 14,735 fans per home game through the 2008-09 season, the team is free to leave. While this looked like the recipe for a slow death considering the Hornets averaged 11,871 fans through their first 15 home games, there were understandable distractions for locals.
The Saints were in contention for a playoff berth. LSU was on its way to winning college football’s national championship. Perhaps even worse, a dispute between cable companies pulled the plug on game broadcasts to 92,000 subscribers who live in the most affluent pocket of the New Orleans area. All valid reasons for depressed attendance. Yet when the Hornets got off to a fast start on the court but a slow start at the box office, Shinn remained a target.
Last month, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban questioned whether the Hornets were making a concerted effort to market the team. He said there were enough basketball fans in New Orleans to regularly draw 16,000 to 17,000 fans rather than the average attendance of 12,645 after 25 home games.
“Somebody’s got to get off their ass and sell tickets,” Cuban told reporters in Dallas. “They’ve got the best record in the Western Conference, and they can’t get people to come? That’s not New Orleans, that’s effort.”
It wasn’t long before Cuban softened his opinion.
“The Hornets are playing better than anyone in the NBA right now,” Cuban told the New Orleans Times-Picayune. “I don’t doubt that by the end of the season they will be filling the Arena.”
Cuban had likely learned what was happening behind the scenes: First, Shinn had toned down his own public remarks. Second, rather than waiting to be embraced, the Hornets reached out to New Orleans.
They started “Hoops for Homes,” an initiative to build 20 new houses and provide grants to teachers to rebuild their own homes. Joining forces with the NBA, the Hornets rebuilt playgrounds across the city. Countless community events will culminate Friday when every All-Star, various other players and 2,500 people associated with the league fan out across the city, roll up their sleeves and do everything from helping rebuild homes to cleaning up debris during what the NBA is billing as “A Day of Service.”
“Philosophically, the first time we came to New Orleans the attitude was ‘We are an NBA team that happens to be in New Orleans,’ ” said Hornets president Hugh Weber. “We made very certain this time that everybody understood that we are a New Orleans business that happens to be in the NBA.”
A BRIGHTER FUTURE?
Before the season, Shinn sold 25 percent interest in the franchise to a local businessman, raising an estimated $62 million but also deepening the team’s roots in Louisiana. Shinn also has stayed active in the community, making up to three speeches a week and avoiding any mention of high crime rate, poor public schools or the dingy streets. He also recognized opportunity and reality.
The Seattle Supersonics, frustrated by their inability to get a new arena, announced their intention to relocate to Oklahoma City after this season, provided they can break free of their KeyArena lease. At the least, that would complicate any attempt by the Hornets to return to Oklahoma City. Though Las Vegas, Kansas City and other markets want an NBA team, all have their own flaws.
While New Orleans’ population remains one-third smaller than pre-Katrina levels, household income, according to some estimates, has increased. Furthermore, the five surrounding parishes – an area within 35 miles of the arena and a footprint the Hornets consider their market – dipped only from 1.3 million residents to 1.1 million.
The Hornets even sold 17 suites before the season, raising hopes for the team’s long-term outlook here. Still, the franchise’s economic success depends largely on ticket sales measured through home attendance. The team also admits to giving away nearly 2,500 tickets a game – a total that counts toward the attendance benchmark. Thus, the anxiety last Saturday when the Grizzlies came to town.
Four days after Mardi Gras, with the city still shaking off a collective hangover, who wanted to show up at New Orleans Arena to watch the Grizzlies, a team that had won just 13 times in 50 games?
The answer waited at the box office, where Hornets officials looked as surprised as those residents who had stared confusingly at the sight of Chandler pumping gas, Scott shopping for groceries and Paul dining in a local restaurant before the season’s start.
At tipoff, the line for tickets snaked outside the box office and stretched more than 200 people long. On the court, the Hornets jumped out to a 15-2 lead and team officials watched in awe – not at the team itself, but the ticket line that appeared to grow.
“It’s gonna explode in here in about two seconds,” said Bill Bailey, who oversees ticket sales for the Hornets and excitedly sent updates to Shinn via Blackberry.
Ticket sales continued until halftime. In the fourth quarter, a team official walked by press row with a scrap of paper in his hand.
It read: 17,231. Sellout.
For the Grizzlies.
Late in the game, with the Hornets on their way to yet another victory, Paul dribbled toward the basket for what looked like an easy layup only to pass the ball to Stojakovic. The team’s All-Star point guard wanted to see Stojakovic drill one of his signature three-pointers and hear the roar of the crowd.
Stojakovic launched. The ball arced, hit the rim, bounced in and out then finally dropped through the net.
The crowd erupted. A sellout crowd that had boosted average attendance during the Hornets’ past four home games to more than 15,000.
“They’re starting to trickle in, and that’s nice to see,” Bobby Jackson, the team’s veteran guard said after the game. “It took them a while, but they’re definitely coming to support us.”
Football season is over. The cable dispute is approaching resolution. The local sports spotlight is shining on the Hornets. And yet…
“It’s much too soon for us to raise a victory flag,” Weber said. “We’ve got a lot more work to do and a lot more fans to connect with.”
Indeed, whether the city can meet the attendance benchmarks and secure the Hornets for the long-term future remains, in the words of Bob Lanier, a big question. But on one night when the lowly Grizzlies came to town, the Hornets and their fans responded with an enthusiastic exclamation point.
Could KC be a "Player" if the Hornets decide to move???
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=jo-biguneasy021508&prov=yhoo&type=lgns
NEW ORLEANS – Posters and oversized banners heralding the arrival of Sunday’s NBA All-Star game fill storefront windows and canvas downtown office buildings. A current of excitement has rippled through here as the NBA’s annual celebrity-filled weekend comes to town.
Yet only a week ago that same enthusiasm was shrouded by a layer of anxiety.
The Memphis Grizzlies were in town, and it’s a downtrodden team like the Grizzlies that tests a city in danger of losing its own NBA franchise because of poor attendance.
When the New Orleans Hornets play their home games – point guard Chris Paul running the fastbreak, forward Peja Stojakovic draining three-pointers, big men Tyson Chandler and David West corralling rebounds and throwing down dunks – huge sections of the arena often look as barren as the Ninth Ward. The Hornets are tied with the Phoenix Suns for the best record in the Western Conference, yet play before some of the smallest home crowds in the NBA.
More than two years after Hurricane Katrina slammed into New Orleans and unleashed deadly floodwaters, a city still struggling to recover has yet to prove it can – or wants – to support professional basketball. The team’s average home attendance is 12,465, ranking ahead only of the Indiana Pacers. But this isn’t just about basketball anymore.
This is about a league and team that say they must confront economic realities yet also admit they fear moving the franchise from New Orleans would be viewed as shameful abandonment. This is about a city whose residents have shown tepid support for the Hornets but who fear losing the team would damage civic pride, undercut efforts to attract new business and further slow the recovery. Ultimately, this is about the intersection of sports and society hinging on one simple issue:
How many people and businesses here will pay NBA prices to watch superstars – and the not-so-super that litter rosters like the Grizzlies.
Fans come out in droves to watch Kobe Bryant and LeBron James. But there are nights like the one last weekend – too many nights for an NBA team with sagging attendance – when a team like the Grizzlies staggers into town without a marquee player. On that Saturday, two hours before tipoff, Hornets officials marched toward the box office hoping for the best but bracing for the worst.
The same could be said for everyone involved in a situation that, as far as the Hornets are concerned, has turned the Big Easy into the Big Uneasy.
“The future of the Hornets?’’ said Bob Lanier, special assistant to NBA commissioner David Stern. “That’s a big question.’’
A more revealing question is one Hornets coach Byron Scott and his players faced before the start of this season. When they were pumping gas or shopping for groceries or out eating dinner in New Orleans, people approached them with bewilderment.
“What are you doing here?’’ the locals asked.
“We’re back,’’ the Hornets told them, although cynics wondered what the team was doing here in the first place.
RELOCATION WOES
Despite months of negotiations that led up to May 10, 2002, the announcement was still stunning: The Charlotte Hornets were moving to New Orleans.
Lured by a new arena and millions of dollars in annual subsidies, the Hornets ignored skeptics who warned them that New Orleans and the rest of Louisiana was football country, that unless they could reincarnate the mop-haired, floppy-sock wearing Pistol Pete Maravich – the basketball wizard who entertained crowds at the Superdome as a member of the New Orleans Jazz before the team bolted for Utah in 1979 – the Hornets should keep the moving trucks idling.
But there was no Pistol Pete reincarnate. There was no Hornets fever.
The team started struggling at the box office even before they started struggling on the court, winning just 18 games during the 2004-05 season. Then, like thousands of evacuees, the Hornets fled.
After Katrina hit in August 2005, the Hornets headed for Oklahoma City while the New Orleans Saints relocated to San Antonio. When the Saints vowed to return from their temporary home, the Hornets’ prospects here grew even cloudier.
A city of 500,000 had shrunk to half its size a year after the flood claimed more than 1,800 lives and displaced tens of thousands of people. And with the city’s beloved football team competing for entertainment dollars, how could the Hornets hope to survive?
Team owner George Shinn sent mixed signals.
The Hornets played three games in New Orleans during the season after Katrina hit, played six games here during the 2006-07 season and Shinn repeatedly stated it was his intention to return when the city was ready. But in May 2006, Shinn used an interview with the Associated Press as an opportunity to express his concerns about New Orleans’ “high crime,’’ “bad educational system” and “inability to keep the city clean.”
“I’ve been back to New Orleans probably a half-dozen times since the storm, and each time we go back, I have a car there and we go back through the areas,” Shinn said in the interview. “I hear all the politicians talk about all the great things that’s happening: ‘We’ll be back in a year. We’ll be back in five months.’ You know, crazy stuff.”
As if that wasn’t enough to insult the fan base in New Orleans…
Saying the team’s gross income had doubled since it had relocated to Oklahoma City, Shinn added, “From a pure business model, if I was just a cold-hearted businessman the decision would be pretty easy, but I’ve got to make a decision based on my head and my heart.”
If that was Shinn’s attempt to win over New Orleans, it certainly wasn’t working. Not surprisingly some locals didn’t expect to see the Hornets back for the 2008 season, and even then people had reason to worry if they’d stay.
Facing a financial crisis stemming from the flood, the city balked at its pre-Katrina promise to build the Hornets a new practice facility. The team demanded a new lease for New Orleans Arena. Negotiations ensued. A new lease was signed last month, and it shifted the burden onto fans.
If the Hornets fail to average 14,735 fans per home game through the 2008-09 season, the team is free to leave. While this looked like the recipe for a slow death considering the Hornets averaged 11,871 fans through their first 15 home games, there were understandable distractions for locals.
The Saints were in contention for a playoff berth. LSU was on its way to winning college football’s national championship. Perhaps even worse, a dispute between cable companies pulled the plug on game broadcasts to 92,000 subscribers who live in the most affluent pocket of the New Orleans area. All valid reasons for depressed attendance. Yet when the Hornets got off to a fast start on the court but a slow start at the box office, Shinn remained a target.
Last month, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban questioned whether the Hornets were making a concerted effort to market the team. He said there were enough basketball fans in New Orleans to regularly draw 16,000 to 17,000 fans rather than the average attendance of 12,645 after 25 home games.
“Somebody’s got to get off their ass and sell tickets,” Cuban told reporters in Dallas. “They’ve got the best record in the Western Conference, and they can’t get people to come? That’s not New Orleans, that’s effort.”
It wasn’t long before Cuban softened his opinion.
“The Hornets are playing better than anyone in the NBA right now,” Cuban told the New Orleans Times-Picayune. “I don’t doubt that by the end of the season they will be filling the Arena.”
Cuban had likely learned what was happening behind the scenes: First, Shinn had toned down his own public remarks. Second, rather than waiting to be embraced, the Hornets reached out to New Orleans.
They started “Hoops for Homes,” an initiative to build 20 new houses and provide grants to teachers to rebuild their own homes. Joining forces with the NBA, the Hornets rebuilt playgrounds across the city. Countless community events will culminate Friday when every All-Star, various other players and 2,500 people associated with the league fan out across the city, roll up their sleeves and do everything from helping rebuild homes to cleaning up debris during what the NBA is billing as “A Day of Service.”
“Philosophically, the first time we came to New Orleans the attitude was ‘We are an NBA team that happens to be in New Orleans,’ ” said Hornets president Hugh Weber. “We made very certain this time that everybody understood that we are a New Orleans business that happens to be in the NBA.”
A BRIGHTER FUTURE?
Before the season, Shinn sold 25 percent interest in the franchise to a local businessman, raising an estimated $62 million but also deepening the team’s roots in Louisiana. Shinn also has stayed active in the community, making up to three speeches a week and avoiding any mention of high crime rate, poor public schools or the dingy streets. He also recognized opportunity and reality.
The Seattle Supersonics, frustrated by their inability to get a new arena, announced their intention to relocate to Oklahoma City after this season, provided they can break free of their KeyArena lease. At the least, that would complicate any attempt by the Hornets to return to Oklahoma City. Though Las Vegas, Kansas City and other markets want an NBA team, all have their own flaws.
While New Orleans’ population remains one-third smaller than pre-Katrina levels, household income, according to some estimates, has increased. Furthermore, the five surrounding parishes – an area within 35 miles of the arena and a footprint the Hornets consider their market – dipped only from 1.3 million residents to 1.1 million.
The Hornets even sold 17 suites before the season, raising hopes for the team’s long-term outlook here. Still, the franchise’s economic success depends largely on ticket sales measured through home attendance. The team also admits to giving away nearly 2,500 tickets a game – a total that counts toward the attendance benchmark. Thus, the anxiety last Saturday when the Grizzlies came to town.
Four days after Mardi Gras, with the city still shaking off a collective hangover, who wanted to show up at New Orleans Arena to watch the Grizzlies, a team that had won just 13 times in 50 games?
The answer waited at the box office, where Hornets officials looked as surprised as those residents who had stared confusingly at the sight of Chandler pumping gas, Scott shopping for groceries and Paul dining in a local restaurant before the season’s start.
At tipoff, the line for tickets snaked outside the box office and stretched more than 200 people long. On the court, the Hornets jumped out to a 15-2 lead and team officials watched in awe – not at the team itself, but the ticket line that appeared to grow.
“It’s gonna explode in here in about two seconds,” said Bill Bailey, who oversees ticket sales for the Hornets and excitedly sent updates to Shinn via Blackberry.
Ticket sales continued until halftime. In the fourth quarter, a team official walked by press row with a scrap of paper in his hand.
It read: 17,231. Sellout.
For the Grizzlies.
Late in the game, with the Hornets on their way to yet another victory, Paul dribbled toward the basket for what looked like an easy layup only to pass the ball to Stojakovic. The team’s All-Star point guard wanted to see Stojakovic drill one of his signature three-pointers and hear the roar of the crowd.
Stojakovic launched. The ball arced, hit the rim, bounced in and out then finally dropped through the net.
The crowd erupted. A sellout crowd that had boosted average attendance during the Hornets’ past four home games to more than 15,000.
“They’re starting to trickle in, and that’s nice to see,” Bobby Jackson, the team’s veteran guard said after the game. “It took them a while, but they’re definitely coming to support us.”
Football season is over. The cable dispute is approaching resolution. The local sports spotlight is shining on the Hornets. And yet…
“It’s much too soon for us to raise a victory flag,” Weber said. “We’ve got a lot more work to do and a lot more fans to connect with.”
Indeed, whether the city can meet the attendance benchmarks and secure the Hornets for the long-term future remains, in the words of Bob Lanier, a big question. But on one night when the lowly Grizzlies came to town, the Hornets and their fans responded with an enthusiastic exclamation point.