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."
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