I'm impressed

[PUGalicious]

I just received a phone call from a gentleman at the New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets office asking if I had taken advantage of the opportunity to purchase tickets yet. It impressed me a lot that they are working so hard to actively reach out to the community to gain fan support. If the team doesn't succeed here, it won't be for lack of trying.
If they keep it up, they might even win this non-NBA fan over!

[crazy4ou]

Did you buy?

[Karried]

Were they offering only season tickets or individual tickets yet? I wanna ticket!!

[mranderson]

Were they offering only season tickets or individual tickets yet? I wanna ticket!!

They want to sell as many season tickets as possible before opening sales to individual tickets. It is possible to sell the arena out with season tickets (not probable).

In fact, Mr. Shinn is predicting every game to be sold out. Humm. Maybe the optomists are on to something here.

I just wonder how many of those nay sayers who said "we will never have a major league team in Oklahoma City" are the ones buying the season tickets.

[PUGalicious]

Were they offering only season tickets or individual tickets yet? I wanna ticket!!

Seasons tickets and multiple-game packages is what they were offering me.

[PUGalicious]

I just wonder how many of those nay sayers who said "we will never have a major league team in Oklahoma City" are the ones buying the season tickets.

Not me.

I also wonder how many of the cheerleaders are lined up to purchase season tickets. Seems to me if you are so convinced that an NBA franchise has long-term viability in this market, you can put your money with your mouth is.

[MadMonk]

Also, remember that its not our team. We are only hosting them temporarily. Whether or not the team is supportable in our market remains to be seen.

[mranderson]

Also, remember that its not our team. We are only hosting them temporarily. Whether or not the team is supportable in our market remains to be seen.

That remains to be seen. Until then, regardless of the outcome, we need to support the team as if it IS ours.

By the way. I have seen several articles since the first of the year suggesting Shinn had plans to relocate the team since late last year.

[MadMonk]

That remains to be seen. Until then, regardless of the outcome, we need to support the team as if it IS ours.

By the way. I have seen several articles since the first of the year suggesting Shinn had plans to relocate the team since late last year.

Absolutely. We should support them all we can. I only wonder if it will be enough.

[mranderson]

Absolutely. We should support them all we can. I only wonder if it will be enough.

If George Shinn is correct in his prediction, which is a very realistic possibility, look for season two to be announced by July, 2006.

[Luke]

A guy called me too, and I'm gonna get a 12 game ticket pack. $120 for upper level behind the basket, $240 for upper level sideline. Which one to get....

[Karried]

Luke & everyone, I got a phone call too on my answering machine.... I'm wondering before I call him back who chooses the games you get to see? You will get 12 games out of 41 - how will they determine which games you get to see? What if it is only the games that aren't very popular? Will you try to get individual tickets for the games you really want to see or do you care which games you will see? Inquiring minds want to know...

[Luke]

I asked that question, and he said they have two 12 pack sets based on weekday games versus weekend games. I'm going to get the weekend 12 pack meaning I'll see 12 games played on either a Friday or Saturday. He said they don't pick the lousy games for the 12 packs. He said about 10 of the 12 games will be opponents that were in the playoffs last year with the other 2 being big "name" teams. That's how I understood it.

[Karried]

Thanks Luke, that is what I was wondering.

[Dungeon Master]

Just a thought but with all of you getting calls, is it possible for these calls to be scams to get your creidt card info for bogus tickets?
I mean does this happen in other states that have had major league sports and they are aware of something like this?
I often wonder when someone I don't even personally know calls selling things over the phone. How did they get my number?
Again, just a thought and hope this doesn't really happen to anyone.
We are very vulnerable right now in the world of NBA.

[okcerintul]

That remains to be seen. Until then, regardless of the outcome, we need to support the team as if it IS ours.

By the way. I have seen several articles since the first of the year suggesting Shinn had plans to relocate the team since late last year.

What articles? Shinn just moved the Hornets to New Orleans 2 years ago. He has invested millions of dollars into the New Orleans Arena, not to mention a new practice facility. He didn't even think about bringing the team to OKC temporarily until David Stern mentioned it a couple of weeks ago. Besides, New Orleans has supported this team beyond Shinn's expectations.

I would love to have a major league team in OKC. However, we would not be looked upon very kindly by the rest of the world as being the city that took a team from New Orleans while they were down.

As far as I'm concerned, Shinn needs to get the Hornets back to New Orleans ASAP. We're impressing other owners who are having fan support issues.

[mranderson]

What articles? Shinn just moved the Hornets to New Orleans 2 years ago. He has invested millions of dollars into the New Orleans Arena, not to mention a new practice facility. He didn't even think about bringing the team to OKC temporarily until David Stern mentioned it a couple of weeks ago. Besides, New Orleans has supported this team beyond Shinn's expectations.

I would love to have a major league team in OKC. However, we would not be looked upon very kindly by the rest of the world as being the city that took a team from New Orleans while they were down.

As far as I'm concerned, Shinn needs to get the Hornets back to New Orleans ASAP. We're impressing other owners who are having fan support issues.

I was trying to find the contract length the Hornets signed in New Orleans and ran into at least one article from January, 2005 in ESPN.com that mentioned Kansas City as a relocation city for the Hornets. Long before Katrina hit. The media would not be writing articles if the thought had not been planted in their minds by the Hornets.

By the way. We will not be "stealing" the team. They will move due to their own willingness. To steal is to take something without the owners permission. Oklahoma City would have the owners permission to locate the team in Ford Center permanantly.

[flyingcowz]

By the way. I have seen several articles since the first of the year suggesting Shinn had plans to relocate the team since late last year.

Were all of these printed in the Jokelahoman?

[PUGalicious]

Were all of these printed in the Jokelahoman?

Are you suggesting that any articles in The Oklahoman are uncredible?

What articles/sources have you read to discredit the statement you seem to be challenging?

[okcerintul]

I was trying to find the contract length the Hornets signed in New Orleans and ran into at least one article from January, 2005 in ESPN(dot)com that mentioned Kansas City as a relocation city for the Hornets. Long before Katrina hit. The media would not be writing articles if the thought had not been planted in their minds by the Hornets.

By the way. We will not be "stealing" the team. They will move due to their own willingness. To steal is to take something without the owners permission. Oklahoma City would have the owners permission to locate the team in Ford Center permanantly.

There were rumors earlier in the year of the Hornets going to KC, but that started when a sports columnist for the Kansas City Star did a story on why the Hornets moved to NO when they left Charlotte. He was hyping KC's yet-to-be-built arena.

And try telling fans in NO and the rest of the basketball world that OKC wouldn't be stealing the team.

[BDP]

And try telling fans in NO and the rest of the basketball world that OKC wouldn't be stealing the team.

If the Hornets actually stayed in OKC, it would come with the explicit approval of the "rest of the basketball" world. It has to be approved by the NBA.

Basically, speculating on how much the world would hate us is even more retarded and useless than speculating on the team staying here long term. This ALL hinges on New Orleans's recovery. And if it doesn't recover fast enough for the Hornets to move back and be solvent, then no one would be stealing them and everyone (at least the intelligent ones) would understand that. The NBA doesn't want a team to be a migrant team indefinitely. They would make a decision based on NOLA's progress.

Basically, if the Hornets are successful and New Orleans recovers enough to support all of its major league teams, then you can be sure of one thing: Both New Orleans and OKC will both have NBA teams in the future. With the status of New Orleans in question and the fact the Hornets have not played one second in OKC, yet, you might as well pay 5 dollars to your local psychic to find our where they'll be playing in 2 years. Their response would be as reliable as anything read on these boards. Everything else is just people trying to use their own speculation to make OKC look good or bad, depending on their own personal agenda and, quite frankly, it’s all kind of silly at this point.

[okcerintul]

If the Hornets actually stayed in OKC, it would come with the explicit approval of the "rest of the basketball" world. It has to be approved by the NBA.

Correct. Any permanent francise move must be approved by a vote of the owners.

Basically, speculating on how much the world would hate us is even more retarded and useless than speculating on the team staying here long term. This ALL hinges on New Orleans's recovery. And if it doesn't recover fast enough for the Hornets to move back and be solvent, then no one would be stealing them and everyone (at least the intelligent ones) would understand that. The NBA doesn't want a team to be a migrant team indefinitely. They would make a decision based on NOLA's progress.

Basically, if the Hornets are successful and New Orleans recovers enough to support all of its major league teams, then you can be sure of one thing: Both New Orleans and OKC will both have NBA teams in the future. With the status of New Orleans in question and the fact the Hornets have not played one second in OKC, yet, you might as well pay 5 dollars to your local psychic to find our where they'll be playing in 2 years. Their response would be as reliable as anything read on these boards. Everything else is just people trying to use their own speculation to make OKC look good or bad, depending on their own personal agenda and, quite frankly, it’s all kind of silly at this point.

It's obvious you don't know how NO is progressing. The arena wasn't damaged severely, it can be repaired in a few months. The downtown area (where the arena is located) was not severely damaged. The residential areas were hardest hit, and there's no reason to believe the team can't return to it's home in time for the 06-07 season. How is being hopeful that the team can return to where it belongs being "retarded"? Nice term, by the way.

[Karried]

DungeonMaster, phone calls are being made to those who expressed interest for tickets on the Hornet's website - at least I believe so since that is where I first gave my info.

[TStheThird]

I think that BDP was referring to economic recovery, rather than the infrastructure of New Orleans.

[swake]

Reports are that the population of metro New Orleans will be back to around a million people in the next couple of weeks, or about the same as OKC. There will still be about 300,000 people, mostly in the city of New Orleans that are displaced.

New Orleans is nearing the point NOW they could take the team back. They could easily take the team back by the mid point of the season. The slimeball owner is using this as a chance the move the team with a "try out" in OKC. If OKC fails, my money is on the team going to Kansas City in the new Sprint Arena. The team is not going back to New Orleans, and this year doesn't count on support in OKC, the tickets are going for fire sale prices. Next year will be the make or break for OKC.