some hearsay from a reliable source

[NewPlains]

First of all, let me be clear that this is all hearsay, and as we've seen on this forum "inside information" has a pretty short shelf life; this is the perspective of my friend on the situation as it stands now and may be invalidated by future events. That said...

I have a friend from school who now works for the NBA, and I asked what she thought the chances were of the team staying in OKC. According to her, Shinn is intent upon returning the team to NO, but the general feeling at the corporate level is "not optomistic" that New Orleans could host any sort of professional team in the near future, and they are very enthusiastic about the Oklahoma City market. The current population of New Orleans is something like 60,000 and the NBA is first and foremost a business and doesn't do things just to do them, ever. If they can't fill those seats there and they can fill them here, the team will be staying here. My friend predicts that the Hornets are here to stay at least for next season, and probably for the one after that, unless the games in Baton Rouge and New Orleans go especially well. Even then, the league will be watching what the Saints do. No real bombshells, but I got the feeling that we can safely be optomistic.

[metro]

Well, its almost a shoe in for next year regardless of this info and probably the year after. I'm not sure how long a team can be "temporary". Common sense would tell you, that a large metropolitan area takes decades, not months or years to rebuild infrastructure and an economy. This goes not to mention the current state of the team before the hurricane. Of course our empathy will always be with New Orleans, business must go on. Although I shouldn't be too optimistic, you can almost bet the team will be relocated somewhere if not here.

[BDP]

I'm thinking a temporary status beyond next year would be detrimental to both markets and the team. At that point, NO would need to think about a new team, which wouldn't be a bad thing. They weren't really that into the Hornets from day 1, maybe a new team would do better.

[dcsooner]

I'm kind of mixed on this issue. First, I know that Oklahoma City can and will support an NBA team, but do we want it to be N.O. with all the baggage they carry? such as moves to three cities (potentially)?, bad feeling from N.O., maybe even some players not wanting to stay in OKC (PJ Brown comes to mind) or even Shinn? I think the easiest and quickest way to get a team would be for the Hornets to stay in OKC, but the best outcome with the least amount of baggage would be another move by another struggling team or even expansion although Stern has said that's out.