Buzz is good in Oklahoma
By Peter May | December 11, 2005
You're doing fine, Oklahoma.
Sure, it could be the NBA version of First Baby Syndrome, sort of like the Red Sox last year. But something is going on in Oklahoma City that leads to one of two inescapable scenarios: Either the Hornets remain there or someone else relocates there.
The mayor of Oklahoma City, Mick Cornett, thinks that his city may well end up hosting the Hornets for another season. As Cornett put it last week in a telephone interview, ''I'm hearing there's a decent chance the team will be here for another year."
The NBA sees Oklahoma City, for now anyway, as the interim home of the Hornets. In a chat on ESPN.com last week, commissioner David Stern said, the Hornets ''are indeed doing great in OKC. But as far as we're concerned, it's an interim, temporary home. It is our present intention to keep the team in New Orleans."
Stern has promised the Oklahoma City folks he will let them know in January as to what is at stake for 2006-07. That's because in some cases, season-ticket renewals go out in February. It makes sense, then, to send the renewals to the right people. The people of Oklahoma City have spoken loud and clear: Send them to us. We will buy them and we will come.
They make a compelling case. The Hornets of OKC sold more than 11,000 season tickets, which, according to a team official, ranked them sixth in the NBA. The Hornets of NO were 29th in season-ticket sales. The Hornets of OKC were ranked seventh in attendance as of last week. The Hornets of NO were ranked 30th -- dead last -- in 2004-05. The OKC Hornets are drawing more than 4,000 fans a game more than the NO Hornets did.
It's been a remarkable tale. In a matter of weeks, the movers and shakers in Oklahoma City put together a number of lucrative sponsorships and the franchise now broadcasts games into two territories. The fans appear to be genuinely exuberant (although standing until the first Hornets basket is scored is a bit much) and more than 18,000 braved brutal weather last Wednesday to catch the Celtics in their only visit. The Ford Center was designed with NBA and NHL specifications and is a top-notch venue.
''It's real. It's there," local businessman/rainmaker Clay Bennett said of the breadth and depth of the community support for the team. ''We need to be cautious. But we want a team."
The return to New Orleans is a sticky wicket, both politically and economically. Much of the city and its environs are still in ruins. Some employees of the New Orleans Hornets, who were each given $1,000 in storm support money by owner George Shinn (and another $1,000 if they moved to Oklahoma City) still cannot return to their homes. The team's broadcasting director, Lew Shuman, has turned over his house in Slidell, which suffered minimal damage, to the team's equipment manager, whose family has moved in because its house is uninhabitable.
According to The New York Times, the post-Katrina unemployment rate was 15.5 percent, only 10 percent of the city's operational buses are up and running, and only one public school (out of 116) was open. While Shinn has said he sees the team returning to the Big Easy, how can the NBA go marchin' back in to that tune? I can't see it. Not when the decision has to be made in January.
Down the road, of course, there is the Shinn Issue: Specifically, if the league doesn't go back to New Orleans, is he free to move his team somewhere else (La$ Vega$?)?
For now, you have a city supporting a relocated team with a fervor unseen in New Orleans or, for that matter, in Charlotte the last couple of years. That should count for something.
''It is my opinion," said Cornett, ''that the NBA will find us a franchise. If it's not this one, there are always a number of teams looking for that better lease or a better opportunity. We can support one pro team, not two. We could be a one-team city like a Utah or a Portland. We can do the NBA or the NHL. I've told Stern and [NHL commissioner Gary] Bettman that the first one wins. We can't do both."
Agreed Bennett, ''We hope and expect that New Orleans does rebound in a healthy way. That aside, we have cultivated a very serious market for the NBA. And unlike [college] football, it's a central, unifying thing that the whole state embraces."
And, today, 12/11, today's news is ...
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