Hornets To Stay In New Orleans Through 2024

[TheImmortalGoud]

http://www.hornets247.com/blog/2012/03/16/hornets-and-louisiana-discuss-terms-of-new-orleans-arena-lease-through-2023-2024-season/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

The Hornets franchise looks to stay in New Orleans for 12 more years.

What was first reported by the Times-Picayune today has come to pass, sort of.

The New Orleans Hornets and the State of Louisiana have finalized the proposed lease of the New Orleans Arena through the 2023-2024 Season. It has not been approved, but it has been `crystallized’ so that the potential owners have defined terms with which to work. All relevant parties, owners of the team and Arena aside, see this lease as good for all parties and have high confidence the two sets of owners (team and Arena) will agree to the lease. The owner must agree to the lease for it to take effect, and the potential owner must agree to agree to lease to be able to buy the team.


Here are the highlights from the Hornets media session on the subject:


Through 2023-2024 Season.

No escape clause (e.g. Attendance Benchmarks that appeared in Amendment 2). “Benchmark will be eliminated from our vocabulary.”

$41m capital bond issue to eliminate state subsidies to the team, plus $8m already committed.

$70m in State savings.

No new taxes.

Purchaser is buying a team that has already agreed to the lease.

Two offseasons to complete Arena upgrades.

$10m available at the option of the team in 2013 for additional upgrades to the Arena or practice facility.

Promise of an All-Star Game during the lease period.

The bills to cover this have not been filed or voted on.

Look and branding of Arena will change, exterior will remain the same but may have more digital media, lighting etc.

Improvements are revenue generating and fan-experience focused.

“I’m In” becomes “I’m In for Good.”

Discussions are active, ongoing, and frequent with “two” groups.

Ownership announcement is weeks away. Effective sale even later.



Analyses detailed enough to cause abdominal spasms of both the exciting bits and the boring ones will follow.

This is neither the beginning nor the end.

For now, enjoy.

 

[NAHSTE]

I still have doubts that the market will ever be able to support a healthy basketball franchise, (already failed once, basically failing again), but it is good to see that the state gov't is being so helpful in keeping them.

 

[KNUBB]

 

[EmpireWF]

Sucks they'll come closer to a championship than the Knicks will in that timeframe.

 

[KNUBB]

Now that this is done the sale can happen.

 

[NAHSTE]

Now that this is done the sale can happen.

Probably a better bet that the sale goes down after the rigging of the lottery, not before. Still that hurdle to clear.

 

[EmpireWF]

Probably a better bet that the sale goes down after the rigging of the lottery, not before. Still that hurdle to clear.

Brooklyn will get the benefit of the rigged lottery. Or Charlotte...or Washington again. :smug:

 

[Golden Taters]

Damn. Seattle has a solid arena plan but it's not looking good with no NBA or NHL team.

 

[ryne candy]

I hope it works but for NO to have a basketball team and Seattle to be out....find that weird. I can't see them packing the house for a NBA team season after season. If 1 more big Hurricane hits that bowl city, it will be over (sustaining several professional teams).

 

[NAHSTE]

I hope it works but for NO to have a basketball team and Seattle to be out....find that weird. I can't see them packing the house for a NBA team season after season. If 1 more big Hurricane hits that bowl city, it will be over (sustaining several professional teams).

:facepalm:

"If 2 more airplanes fly into buildings in New York City, it will be over. Better move the Knicks!"

There are enough reasons why New Orleans should not have a team without throwing in cosmic once-in-a-lifetime catastrophes ...

 

[ryne candy]

:facepalm:

"If 2 more airplanes fly into buildings in New York City, it will be over. Better move the Knicks!"

There are enough reasons why New Orleans should not have a team without throwing in cosmic once-in-a-lifetime catastrophes ...

lol....i didn't even mean that everyone in the city would die....I put what I meant and NO isn't NY. They will have to much to rebuild and still want people to buy tickets? Didn't season tickets for the Hornets sell out the season after the Hurricane hit; I know alot of talk radio here was about people spending their $ to buy season tickets. Also how we would get an influx of people here settling...some thinking it would benefit us, others thinking it was too crowded.

 

[NAHSTE]

lol....i didn't even mean that everyone in the city would die....I put what I meant and NO isn't NY. They will have to much to rebuild and still want people to buy tickets? Didn't season tickets for the Hornets sell out the season after the Hurricane hit; I know alot of talk radio here was about people spending their $ to buy season tickets. Also how we would get an influx of people here settling...some thinking it would benefit us, others thinking it was too crowded.

The main problem with a team in New Orleans is population. Compounding the fact that it's a pretty small town, there is plenty of entertainment to be found elsewhere (much of it outdoors in beautiful weather). Small population base + strong entertainment competition + great weather year round = poor basketball market.

Those same problems are what forced the Jazz out of town in the first place, so it's hard to say Katrina had any effect one way or another on the attendance. They had a marquee superstar and won 55 and 60 games in the two years after the storm, which probably had more to do with the attendance. Now the team is going nowhere and has no face, so the glaring issues with New Orleans as a basketball market are rearing their head.

Still glad they are trying, but I don't think it will ever get much better than it is now. The arena is pretty nondescript, and if you're headed downtown you may as well go to the quarter. There are more reasons for NO residents to not go to the game than to buy a ticket.

 

[Rudi]

Good for them. Now once they win the draft lotto everyone will forget about CP3

 

[KNUBB]

Good for them. Now once they win the draft lotto everyone will forget about CP3

Yo fuck that nigga CP. I do enjoy that the last 2 years have been so indicative of the Hornets franchise to most outside of the city. Before the Nuggets game(The beginning on the end) in the 1st round a couple of years ago. The Hornets were selling out damn near every game, but no one would know that.