duncan228
12-13-2010, 08:11 PM
Governor, mayor confident Hornets staying in La. (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=ap-hornets-neworleans)
By Brett Martel
A potential Louisiana-based ownership group for the New Orleans Hornets is taking shape, and Gov. Bobby Jindal and Mayor Mitch Landrieu said Monday they are confident that Louisiana will be able to keep its NBA franchise.
“The big message is: The future of the Hornets in the City of New Orleans is in our hands,” Landrieu said.
Landrieu and Jindal met in downtown New Orleans, along with regional politicians, business leaders and the heads of economic development groups and chambers of commerce to discuss the future of the franchise that majority owner George Shinn is selling to the league. Even James Carville and Mary Matalin, the celebrity political strategists who call New Orleans home, showed up to lend support.
Although there is little to stop the NBA from selling the club to new owners who want to move the team, league Commissioner David Stern has said that the goal is to try first to identify buyers who could help the team stay in the historic city that the NBA has taken an active role in rebuilding since Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005.
“We’ve got a number of business leaders that are more than willing to step up to the plate and help put a coalition together to buy the team and keep them in New Orleans,” Jindal said. “I’m not worried about other communities or other potential purchasers at this point.”
Among potential new owners at the meeting was Morris Bart, a local attorney who said he is willing to buy 10 percent of the team and added that outgoing minority owner Gary Chouest told him he is willing to buy back in for more than 50 percent.
Chouest, whose Louisiana-based business builds, operates and leases supply vessels to the offshore energy industry around the world, owns 35 percent of the team, which he is selling to the NBA after his negotiations to buy out Shinn fell through.
Chouest has declined to explain why negotiations with Shinn broke down, but still has his courtside seats next to the Hornets’ bench and said last week that remains interested in doing what he can to keep the team from moving.
Bart added: “I’m aware of (Microsoft CEO) Steve Ballmer and those billionaires in Seattle who want to bring a team back there, but the message to them is: We’re not giving up our team without a fight.”
In the meantime, Jindal and Landrieu are campaigning for employers and residents to buy more tickets, particularly over the next month and a half.
The Hornets have a clause in their lease at the New Orleans Arena that would allow them to leave after this season if average attendance spanning a two-year period falls below 14,735. Doug Thornton, an executive with SMG, the company that manages the arena and Louisiana Superdome for the state, said the Hornets must average 14,883 for their next 12 home games to void the early exit clause in the lease this year.
Keep Reading... (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=ap-hornets-neworleans)
By Brett Martel
A potential Louisiana-based ownership group for the New Orleans Hornets is taking shape, and Gov. Bobby Jindal and Mayor Mitch Landrieu said Monday they are confident that Louisiana will be able to keep its NBA franchise.
“The big message is: The future of the Hornets in the City of New Orleans is in our hands,” Landrieu said.
Landrieu and Jindal met in downtown New Orleans, along with regional politicians, business leaders and the heads of economic development groups and chambers of commerce to discuss the future of the franchise that majority owner George Shinn is selling to the league. Even James Carville and Mary Matalin, the celebrity political strategists who call New Orleans home, showed up to lend support.
Although there is little to stop the NBA from selling the club to new owners who want to move the team, league Commissioner David Stern has said that the goal is to try first to identify buyers who could help the team stay in the historic city that the NBA has taken an active role in rebuilding since Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005.
“We’ve got a number of business leaders that are more than willing to step up to the plate and help put a coalition together to buy the team and keep them in New Orleans,” Jindal said. “I’m not worried about other communities or other potential purchasers at this point.”
Among potential new owners at the meeting was Morris Bart, a local attorney who said he is willing to buy 10 percent of the team and added that outgoing minority owner Gary Chouest told him he is willing to buy back in for more than 50 percent.
Chouest, whose Louisiana-based business builds, operates and leases supply vessels to the offshore energy industry around the world, owns 35 percent of the team, which he is selling to the NBA after his negotiations to buy out Shinn fell through.
Chouest has declined to explain why negotiations with Shinn broke down, but still has his courtside seats next to the Hornets’ bench and said last week that remains interested in doing what he can to keep the team from moving.
Bart added: “I’m aware of (Microsoft CEO) Steve Ballmer and those billionaires in Seattle who want to bring a team back there, but the message to them is: We’re not giving up our team without a fight.”
In the meantime, Jindal and Landrieu are campaigning for employers and residents to buy more tickets, particularly over the next month and a half.
The Hornets have a clause in their lease at the New Orleans Arena that would allow them to leave after this season if average attendance spanning a two-year period falls below 14,735. Doug Thornton, an executive with SMG, the company that manages the arena and Louisiana Superdome for the state, said the Hornets must average 14,883 for their next 12 home games to void the early exit clause in the lease this year.
Keep Reading... (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=ap-hornets-neworleans)