[外電] Homeless NBA team checks on LV's interest
From:
http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2005/Sep-09-Fri-2005/news/27180153.html
Homeless NBA team checks on LV's interest
By CHRIS JONES
GAMING WIRE
Forced out of town by Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans Hornets owner George Shinn
is exploring whether he can move his National Basketball Association franchise
to Southern Nevada, a source close to the talks said Thursday.
Shinn called Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman several times this week to discuss
the community's interest and ability to host his team, though it remains
unclear whether Shinn hopes the Hornets' proposed stay would be temporary or
permanent, the source added.
Unlike the city's past flirtations with professional sports, the source also
stressed that, this time, a team's representatives reached out to Las Vegas,
not the other way around.
Despite Shinn's inquiries, many obstacles could chase the Hornets elsewhere. In
addition to scheduling challenges at each of the city's busy arenas, the NBA's
long-standing opposition to sports book wagering on pro basketball could pose
an insurmountable hurdle.
As long as NBA games are posted at the state's legalized sports books, the
league will not consider Las Vegas as host destination on either a short- or
long-term basis, NBA spokesman Tim Frank said Thursday.
"That's always been our policy," Frank said. The local source agreed, saying
the team will not play here for precisely that reason.
The NBA last month picked Las Vegas to host its All-Star Weekend in 2007, but
only after state gaming leaders agreed to ban wagers on NBA events that
weekend. Casino leaders were willing to give up All-Star action because the
game is not historically popular with bettors, but it's highly unlikely a
permanent ban on NBA contests would be accepted in Nevada gaming circles.
At his weekly news conference Thursday, Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman said he's
received calls from "a lot of people" who have suggested Katrina's winds and
waves could represent a turning point in this city's ongoing quest to land a
major sports franchise.
But Goodman added he believes it's inappropriate to "take advantage of people
while they're down," so he therefore declined to actively court the Hornets.
Goodman also said he was contacted this week by New Orleans sports
representatives, though he declined to identify who.
In an e-mail sent Thursday from a temporary team office in Houston, Hornets
spokesman Scott Hall referred questions about the team's potential relocation
to the NBA league's office in Manhattan.
Reached there by telephone, Frank said league leaders continue to work with the
team on contingency plans for the coming season, though no decision has been
made regarding alternate sites for the 2005-06 schedule, or a permanent
relocation of the franchise outside of New Orleans.
The Hornets' first preseason game at New Orleans Arena is not scheduled until
Oct. 20, but Katrina's destruction of the city -- as well as the lives, jobs
and possessions of much of the Hornets' fan base -- makes it extremely unlikely
the team will play at its normal home anytime soon.
NBA Deputy Commissioner Russ Granik recently sent an e-mail to the league's 29
other franchises that asked teams to prepare for the possibility that the
Hornets would have to move.
"Even if the arena is operable, it still may be impossible to play games in New
Orleans for some time," read the message, according to a report published in
The New York Times.
The Review-Journal reported this week that UNLV has offered its Thomas & Mack
Center to host some Hornets games in the coming season, and Oklahoma City Mayor
Mick Cornett also said his city's 19,675 -seat Ford Center could accommodate
the team, the Associated Press reported.
Published reports also suggested the 14,164-seat Pete Maravich Assembly Center
at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge could be considered. The team's
training camp will begin at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo.
Shinn's personal history -- like that of his franchise -- is rife with ups and
downs, including a controversial franchise relocation three years ago. His past
insistence on tax-supported stadiums could also turn off Southern Nevada sports
fans.
The Hornets began play in the NBA's 1988-89 season. In its initial years, the
team routinely sold out North Carolina's 23,698-seat Charlotte Coliseum as
basketball-crazy fans greatly supported the Tar Heel state's first major
professional sports franchise.
But things soured in the mid-1990s when Shinn and co-owner Ray Wooldridge
traded several popular players, and threatened to move the team unless
taxpayers chipped in for a new, luxury box-laden arena.
Shinn's reputation was further damaged when a younger woman named Leslie Price
accused him of sexual assault during a 1999 civil trial. Shinn, who was married
at the time, admitted to a sexual encounter with Price, though he claimed it
was consensual.
Court testimony also revealed Shinn had engaged in a lengthy extramarital
affair with a member of the Hornets' dance team, according to reports published
in the Gaston (N.C.) Gazette newspaper.
Shinn was acquitted in the Price trial, but the public was less forgiving,
particularly when Price's estranged husband shot and killed himself soon after
the case concluded. The couple said the dispute with Shinn "strained their
marriage and finances," according to the Charlotte Observer.
Taking issue largely with Shinn, according to published reports, voters in
Charlotte in 2001 overwhelmingly rejected a $342 million tax package that would
have financed a new Hornets arena. That step assured the team would leave the
city, and following courtships with several cities, including Las Vegas, the
team began play in New Orleans in fall 2002, where its $110 million arena was
financed entirely with public funds.
Even prior to Katrina, the team's stay in the Big Easy has been difficult.
Playing before the smallest crowds in the NBA, the team earlier this year was
caught inflating its attendance figures by reselling tickets originally bought
at huge discounts for Shinn's charity account.
Baron Davis, who was the team's best player, was traded to Golden State in
February, a move that stripped the Hornets of their top box office draw.
On the court, the team enjoyed its best regular season in 1996-97 when it
finished 54-28 before falling to the New York Knicks in the opening round of
the playoffs.
Overall, the Hornets qualified for postseason play eight times in the
franchise's 17-year history. The team enjoyed its best postseason run in 2001,
when it lost a tough seven-game series to the Milwaukee Bucks in the Eastern
Conference Semifinals.
The team was shifted to the NBA's Western Conference at the start of the
2004-05 season, when its poor 18-64 record caused the team to miss the playoffs
for the first time since 1999.
The franchise's best-known player was arguably former UNLV standout Larry
Johnson, a two-time NBA All-Star in Charlotte who spent five seasons with the
team beginning in 1991-92.
The team's current roster is devoid of big-name stars, but other popular
ex-Hornets include Alonzo Mourning, Glen Rice and Tyrone "Muggsy" Bogues, a
5-foot-3-inch point guard.
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