Who is to blame for the Hornets-Charlotte fiasco?  While owners George Shinn and Ray Wooldridge seem almost certain to be packing their bags for the Big Easy within months, was it stubbornness on Charlotte?s behalf which sealed their fate?

There is  no question that Shinn is disliked in Charlotte, but when push becomes shove is it really beneficial for the city to boycott business dealings with him just because of this dislike?  This is one of the many questions that the current Hornets owners are asking, adding that people should also be asking what the City of Charlotte could do differently to keep the Hornets as well as asking ownership the same question.  

"Everybody keeps asking what me and my partner could have done differently," Wooldridge said. "No one asked, `What could the community have done differently, what could the political leaders have done differently?' "
"I just didn't think anybody wanted to make it work," Wooldridge said. "We've all made mistakes, but that doesn't mean you don't look toward the long-term future of something."

Wooldridge claimed that the city officials had already agreed to help fund a new arena, to which Shinn and himself invested $6 million, and wondered why the arena plan ever went to a referendum.  "Doesn't a pro team bring economic stimulus to the local economy? That's what New Orleans finally decided,? said Wooldridge.

The partnership between the city and the team quickly turned from a match made in heaven behind the team consisting of Larry Johnson, Alonzo Mourning and Muggsy Bogues to a team which now has the reputation of pinching pennies, trading top players in the last year of their deals for others with longer term contracts to avoid paying out the money.  A packed Charlotte Colosseum has seen Alonzo Mourning turn into Glenn Rice, who has turned into Eddie Jones, who turned into PJ Brown and Jamal Mashburn.  This instability has seen the crowds leave in droves despite the team still being successful, the Hornets coming within one game of the Eastern Conference Finals last season before going down in game 7 to Milwaukee.

NBA commissioner David Stern said the Hornets had to sell 2,400 club seats, find three more corporate sponsors, complete a television deal and wrap up the paperwork on the sales of 55 suites before the close of business on Wednesday. If the Hornets meet those demands, the league's owners will vote on April 9 to approve or deny the move, something Wooldridge guaranteed would happen. At the close of business Thursday, the Hornets were 696 season tickets short.

But with Vancouver moving to Memphis last season, Mike Wise of the New York Times cannot help but wonder how the votes on the move will go, a move from Charlotte to New Orleans meaning that two teams have moved from larger to smaller markets in the last 24 months.

"I don't think it says that much about the long-term viability of the N.B.A.'s future," Wooldridge said. "You've got a new TV deal, international opportunities sprouting up all over. I'm very confident about the business future of the league."
Of New Orleans, he said, "There's 2.5 million people in the region; there's tremendous opportunity in being one of the only games in town."

Mike Wise of the New York Times reports that the Hornets are getting closer to moving to New Orleans.

The Big Easy may be a much smaller market, but it understands two things that Charlotte doesn't.  The city has to spend money if the NBA team is going to make money.  And you don't attack team owners, even if it's justified.

While visiting New Orleans last week, Stern said the Hornets had to sell 2,400 club seats, find three more corporate sponsors, complete a television deal and wrap up the paperwork on the sales of 55 suites before the close of business on Wednesday. If the Hornets meet those demands, the league's owners will vote on April 9 to approve or deny the move.

At the close of business Thursday, the Hornets were 696 season tickets short of the league's benchmark for moving the team from Charlotte.

Wise says it will be interesting to see if the owners vote unanimously. After all, what does it say about their businesses that two franchises have left larger markets for smaller markets in consecutive years?  And what does it say about their commitment to communities?

But he predicts the end is near, and soon they will be playing their last game at the Charlotte Coliseum ? another once-raucous N.B.A. arena about to rest in peace.

700 seats to go, 0 days remaining.  This is the scenario facing the Hornets, a team desperate to move from Charlotte to New Orleans.

Just last week the team said the NBA's approval would be "a lock" if it sold a total of 2,400 club seats -- priced from $3,870 to $5,375 -- by today.  The Hornets were able to sell 472 club seats this week alone, with the help of some New Orleans business and political leaders.

"Time is running out," Hornets spokesman Alex Martins said Thursday. "I still believe we're going to get this. We have a lot of deals in the works."

With the paperwork not officially due into commissioner David Stern until Wednesday, the team essentially has three more business days to sell the 700 remaining seats required.  But with Easter weekend upon us Chicago-based sports finance expert Marc Ganis predicted the team will find it "very challenging" to sell the remaining seats, and waiting in the wings are a group trying to keep the Hornets in Charlotte.

"I think we continue to make (Charlotte) look attractive and if there's any kind of a chink in the armor, we're there as the alternative," said Nelson Schwab.

There is still no telling, Marc Stein of the Dallas Morning News says, whether the Hornets will be able to move to New Orleans.  David Stern has put up roadblocks, including a recent requirement that the Hornets sell 1,200 more club seats in New Orleans before the Relocation Committee gives the nod.  

But, even if they were to pass that hurdle, the Hornets would still need a simple majority of the Board of Governors on April 8th and 9th.  With the luxury tax looming, the profitability of the Hornets may be the difference between a tax being imposed or not.  While a team in a new city may take some time to build profitability, a new owner for a team remaining in Charlotte -- like BET billionaire Robert Johnson -- is likely to bring fans flocking back to Charlotte Coliseum.

John Denton of the Florida Today reports: Orlando Magic owner Rich DeVos said before Friday's game that he believes the NBA will allow the Charlotte Hornets to relocate to New Orleans.

The NBA's Relocation Committee, a group that included Commissioner David Stern, toured New Orleans on Wednesday. The Hornets have sold the number of luxury suites and season tickets that they had hoped for in New Orleans and feel the league will eventually approve the move.

"David (Stern) is sending messages that he's going to approve it, so I think it will happen," said DeVos, who took the Magic off the market earlier this month after initially planning to sell the franchise. "You know somebody (in the league office) sent them down there and told them to try and get those numbers on the boxes and tickets, and they've done it.

"It's a sad thing for Charlotte. I just don't know how they turned on them there. It just shows how a city can turn on an organization and a group of owners.

Hornets' owners George Shinn and Ray Woolridge attended Friday night's game. The owners have failed repeatedly to secure funding for a new arena in Charlotte.

John Reid of the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports: If the Hornets can sell another 1,200 expensive club seats and finalize a handful of other commitments by Friday, the team's proposed move from Charlotte, N.C., to New Orleans would be approved by league owners next month.

The league's requirements were not surprising, but the deadline, a week earlier than had been stated, was.

The team and local leaders immediately launched a plan to meet the requirements, which were spelled out in a letter to the Hornets from National Basketball Association Commissioner David Stern, said Alex Martins, the Hornets' director of business operations.

The new deadline took some by surprise. "We need a call to action," Mayor-elect Ray Nagin said Friday. "Somehow we've got to get everyone's attention and get a rallying cry, because we have one week."

The club seats require a three-year commitment and range in price from $3,870 to $10,750. They are also the seats closest to the court. The Hornets must sell 1,168 of them to reach the league's target of 2,400.

The NBA also instructed the team Friday to complete paperwork on all of its 55 luxury suite commitments, increase the number of multi-year sponsorships, and finalize agreements on radio and television rights by Friday. But it was clear that club-seat sales are the NBA's main concern.

Martins said the tight one-week deadline was set because the league's relocation committee, members of which visited New Orleans earlier this week, must submit its report to the NBA Board of Governors, which needs time to review the situation before making a possible vote by April 9 in New York. NBA executives and owners are expected to get the relocation committee's recommendation April 8 and vote the next day. Fifteen of the 29 NBA team owners must vote to approve the move.

"We're still very confident, and we believe we are going to be able to reach them," Martins said of the league requirements. "They're all significant challenges."

"The deadline is here, and it's New Orleans' opportunity to win the NBA back."

Tom McCeachin of the Ogden Standard-Examiner writes:

Normally he"d get top billing wherever he goes, but NBA commissioner David Stern played second fiddle on Thursday night.

With Michael Jordan in town for the first time since the 1998 NBA Finals, Stern"s visit to Utah didn"t get nearly the attention it might have otherwise.

""It"s our reunion," Stern said of Jordan and the Jazz, noting the last time the commissioner was at the Delta Center was when Jordan sank the Finals-clinching shot for the Chicago Bulls four years ago.

Stern, offering an impromptu state-of-the- league discussion, praised the recently signed six-year television deal, a new wave of star players and the impact of rule changes implemented this season.

""We like the way our game looks," Stern said. ""It has improved. As the season winds down, I think we can say our rule changes have been a success."

Stern did, however, admit the Grizzlies" move from Vancouver to Memphis this season and the Hornets" effort to move from Charlotte to New Orleans are ""a failure of ours."

New Orleans had its chance to lobby NBA Commissioner David Stern and the owners' relocation committee.

Now Charlotte wants the same.

Stern said Wednesday he'll support a Hornets move to Louisiana if the team meets ticket sales targets there. Charlotte business and political leaders responded they have no plans to sweeten the city's offer of a new arena -- but they'd like to make their case in person.

"We'd certainly like to do that, but I just don't know what the protocol is. It's entirely up to (the NBA)," said Nelson Schwab, the businessman leading the private-sector effort to keep the team.

Mayor Pat McCrory sent a letter to the league last week "inviting all the owners to come in. ... If they want to come, we welcome them with open arms."

McCrory said he was told the NBA believes it knows the Charlotte market well and that the relocation committee did not think it necessary to make a visit.

"All the feedback we've gotten is they're not coming because they know of our very positive track record," he said.

A representative of the Charlotte business leaders' effort delivered a package of information about Charlotte and its market to the NBA's New York offices Monday.

City Council member Lynn Wheeler, who has supported the effort to keep the Hornets, also believes an in-person presentation is needed.

"I would like to see Charlotte take a more active role in lobbying the NBA owners," she said. " ... I don't think Charlotte can put our best foot forward without either the relocation committee coming to Charlotte for a face-to-face presentation or the business leaders taking it directly to the NBA owners. That allows owners to ask questions and get them answered.

"It concerns me a lot that we don't have that scheduled."

Muggsy Bogues, an original Hornet and co-chair of the "Let's Take Back the Game" campaign to save the NBA in Charlotte, said he still believes it will be tough to sell league owners on New Orleans.

"It's mind-boggling to think that Charlotte wouldn't have an NBA franchise," he said. "Charlotte has already proven that this is a basketball city capable of supporting any NBA team. ... David Stern knows that the reason behind the low attendance right now is the current owners."

"Let's Take Back the Game" spokesman Steve Luquire said he believes Stern's statement is only the beginning of the maneuvering before NBA owners vote on the move. That could come as early as April 8-9, when owners meet in New York.

"Rarely would I take what (Stern) would say at face value," Luquire said. "My expectation was that the statements that would be made today would be very positive in response to New Orleans' presentation. ... I think there's still a lot of water that has to cross the dam before a decision is made."

Wheeler drew a ballot box analogy.

"I always say in an election that it's not over until the last vote is counted. If what Stern is saying is a true indication of the inclination of the relocation committee, obviously it does not look good for Charlotte," she said. "I don't know why he said what he said, but until the owners vote, it's not over."

As he has throughout the last-ditch effort to keep the Hornets, McCrory emphasized that "we're not going to get into a bidding war" to keep the team in Charlotte.

"From my perspective, this is what our offer is," he said.

Last month, the City Council approved a tentative plan to build a $231 million uptown arena, with Bank of America, Wachovia and Duke Energy to underwrite $100 million. The companies are to get their money back with a combination of city-owned land and by marketing arena assets such as naming and beverage rights and premium seat licenses.

If the Hornets leave, McCrory said, Charlotte's offer to build a new arena is open to any pro team willing to sign a long-term lease. "We need someone who's willing to pay the bills, and somebody who's able to pay the bills without substantial subsidies."

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Some folks filing in to Wednesday night's Hornets game hadn't heard the news.

Those who had said it's just the latest play in a game they're sick of watching.

NBA Commissioner David Stern announced just hours before the 7 p.m. game that he'd support the Hornets move to New Orleans if they sell enough high-priced tickets.

Roxanne Perregaux was in the Coliseum lobby with her husband, Tom, and their children, Krista, 12, and Remington, 11. The Lake Norman family, attending games for three years, was devastated to hear the team could be leaving and are sick of the turmoil they say has been dragging on too long.

"They need to make a decision," Roxanne said. "We're sick of watching Wooldridge and Shinn play games."

"Ever since we moved here, this is how I grew up," said Krista. "This is our team."

Harry Seidman said he and his friends are fed up. "David Stern is playing along with the game because he is trying to expand the NBA," he said.

Nora King's family has had season tickets from the beginning. Trading cards and posters fill her sons' rooms and Thomas, 7, knows every player by heart. They'd be sad to see them go.

"I hate it for my kids," said King. "It's going to be hard for them. They don't understand why they have to go away."

Boo Coo Cuthbertson also said he would hate to see them go, but he understands that it's a business, and needs to make money. "Hopefully we'll get another team," he said. "This city is ... slow as it is. Instead of going forward, it's going backwards."

"I'm heartbroken," said Helen Hamilton, who has had season tickets with her husband, Bill, since the Hornets started.

Bill Hamilton doubts the team would be successful very long in New Orleans.

"The NBA would be stupid to give up this market to those two idiots," he said. "They've done everything to screw up this franchise.

"There's nothing to replace this," he said, looking out at the court.

"I guess there will be 43 nights we'll stay home."

New Orleans has to sell about 1,200 premium "club" seats at New Orleans Arena, in addition to the 1,232 that had been sold by Wednesday.

According to the Web site for the Hornets' New Orleans operation, www.800hornets.net, club seats are available at three season-ticket prices: $3,870, $4,730 and $5,375.

An arena map on the Web site shows the majority of the seats -- all those in eight lower-arena sections between the baskets -- are priced at the $5,375 level.

Buyers must make at least a three-year commitment, but can sign a five- or seven-year contract. The longer the commitment, the lower the annual price increases: 6 percent for a three-year commitment, 5 percent for a five-year deal and 3 percent for the seven-year contract.

A $250 deposit holds a seat. However, 25 percent of the first year's bill would be due upon NBA approval of the move, with another 25 percent billed June 1 and the balance due Aug. 1.