Dick Scanlon of the Lakeland Ledger writes: They started accepting season-ticket orders in New Orleans this week. It's a bit presumptuous. The move of the Charlotte Hornets is far from a done deal. Even if everything else falls into place, it can be blocked by a simple majority of NBA owners in April, and there are plenty of reasons to believe they would rather have the Hornets in Charlotte than New Orleans.

Among them:

Charlotte is a better place to be. It ranks 27th as a television market. New Orleans is 43rd. Charlotte's median household income is $51,000 compared to New Orleans' $38,800. Both of those gaps are huge.

The NBA has failed in New Orleans before. You didn't really think the nickname "Jazz" was created in Utah, did you? The Jazz moved out of New Orleans in 1979.

The NFL's Saints are already in New Orleans, and the NBA has a recent history of preferring markets where its franchise is the only game in town.

There are other reasons.

George Shinn and Ray Woolridge, the owners of the Hornets, are not popular among their fellow owners. Shinn, in fact, has been an embarrassment to the league. Both men are blamed for alienating fans from what was a boom situation only five years ago.

Scanlon also speculates that Commissioner David Stern is probably looking for a way to get Shinn and Woolridge out of the league and keep Charlotte in it.