Hornets co-Owner Ray Wooldridge "defended" his proposal
for a publicly-funded, $220M arena yesterday and said that
it would be "part of a broad $400 million development
project he's planning" for downtown Charlotte, according to
Liz Chandler of the CHARLOTTE OBSERVER. Wooldridge
addressed the "widespread criticism" his plan has received
and said that it's "not a ploy" to relocate the team.
Wooldridge: "We don't want to go anywhere else." He said
that the public spending is "justified" because he is
planning to "invest an undetermined amount of his own money
developing a hotel, office building, shops and condos around
the arena site." Wooldridge: "We think people will support
this once they see the details of our proposal. ... You've
only seen part of the plan." An arena study group made up
of local political leaders and bankers initially suggested
to Wooldridge that he "seek no more than" $80-100M from the
public, but he "apparently ignored the advice." Attorney
John Fennebresque: "We all told him to be prepared to make a
significant private investment. Nobody can believe he's
asking for 100 percent public funding." The proposal has
"prompted" some city officials to worry that Wooldridge "is
presenting a plan so outrageous that an arena deal would
fail, freeing the Hornets to move to another city." City
Council member Lynn Wheeler: "I don't know what his agenda
is. But everybody thinks this is preposterous." If the
Hornets don't have an arena deal by December 31, they can
break their 12-year-old lease at the Charlotte Coliseum and
relocate, pending league approval (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER,
3/31). More Wheeler, on Wooldridge, who is from Atlanta:
"He listened to his Atlanta consultants who don't have a
clue about the political landscape in Charlotte rather than
listening to the leadership in Charlotte, who know how to
get a deal done" (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 3/31). But Wooldridge
said that reports of his arena proposal "do not accurately
present what our position really is": "The Hornets have no
intention of leaving here" (W-S JOURNAL, 3/31). WBTV's
Michael Gormley reported that, so far, Wooldridge's claims
that the proposal will benefit the city "are falling upon
deaf ears" (WBTV-CBS, 3/31). Also on WBTV, Paul Cameron
reported that Wooldridge "practiced damage control, ...
saying he wasn't disappointed with [yesterday's] vocal
backlash from city officials (WBTV, 3/30).
