Oklahoma City Council Approves Lease Agreement With Hornets

Hornets Will Play 35 Games At Oklahoma City’s Ford Center

The Oklahoma City Council today unanimously approved a lease for the Hornets to play 35 games in the Ford Center for the ’05-06 season, with the remaining six games being played in Louisiana. As part of the deal, Oklahoma City, the state of Oklahoma and a private investment group “will guarantee $10[M] if the franchise struggles and misses its $40[M] revenue goal.” City Manager Jim Couch said that the team “needs to average more than 10,000 spectators a game to reach its revenue goal.” The deal gives the Hornets the option to renew the lease for another season. The team will officially be known as the N.O./Oklahoma City Hornets for games played at Ford Center (NEWSOK.com, 9/21).

HOUSE CALL: In Oklahoma City, Dean, Lackmeyer, Sutter & McNutt report the lease “would allow the city to profit if the franchise’s revenues exceed” $42.5M. Oklahoma City will spend $2M on “improvements to the Ford Center, housing for Hornets staff and game day expenses.” Expenses will be reimbursed “if the team exceeds its target by a sufficient amount.” Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett said, “There is so much financial impact from an NBA team through tourism and parking, I think it could easily offset any financial exposure we have.” Cornett said that Oklahoma City “won’t be noted in the team’s name for any games played in Louisiana” (DAILY OKLAHOMAN, 9/21). NBA Exec VP/Legal & Business Affairs Joel Litvin said the team, whose home jerseys said “New Orleans” in previous seasons, will say “Hornets” this season. Road jerseys will continue to say “New Orleans.” A “OKC” patch will be on both home and away jerseys to acknowledge Oklahoma City (NBA.com, 9/21).

SHORT-TERM SOLUTION: ESPN’s Ric Bucher said Oklahoma City is “probably not a long-term fit (for the Hornets), but it does allow the NBA to go into a new market, which is one of the reasons why they’re not going to go to a place like San Diego –- because they’ve already been there and failed that test.” Bucher added, “I really question whether Oklahoma City can be a long-term answer if they can’t go back to New Orleans. The city only has about 500,000 people in it ... and the per capita income, while slightly better than New Orleans, is below that of Salt Lake City and some of the lower-tier NBA (cities). ... In the short-term, it is the closest geographical spot to New Orleans and makes a lot of sense from that standpoint” (ESPNews, 9/20).

New Orleans Arena To Be Ready For Hornets Games In March?

SIX GAMES IN BATON ROUGE: In New Orleans, Jimmy Smith reported the games in Louisiana will be played in Baton Rouge at LSU’s Pete Maravich Assembly Center, though “three of those scheduled sometime in March could be moved to New Orleans Arena if repairs to the facility can be made.” Hornets President Paul Mott said, “The games in Baton Rouge will start in mid-December based on the parameters we got from the people at LSU” (NOLA.com, 9/20).

LOUISVILLE TURNED DOWN: Kentucky State Fair Board President Harold Workman noted that the Hornets turned down an offer to play some games in Freedom Hall, “saying it was too far from home.” But he added that New Orleans “is about as far from Oklahoma City as it is from Louisville.” Workman added that factors for the team moving to Oklahoma City may have included Freedom Hall “not being available for more games and the fact that SMG,” which operates New Orleans Arena, also operates the Ford Center (Joseph Gerth, Louisville COURIER-JOURNAL, 9/21).