Hornets President Hugh Weber yesterday said that calls to the club’s offices on Monday “would indicate another surge in season-ticket sales -- the Hornets entered the day just 377 short of their goal of 10,000 -- in the next week or so,” according to Jimmy Smith of the New Orleans TIMES-PICAYUNE. Weber said, “And we had a lot of people who didn’t renew their tickets yet or didn’t buy yet and told us, ‘When you guys get a deal done, call me back.’ So we’re busily getting those people committed and on board. We’re very hopeful these last 377 tickets or so is something pretty achievable in the next week.” After that goal is accomplished, the next steps in the Hornets’ “offseason revitalization will be the announcements of a new lease agreement with the state and a new owner.” Sources said that “the framework of a lease extension -- with, the Hornets have said, no out clauses -- must be completed so that a new owner or ownership group will buy the team with the full understanding the team is bound to the city for the duration of the lease.” Sources also said that a simultaneous announcement of a lease agreement and a new owner “could come by mid-January.” The last time the Hornets sold more than 10,000 season tickets “was the 2008-09 season, following the Southwest Division championship” (New Orleans TIMES-PICAYUNE, 11/30).
