Light rumor, FWIW -- Hornets to Vegas, and a new expansion team to NO. Could it be true, on any level?
I think pro sports might be dead in New Orleans. It will be months before the city is even inhabitable. Then, there is cleanup, then basic infrastructures like electricity, water, and phone service have to be restored. If the Hornets go back to New Orleans, there won't be anybody that can afford to go to games. If the Hornets move and the city gets back to normal in any sense of the word, there is no way the NBA will expand there again. The same holds true for the Saints...
Will that team even be able to exist? What would it take to move them? The NBA would have to push the owners to sell, which they might as well, but they'd be up s**t creek (is Shinn the owner?)
Well, he packed up the Hornets and moved them out of Charlotte, so he wouldn't have to sell the team to move them...
Nah....if its a permanent move I see the going to LA. The media and league have been pushing for a team there for a long time. As far as the Hornets go who knows.... I have to agree with A-Train that pro sports won't be back in the big easy for a looooooong time. Your looking at 6-12 months before the city will even have any basic services ready to use let alone entertainment venues. And then nobody will be there living there anyway. Heck they might even just decide NOT to rebuild if its a total loss.....why would you set yourself up for another disaster?
I'm sure if the NBA ever goes to Las Vegas, Stern will absolutely forbid any type of team name that refers to gambling in ANY form.
With Las Vegas getting an All Star game and their thirst for a pro-sports team in that town plus the money floating around in that town...I could see the Hornets moving to Vegas. The Saints to San Antonio though, I doubt it. Los Angeles is the 2nd largest market in the U.S. and the NFL and owners have been pushing to get a team their when one can but somebody already said that.
I've heard several times that the NFL would kind of rather not have a team in LA for as long as possible. Currently, the second largest TV market in the US has their collective telivision tuned to 2 games on Fox and 2 games on CBS in massive numbers. All the new coverage next season will be just as widely watched there. Los Angeles-area football ratings never declined much after the Raiders and Rams bolted - it just spread itself out a little, which makes overall adspace more valuable. It wouldn't effect the NFL much, if at all, to have a team in LA - the only winners would be whatever team got moved there. I personally expect there to be no team there until the next round of expansion.
If any team ever played in Las Vegas, I'm pretty sure David Stern would want it to be owned by someone other than George Shinn. He pretty much ruined the Charlotte market and he has too many shady business practices shown in the New Orleans market, and has just about ruined it. IF Shinn were smart, he would sell. But he wouldn't sell to any Charlotte businessmen. And he refused to trade franchises with the guy who owned the Grizzlies (Eisley, is that his name? I can't remember), when he offered to take the Hornets to keep them in Charlotte and let Shinn have the Grizzlies when they were preparing to move to Memphis. Shinn also refused any offers from the St. Louis group, led by the Laurie Family, to sell the team, or to share Savvis Center with the Blues. In fact, since Shinn no longer owns his business he started in Charlotte, his only claim to fame now is owning the Hornets. So, you take into fact that Shinn has a very shady reputation, then offer to move him to Las Vegas? As much as Las Vegas has been brought up, I still, to this day, believe that either St. Louis or Kansas City would be a future destination for any NBA team looking to move.
I'm sure it's been covered in other threads, but I'll ask anyway...what happens with the Sugar Bowl? It's terrible to even ask, but how can that even be played? To me it would seem plausible to go ahead and make the Cotton Bowl part of the BCS, at least temporarily, like many argued to begin with.
i think theres a good chance the hornets could play in oklahoma city. they have a very new arena, and it wouldnt cost the city anything or mess up very many schedules.
When the ciy is on it's way to recovering , sport swill be one fo the few things to lift moral and get people's minds off of things. Who knwos, it may make the saints will themselves to win.
Looks like Oklahoma City is offering: http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=ap-hornetsfuture&prov=ap&type=lgns
