Baseball - Hornets Set To Return To New Orleans

New Orleans Hornets relocated to Oklahoma City after Hurricane Katrina. This resulted in the Hornets playing most of their home games for the last two seasons at Oklahoma City’s Ford Center. The team were planning their return to New Orleans next season and had taken a precautionary option for a third year in case for some reason they were unable to return to New Orleans.

Now it turns out that the Hornets have decided to let the deadline for the option elapse.

Hornets’ owner George Shinn said that the team was extremely grateful to the people of Oklahoma City for their support but the right decision for the team would be to return to New Orleans. Shinn said that the city still had many problems to overcome and it would not be easy for the Hornets but they had to do it.

The Hornets have brought forward their date of return to New Orleans and plan to start a full playing program next season. The Hornets are working with the NBA to get sponsors to help them return to New Orleans. Already Cadbury Schweppes Americas Beverage has signed a sponsorship agreement with the Hornets and their brand 7UP would be the official soft drink of the team. There are more sponsors in the pipeline but have not been announced as yet.

Last season, 18 of the Hornets’ 36 games in Oklahoma City were sell out and this season 9 games out of the first 19 were complete sell outs. The Hornets are the first major league team to make Oklahoma City its home base even if it is not permanent.