Pete
09-28-2005, 08:08 AM
Hornets owner predicts season-long sellout
By Don Mecoy
The Oklahoman
The Hornets will sell out every game in their temporary Oklahoma City home, team owner George Shinn predicted Tuesday.
“This is a wonderful market,” Shinn said. “It is just ripe for what we’re trying to do.”
The Hornets will play 35 games in the 19,675-seat Ford Center downtown. More than 6,500 deposits have been placed on tickets since the team announced last week it would relocate to Oklahoma City.
Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett said he hopes Shinn is right. The initial response has been better than even Cornett anticipated.
“I’ve got to say that it’s probably even exceeded my expectations, and my expectations were lofty,” Cornett said.
Shinn’s prediction came during a lunch speech at the downtown Rotary Club before a crowd of about 250.
Shinn said he was so shaken in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, he hadn’t contemplated relocating the team until NBA Commissioner David Stern asked where the Hornets’ games were going to be played. Stern suggested Oklahoma City, Shinn said.
“I said, ‘Oklahoma City? Are you kidding me?’¥” Shinn recalled. “I’m serious. I didn’t really think this would be a good market.”
Other cities including Anaheim, Calif., San Diego, Tampa, Fla., and Nashville, Tenn., were trying to lure the Hornets, he said.
Shinn said he realized that Oklahoma City is in many ways where Charlotte, N.C., was in 1988 when he won the right to establish the Hornets franchise there.
“To me it just mirrored what went on in Charlotte where we had such success,” Shinn said. “I started feeling good about it, and I realized, hey, they don’t have a (major-league) team there. We would be the only show in town. So my enthusiasm kept going up.”
When Shinn sought an NBA franchise in Charlotte, many considered him to be “a little man with a big ego,” he said. But the Hornets helped spark a population and economic boom that eventually resulted in Charlotte obtaining an NFL franchise, Shinn said.
In Oklahoma City, the Hornets are duplicating a blueprint that contributed to success in Charlotte through much of the 1990s - lots of affordable tickets. The Hornets are selling 4,000 $10 tickets for every game at the Ford Center. They are offering another 3,500 seats for $20 or less.
Starting in 1988, the Charlotte Hornets sold out 364 straight games in an arena that seated more than 23,000 people. Attendance waned and the team lost money in the years before the franchise moved to New Orleans in 2003.
Shinn touted an economic impact study that showed the Hornets pumped $135 million into Charlotte’s economy.
“That’s a pretty good job for a bunch of high-paid guys who bounce a rubber ball,” he said.
Shinn, 64, and his wife are living in an Oklahoma City hotel room as team employees, many of whom suffered major losses in the storm, arrive in Oklahoma City to prepare for the season, which tips off Nov. 1.
By Don Mecoy
The Oklahoman
The Hornets will sell out every game in their temporary Oklahoma City home, team owner George Shinn predicted Tuesday.
“This is a wonderful market,” Shinn said. “It is just ripe for what we’re trying to do.”
The Hornets will play 35 games in the 19,675-seat Ford Center downtown. More than 6,500 deposits have been placed on tickets since the team announced last week it would relocate to Oklahoma City.
Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett said he hopes Shinn is right. The initial response has been better than even Cornett anticipated.
“I’ve got to say that it’s probably even exceeded my expectations, and my expectations were lofty,” Cornett said.
Shinn’s prediction came during a lunch speech at the downtown Rotary Club before a crowd of about 250.
Shinn said he was so shaken in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, he hadn’t contemplated relocating the team until NBA Commissioner David Stern asked where the Hornets’ games were going to be played. Stern suggested Oklahoma City, Shinn said.
“I said, ‘Oklahoma City? Are you kidding me?’¥” Shinn recalled. “I’m serious. I didn’t really think this would be a good market.”
Other cities including Anaheim, Calif., San Diego, Tampa, Fla., and Nashville, Tenn., were trying to lure the Hornets, he said.
Shinn said he realized that Oklahoma City is in many ways where Charlotte, N.C., was in 1988 when he won the right to establish the Hornets franchise there.
“To me it just mirrored what went on in Charlotte where we had such success,” Shinn said. “I started feeling good about it, and I realized, hey, they don’t have a (major-league) team there. We would be the only show in town. So my enthusiasm kept going up.”
When Shinn sought an NBA franchise in Charlotte, many considered him to be “a little man with a big ego,” he said. But the Hornets helped spark a population and economic boom that eventually resulted in Charlotte obtaining an NFL franchise, Shinn said.
In Oklahoma City, the Hornets are duplicating a blueprint that contributed to success in Charlotte through much of the 1990s - lots of affordable tickets. The Hornets are selling 4,000 $10 tickets for every game at the Ford Center. They are offering another 3,500 seats for $20 or less.
Starting in 1988, the Charlotte Hornets sold out 364 straight games in an arena that seated more than 23,000 people. Attendance waned and the team lost money in the years before the franchise moved to New Orleans in 2003.
Shinn touted an economic impact study that showed the Hornets pumped $135 million into Charlotte’s economy.
“That’s a pretty good job for a bunch of high-paid guys who bounce a rubber ball,” he said.
Shinn, 64, and his wife are living in an Oklahoma City hotel room as team employees, many of whom suffered major losses in the storm, arrive in Oklahoma City to prepare for the season, which tips off Nov. 1.