Pro Sports Far From Easy in New Orleans

The vultures are descending again upon New Orleans. This time, a group of San Antonio business leaders are betting that New Orleans Saints owner Tom Benson might finally be ready to consider a proposal to relocate his franchise to the Alamo city. Benson is in negotiations with Governor Blanco of Louisiana about staying in New Orleans through 2010. If he decides to opt out of the 2001 deal he brokered with the state, Benson can start scouting other cities on April 1. Should Benson seek his football fortune elsewhere, he would be obligated to repay about $70 million the state has provided for a practice facility and annual inducements to the team.

The multiyear deal with the state pays Benson's Saints $186.5 million that ends in 2010 but has built-in opt-out dates in the contract.

The Saints aren't the only sports franchise giving Governor Blanco cause for concern. Under the terms of a 2002 deal that moved NBA owner George Shinn's Hornets from Charlotte to New Orleans, Shinn is promised a stateof-the art training facility. Now Shinn is demanding a new practice facility before he'll return the Hornets return to the city from their temporary home in Oklahoma City, Okla. But even before Hurricane Katrina slammed into New Orleans, Shinn was having problems getting the facility built, and he's had to watch the Cleveland Cavaliers ownership open a $20 million facility during the same period. Louisiana pledged $6.5 million for construction costs, but the state doesn't have the funds to match the scale of the Cavaliers' facility.

Can New Orleans afford to keep the Saints and the Hornets? Shinn's lease with Louisiana for the use of the New Orleans Arena is up in just five years, and there are real doubts that the market can adequately support both franchises. The fallout from Hurricane Katrina, oddly enough, isn't the root of those doubts. New Orleans was a shrinking market before Katrina hit. Neither Benson nor Shinn, for instance, were able to sell naming rights to their facilities before the storm.

Benson has had his eye on San Antonio for years. He owns several car dealerships and a second home in the city. Benson may be San Antonio's best hope for landing an NFL franchise. Minnesota Vikings owner Zygi Wilf, for one, seems committed to pursuing a new stadium on home turf; the Spanos family in San Diego is talking to National City, Oceanside, and Chula Vista about moving the Chargers franchise from San Diego to its suburbs. And although the San Francisco 49ers ownership has encountered some obstacles in its plans to move south to Santa Clara (there may be some problems with the land that owners Denise and John York want for a new stadium), the Yorks seem committed to the Bay Area.

Still, in San Antonio, Benson has some things to consider. The city is a small television market and the Alamodome needs major renovations to bring it up to NFL standards. Benson had been flirting with the possibility of moving east to Mississippi, where a stadium would have been built with funds generated from casino money, but that idea didn't fly prior to Katrina and will not be revived in the hurricane-devastated area.

Shinn, who is headed back to New Orleans after finding financial success in Oklahoma City, faces an uphill battle. Local small business owners who depend on tourism have been told they should not expect the economic recovery to reach pre-Katrina levels until 2011. Although New Orleans boasts a smaller, wealthier population post-Katrina, it likely won't be enough to support both its NFL and NBA clubs.

So where will Shinn go if New Orleans can't support his franchise? Oklahoma City is an open market, and the Hornets organization has spent two seasons there; the ownership knows the lay of the land, including the clientele who buy luxury boxes and club seats, and the extent of availability of cable television monies. The problem is that owner Clayton Bennett is also no stranger to the Oklahoma City market. He could relocate his Seattle SuperSonics to his hometown if the Washington Legislature decides not to fund a new arena for his team.

Kansas City is an open market. The city has already offered Pittsburgh Penguins owners Mario Lemieux and Ron Burkle rentfree use of its newly built arena and a large cut of the stadium revenue stream, in an effort to get the pair to move their franchise to Missouri. With a weak TV market and the likelihood that any team moving to the city would compete for money with the NFL's Chiefs, Major League Baseball's Royals, and a NASCAR track just across state lines in Kansas, Kansas City officials know they have to sweeten any deal.

Louisville, Kentucky is also still seeking an NBA team after losing out on Leslie Alexander's Houston Rockets, Michael Heisley's Vancouver Grizzlies, and Shinn's Charlotte Hornets in 2001 and 2002. Las Vegas officials plan to present a proposal to commissioner David Stern and league owners that would amend the rules regulating basketball betting and open the door for the NBA to put a team in the city.

Two other NBA franchises, Orlando and Sacramento, may soon be on the market. Magic owner Rich DeVos wants to stay in Central Florida, but funding is a problem. Governor Crist seems more interested in helping Florida Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria build a new stadium, and elected officials appear more focused on keeping the Cincinnati Reds and Baltimore Orioles in the Grapefruit League as the threat of losing them to Arizona's spring training facilities has emerged.

The Maloof Brothers are no longer involved in negotiations with Sacramento officials for a new building. Stern has turned the job of securing funding over to John Moag, who will be the NBA's point man in talks after last year's dual arena referendums were roundly defeated. The president of the Maryland-based consulting firm Moag & Company previously led negotiations that culminated in Art Modell moving his Cleveland Browns to Baltimore.

The NBA's deadline to move a franchise was March 1 and none of the league's owners petitioned for a move. At least in New Orleans, that leaves the NFL's Benson in the spotlight. Sometime soon, more than likely within the month, Benson will have to decide whether or not New Orleans has the wherewithal to maintain an NFL franchise.

evanjweiner@yahoo.com