NBA commissioner David Stern is still not ready to sell New Orleans Hornets: NBA Update
The NBA Commissioner, David Stern, is still not ready to sell the New Orleans Hornets as he spoke on Friday in NBA’s annual pre-playoff conference. He said that they are receiving many proposals from various interested parties. The NBA’s management is looking
for a local buyer to sell the New Orleans franchise, but so far they have yet not received a desired offer from any potential buyer.
Stern said, “When people call and express an interest, `we say ‘terrific, we’ll take you to a game, take you to a meal, and put you in the queue, so we can be ready to talk to you when we are ready for this asset to be sold, we’re not pursuing local ownership
at this time. The direction that Jac Sperling and Hugh Weber are taking is to make this team desirable for local ownership, or ownership that intends on keeping it in New Orleans.”
The NBA itself acquired the New Orleans Hornets for an approximately $300 million deal in December 2010 from George Shinn and Gary Chouest. The New Orleans Hornets currently ranked 26th overall of the 30 teams in the NBA. The Hornets’ average
attendance in the New Orleans Arena is 14,709 per game. The NBA is also holding his decision to sell the Hornets, as the new collective bargaining agreement is going to be implemented after June 30, 2011 and it will be more beneficial for even smaller-market
teams.
David Stern also mentioned about the fact that revenue sharing is an important part growing forward, because it will enable all the teams to economically compete.
The NBA is more concern over the season ticket holders for the New Orleans Hornets. They are focusing intensely to increase this 6,500 number to 10,000 by the next season. A season ticket provides a huge profit to the franchise and the ticket holder at the
same time. The NBA season ticket holder can enjoy and watch every home-game for the entire regular season for the respective team, if he/she chooses to buy a season-ticket.
The NBA Commissioner further reiterated, “We need to increase attendance, But we are seeing some very good signs with respect to season-ticket sales, and that’s what our attendance issues are always starting, within all markets, because once you start with
a base of season tickets and then you go to full-season equivalents, and then you go to groups, and then you go to single-game tickets, I think that we are doing well on both renewals and new tickets.”
David Stern also brought up the idea in the conference, as the league is going to submit a revised proposal to the players’ union on collective bargaining in the next week to collaborate on even terms. The NBA is pretty much aware of its labour problems
that would result in a possible lockout, if not solved properly.
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