Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I know I could find this info on Google or Yahoo but I would rather ask this question here on city-data: What happened to the Charlotte Hornets?
I'm not really a basketball or sports fan and I know the Charlotte Hornet's fate was probably sealed many years ago but what happened to them? Also, does the city of Charlotte miss the team?
dead issue. They are in New Orleans. We have the Bobcats now who are playing better than they ever have in their short history. Although MJ takes alot of heat as a part owner, bringing larry brown, getting stephen jackson you have to give the guy kudos for that...
It would probably be easiest if you did google it, lol.
We lost our team - and the team's name, which was perhaps as big as losing the team itself!
George Shinn's personal problems are at the root of why the Hornets are no longer here.
Here's a glimpse into the background:
Owner Move Fuels Talk Of Hornet Sale
The AP: Bloomberg
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Charlotte Hornets owner George Shinn has moved to Florida, fueling speculation he plans to sell the NBA franchise.
Shinn lives in a $1.4 million home he has owned for several years in Jupiter, Fla., said Hornets Vice President Sam Russo.
If Shinn does decide to sell the team, the move to Florida could save him millions of dollars, an accountant said. He would not only avoid North Carolina's capital-gains tax, but would also dodge the state's 7.75-percent tax on personal income.
Russo and NBA Commissioner David Stern told The Charlotte Observer they have not heard that Shinn is trying to sell the team. Stern also said there is no truth to a rumor Michael Jordan is heading an investment group interested in buying the Hornets.
Shinn's move comes a year after a woman sued him, alleging he forced her to perform oral sex at his Tega Cay, S.C., mansion in September 1997. Shinn was not charged in the incident, but countersued the woman, 29-year-old Leslie Price, claiming she slandered him and tried to extort $5 million from him.
Price's lawsuit may go to trial this spring in Richland County, S.C. Both sides call an out-of-court settlement unlikely.
I know I could find this info on Google or Yahoo but I would rather ask this question here on city-data: What happened to the Charlotte Hornets?
I'm not really a basketball or sports fan and I know the Charlotte Hornet's fate was probably sealed many years ago but what happened to them? Also, does the city of Charlotte miss the team?
Seriously?? Me thinks you probably know full well what happened to the Hornets, and are just trying to stir something up. Truth be told, I wouldnt have suspected it, had you not made a point of asking if the people of Charlotte miss them.
Seriously?? Me thinks you probably know full well what happened to the Hornets, and are just trying to stir something up. Truth be told, I wouldnt have suspected it, had you not made a point of asking if the people of Charlotte miss them.
May be the case . . . best to just read about it.
My opinion is that the natives miss the Hornets and feel robbed . . . and the newcomers are fine with the Bobcats.
And that is where I believe I should leave that, lol.
I try not to get too emotionally attached to my local NBA franchise. Nets, Knicks, Hornets, Bobcats, mildly entertaining at best. At worst? Well, you know. Isn't it funny how teams keep their names when they move to another city, even if the name is totally related only to the original city? Like, what are the "Jazz" doing in Utah? Of course they were originally in New Orleans. Do Hornets have something to do with Charlotte? I know there is a Hornet's nest neighborhood around here, even a Hornets Nest elementary school.
I try not to get too emotionally attached to my local NBA franchise. Nets, Knicks, Hornets, Bobcats, mildly entertaining at best. At worst? Well, you know. Isn't it funny how teams keep their names when they move to another city, even if the name is totally related only to the original city? Like, what are the "Jazz" doing in Utah? Of course they were originally in New Orleans. Do Hornets have something to do with Charlotte? I know there is a Hornet's nest neighborhood around here, even a Hornets Nest elementary school.
Yes, it has something to do with Charlotte.
Charlotte has been referred to as a "hornet's nest" since Cornwallis used the term during the Revolutionary War.
Sadly, most newcomers don't have a clue as to why our team was named the Hornets, as it appears even major Revolutionary battles (other than a few in the NE) aren't covered in history textbooks in highschool these days.
Shinn, the owner of the Hornets, found he could no longer afford to pay the salaries that NBA "talent" was getting paid and demanded the city build him an arena downtown with a lot of skyboxes so he could make profits from renting them to corporations. The usual cadre of down town leadership was all for this idea but the problem is they didn't have the money to do it. This was the plan:
They were going to create a new tax. Thing is, the NC Legislature does not allow cities to do this without approval from them.
So in order to get approval, they decided to put it up to a vote of the people. The thinking being, if they could get a majority to vote for this new tax, the Legislature would happily grant Charlotte the right to do this.
The problem with this idea was that not enough people here support the NBA and they didn't think they could get it voted in. So in their genius, they wrapped a lot of funding of the arts in with it, and sold the referendum as a "Arts Referendum" instead of a NBA one.
Tons of downtown money was spent pushing for the people to vote for it. Very similar to what they did in 2007 with the transit tax.
They were confident happy and satisfied they had won this one. Just one thing. The people still voted it down even with all the hyperbole from the local media and paper that we must vote this in for Charlotte's future. The vote wasn't even close.
So with that result, the NC Legislature wouldn't even consider the new tax. The downtown leaders bet big and lost. This would be the last time that anyone in Charlotte would be asked to vote on funding a sports facility. Everything that has come since then was handled by complicated shell games and closed door deals. The current Bobcats arena was funded this way and they tried it with the ill fated baseball plan but that one got so complicated that it faced a legal challenge.
Meanwhile, Shinn, a smart business man who made his money by scamming people for students loans to go to his for profit college, meanwhile knew this wasn't good and worked a deal with New Orleans to move there. While Charlotte had voted down the tax, NO had a new venue sitting down there empty. Shinn packed his bags, took his team and moved. He has been there ever since.
The stuff about Shinn's personal behavior, the allegations of which were never proven in court, are just a distraction. He is demonized here in Charlotte because he moved the team. Obviously a person of good character just couldn't do Charlotte this way.
I know all the history but I just wished that we were allowed to keep the name and colors, kinda like what the NFL had the Browns do when they moved to Baltimore.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
