OT: Unbelievable N.O. Hornets Owner

[mark at 10thumbs.org]

>From ESPN.com -- [http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3018299]
Louisiana to spend $15Mil on Hornets practice facility

This is basketball related, but OT for the C's... though Boston will be
facing it sometime in the not too distant future when The C's lease at the
BN Garden is up.

This -- IMO -- is what's wrong with sports... it's not as a lot contend
players (who do the actual work) getting big contracts... its
multi-millionaire owners demanding public financing of sports facilities.
It makes me angry whenever it happens but seem particularly egregious in
New Orleans which is still very much rebuilding from Katrina.

>From the article (full below) "Shinn has said he expects the state to
fulfill its promise of a modern training center similar to what a number
of other NBA teams have and that he may not extend his team's stay in
Louisiana without it."

This is the same guy who ruined BBall in Charlotte despite the Hornets
being one of the most popular expansion franchises.

</rant>
(the other) mark

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BATON ROUGE, La. -- Gov. Kathleen Blanco is backing $14.5 million in state
funding to build a new training facility for the New Orleans Hornets.

The dollars for the practice center were included in the Blanco
administration recommendations for construction project funding submitted
Thursday to the State Bond Commission, which will vote next week on
whether to approve the list.

Under the plan proposed by Blanco, the state would spend $1.5 million this
year and the rest in later years.

The state agreed to build a new practice facility -- and the city set
aside more than $6 million to help pay for it -- when the Hornets moved to
New Orleans from Charlotte, N.C., in 2002.

Construction was delayed for a variety of reasons, including team owner
George Shinn's change of mind regarding his preferred site for the
building.

Originally, Shinn settled on a location in the eastern part of the city.
He later asked that the facility be built on state-owned land next to the
downtown Arena.

The Louisiana Stadium and Exposition District did not want to give up
valuable downtown land for that purpose but found a workable compromise,
proposing to attach the practice center to the arena by building it above
an existing loading dock.

The new facility could cost as much as $20 million.

The Hornets' lease at the New Orleans Arena runs through 2012. Shinn has
said he expects the state to fulfill its promise of a modern training
center similar to what a number of other NBA teams have and that he may
not extend his team's stay in Louisiana without it.

In the meantime, the Hornets are practicing rent-free in the state-owned
Alario Center in suburban Westwego, where they also practiced for their
first three seasons in New Orleans before being temporarily displaced to
Oklahoma City by Hurricane Katrina before the 2005-06 season.