No, the team won't be there in two years, unless New Orleans coughs up $500 million for a new arena. Take it from those of us who live in Charlotte, N.C.

Or Seattle. And if the Hornets will be in Oklahoma in two seasons, will they be fighting the Sonics for OK City? Once again, the 'business' of sports slaps the fan upside the head.

And to answer Mr. Ramsey's other question: ("Would an NBA team have moved to New Orleans if the population was this low?") yep, if the owner of the team at the time of the move was a petulant little jerk who was angry when his attempt to blackmail a city into building a new arena failed. Honestly, at the time the Charlotte Hornets moved, they would have just as easily become the Palookaville Hornets if it would have jabbed a thumb in Charlotte's eye.

A lot of bad blood there.

And it won't be the first time New Orleans has lost an NBA team, you know.

So I wouldn't say there are any surprises there, notwithstanding Katrina. Sorry, man. The Hornets aren't exactly rooted to their current location, and their current location isn't exactly a pro-basketball city.

This didn't end up making it into the article, but the New Orleans Jazz did NOT have attendance problems. Their departure had to do with a bad deal at the Super Dome and personal preference of their owner (a Mormon). Attendance actually fell in Utah.

While football is of course the most popular sport in Louisiana, the Hornets were drawing sustainable support before the storm, despite being a brutally bad basketball team.

I can't see George Shinn passing up the opportunity to ruin professional basketball for yet another fanbase. The guy is probably a rapist, and he's definitely a world-class chode. He somehow managed to piss away the goodwill of the most rabid fanbase in the NBA, so why shouldn't he piss in the collective mouths of the already traumatized citizens of the Big Easy? I would be shocked if he didn't.

"the New Orleans Jazz did NOT have attendance problems."

That's too simplistic of a statement. Their attendance numbers were strong, but their revenue from that attendance was never what they'd hoped for. They always struggled to sell season tickets--only 2,600 in their final year in N.O.--and that sort of guaranteed, upfront revenue is what teams need to feel stable. The incredible size of the Super Dome meant tickets were ALWAYS available for cheap right up to tipoff, so the large crowds never paid much to attend. It was a great deal for the fans, but lousy for the team's bottom line. That likely explains why N.O. never got an expansion team after the Jazz left. (After all, if business were really good there, they certainly would have wanted to get back into the market.)