Hornets Finally Receive State Funding to Build Practice Arena in New Awlins

With the Hornets finally receiving all the money needed to build their long delayed practice facility, the Hornets are going to be staying in New Orleans for awhile at least.


Hornets to receive $14.5M in state money for practice gym

Associated Press

BATON ROUGE, La. -- A new training facility for the New Orleans Hornets will receive $14.5 million in state financing, under a plan approved Thursday by the State Bond Commission.

The state will spend $1.5 million on the practice center this year and the rest in later years.

The dollars were included in Gov. Kathleen Blanco's recommendations for construction projects to be funded with state dollars, and those recommendations received unanimous Bond Commission approval.

The state-financed training facility is seen as critical to keeping the Hornets at the New Orleans Arena beyond its 2012 lease agreement.

State officials agreed to build the new practice center when the Hornets moved to New Orleans from Charlotte, N.C., in 2002. The city of New Orleans has set aside more than $6 million to help pay for the project, which is estimated to cost more than $20 million.

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 agreed to attach the practice center to the arena by building it above an existing loading dock.

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.

 

If the state of La is as strapped as they say, how do you justify spending this money for a practice facility?