<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Hornets officials said Wednesday they have not finalized where they will hold next month's training camp, although a site has been reserved at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo. Hornets president Paul Mott said his preference is for camp to be conducted in the city that will serve as the team's temporary home this season because of the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina, which damaged New Orleans Arena. General manager Allan Bristow announced last week that the team would hold at least the first two weeks of training camp at the Air Force Academy. "Allan did absolutely the right thing, he sought out to find a place based on his relationship when he was in Denver (as general manager),'' Mott said. "But the reality is we would use it as a fall-back option.'' The Hornets are currently exploring potential sites in Baton Rouge, Bossier City and Lafayette as their temporary home but no decision has been made. Mott said Wednesday he wants to have a city selected at least 45 days before the regular season begins Nov. 2. "If we're in Baton Rouge or some other location then we'll have a chance to be able to get in the market and sell tickets, but 45 days is a very short time,'' Mott said. Mott maintains the team?s first priority is to select a Louisiana city, but if that?s not possible the Hornets would explore offers from other cities. Officials from Oklahoma City and Las Vegas have expressed an interest in hosting the Hornets temporarily. "It is our goal to be back in New Orleans as soon as we can and (owner) George Shinn has spoken very clearly about our desire to be back in New Orleans as soon as the city gets back on its feet and things are right,'' Mott said. For the past week chief marketing officer Tim McDougall, Mott and about 11 staff members have been working out of the Toyota Center, home of the Houston Rockets. Most of the Hornets' staff is working from a large conference room equipped with computers and phones. McDougall, who used to work for the Rockets, said he contacted the team last week and asked for use of some office space. "They are gracious enough to put something together for us as a temporary space, so we can pull people together,'' McDougall said. "We have gathered some of our core personnel, so we can establish some kind of base and get our next steps nailed down and kind of pull ourselves back together.'' McDougall said they had seven members from the organization who evacuated to Houston before Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast area. Hornets officials have not been able to check their offices at the Freeport McMoRan Building on Poydras, which is across the street from the Superdome. McDougall said they are working with city and state officials to get inside the building to retrieve some business files. "Right now, we're trying to establish what are the critical issue lists that we need to run through and the key tasks we need to address,'' McDougall said. PMAC OPTION: Hornets officials met with LSU senior associate athletic director Dan Radakovich on Wednesday as the team began to explore the possibility of using the Pete Maravich Assembly Center for home games this season. Radakovich chatted with Hornets executives Sam Russo and Steve Martin in what Radakovich termed "incredibly preliminary discussions.? "They stopped by and we kind of gave them our schedule and gave them a copy of their schedule, which they didn't have with them," Radakovich said. "Basically, they were in town looking at some other things and we left it that we would talk some more next week." Radakovich said he could not give Russo and Martin a tour of the PMAC because it is still in use as a medical center for Hurricane Katrina evacuees. A comparison on Tuesday of the Hornets' 41-game home schedule and the LSU men's and women's schedules and gymnastics meets revealed only 10 firm date conflicts between the entities. Radakovich said there were a few other "soft" date conflicts that might be able to be resolved. "We also went into a couple of issues as far as practices were concerned with our teams, just to see who's who and what's what," Radakovich said. "We'll be working a lot of this through LSED (the Superdome commission) which they have their (New Orleans Arena) contract with. But we just had a chance to say hello. We'll wait and see what the next step is." Russo did not return telephone calls Wednesday. Mott said that while he was encouraged by initial indications of few schedule conflicts, more logistical problems needed to be addressed such as travel into the city and lodging for visiting teams. "No decision is just a matter of available dates," Mott said. "Obviously, that's the most crucial issue. We don't want to displace other game or events they might have scheduled. "It's a complex decision involving a lot of moving parts. It all starts with knowing what conflicts you might have and whether you can work with those. It's all very complicated."</div> Source
