Written by Zach Harper | 12 March 2009

A couple of years ago, the New Orleans Hornets were whisked away to the land of Thunder and noise (Oklahoma City) due to the tragedies of Hurricane Katrina and spent the better part of two seasons there while trying to figure out their family, franchise, and financial futures. They found refuge in OKC, were able to make a little money from the outstanding attendance, and helped avoid a catastrophic financial hole that could have crippled the franchise and forced them to move from a city that struggles to support them financially due to their unfortunate situation and the aftermath of a FEMA-induced societal plague.

At the same time, you had the Indiana Pacers who have always been one of the franchises that has very little problem getting fan support in the financial sense and always seem to have a sold out arena or a loud enough one to make you think it's sold out. They've been the staple of Midwestern basketball in the NBA that was good from the time Michael Jordan started winning titles straight through to the third coaching administration in Chicago after MJ had retired from the NBA Bulls.

If you had to poll most people back then, you would have had an echoing sentiment that the Pacers would survive a major economic downturn from a national scale and that the Hornets would need to move or fold. But that's not exactly the case right now.

The New Orleans Hornets have been blessed with Chris Paul after too many teams passed on him in the 2005 draft. As Chris Paul has morphed/evolved/transformed into a historically absurd point guard that can command a team and dominate any area of the court, the Hornets fans have realized that they can not waste this guy's greatness on a half-empty arena. The Hornets have one of the smaller attendance numbers in the NBA per game because of the size of their arena, but they've sold 98.1% of their available seats at home this season. Their has been a resurgence in the interest and financial support in the 'Nola community that allows the Hornets to turn down state funds that they essentially agreed to take last year if they had an attendance number that was consistently below 80% of their seating capacity.

This is a huge statement for a franchise that most people thought would have folded by now due to the horrific economic conditions in New Orleans and an even bigger statement for a league that has taken some heat for acquiring a $175 million loan in order to bailout struggling franchises. But this is a loan that the Indiana Pacers will almost be certainly dependent upon to stay afloat financially.

The Indiana Pacers have struggled mightily the last three years in attendance numbers, which is crippling the future of this franchise. Three seasons ago, their attendance was around 66% of their seating capacity, which was also good for the bottom of the sea for NBA attendance numbers. Two years ago, it rose to around 75%, which is remarkably better but nowhere near what is needed to keep franchises from operating well below the break-even line. And this year, they haven't improved much with selling just 75.5% of their seating capacity. It's currently 24th in the league but it's an inflated number because attendance numbers are usually skewed to just tickets sold for the games instead of people who actually show up and spend money on parking, nachos, and over-priced items at the team store.

This has caused the team to claim that since they may lose close to $30 million this season, they can no longer pay the $15 million it takes to operate their basketball arena. Now if they can't pay their arena operating costs, and they're hemorrhaging money on top of that then their future residing in Indiana instead of Kansas City, Columbus, or another city with an NBA-ready arena doesn't look so hot. They're not threatening to move by any means but the writing on the wall seems pretty clear. This team has to find a way to make more money and quickly or they might be forced to move from their current home.

Now, there isn't any word on whether the Hornets and/or the Pacers will be one of the teams that takes the bailout from the NBA. There have been reportedly as few as 12 teams interested and as many as 20 teams in need of the bailout loan dispersement. If it roughly equates to the neighborhood of $10 million to $17 million dollars per team and both of these franchises partake in the generosity then maybe that's why each team's current situation is the way it is. Perhaps the Hornets are able to decline state funds because their attendance is high AND they're going to receive bailout money from the NBA. Maybe the Pacers aren't in such a financial predicament because they'll receive bailout money OR maybe they're even worse off because they've already included that financial boost into their $30 million in losses for this season.

Either way, both of these franchises are headed in opposite directions from where they were three and a half years ago. Someone is still in danger of losing their hometown team.

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