Pelicans Owner TACKLES Relocation from New Orleans

Pelicans Owner TACKLES Relocation from New Orleans

Here’s Brody Brazil. The voicemail line is ready anytime you are at 18334. Brody, I literally listen to every single message and then get to play back and respond to the very best ones. Hi Brody, Charlie from San Francisco here. I got a topic about relocation and regarding the Pelicans. um their lease, the arena lease expires in 2029 and there hasn’t been any kind of like news about a new arena and the team is struggling, right? And it seems like um they might be a really good team to uh relocate to Seattle. Uh what do you think about that situation? And um I know there’s like um there’s a complicated situation with Gail Benson like um you wanting to sell the team to New Orleans owners or people from New Orleans. So yeah, I’m just wondering what your opinions on that. Charlie, I appreciate the call and you know, I take these things very seriously having experienced relocation of a team that I followed and covered and worked closely with. I I want to respect the process and I don’t want to jump too far ahead and say, “Oh, I think the Pelicans might relocate. They might move away from New Orleans.” We’ve seen that with a basketball team before. That’s how the Jazz ended up in Utah. But I do understand the things at play here. I understand what people are seeing. I understand what people are interpreting. They’re not making this up out of nowhere. They see a long list of things here and reasons why this is some kind of possibility. So, I will not say for certain here that I even think the Pelicans are in the realm of relocation. But I do see and understand the factors at play like a team that has been on the bottom of attendance in the NBA in recent years. 24th last year in NBA attendance. They play at the Smoothie King Center, which the name in itself is a thing of beauty, but it was built in 1999. It was built well before there was an NBA team there. They built it before the team. And now it needs, you know, that 30-year renovation. It needs that makeover. They had some plans to get that underway in 2024. But the team punted on it because they needed to do upgrades at the Superdome right away uh right across the way because the Benson family, Gail Benson, who owns the Pelicans, they also own the Saints and they needed to fix up their football stadium before they did anything to the basketball arena right across the way. So, some people are reading into the fact that wait, you had some plans to fix this place up, to commit to it, to stay here for another 20, 30 years, and you did some things, but you kind of chose not to do that full scale renovation. Also, this the lease expires on that building in June 2029. Now, I get it. We’re just about to get into 2026, but if you think about the timing it would take if you really were going to build a brand new arena, that’s a several years long process. Planning approvals, if there is some kind of public funding, that takes a long time to get underway. So, we’re talking about a situation where the current lease is probably going to expire before you could get a brand new venue built. I also recognize on the court and I heard what Demarcus Cousins said about well they they probably should relocate. The energy and the crowd here is terrible. Look, I I can’t relate a team struggling to their need to move cities. Like that’s th those are two independent things of each other. They they can be connected, but just because a team starts at season 2 and 15 record-wise, and I know they’ve gotten another win at least uh since since then, but that’s how they started. I get it. That’s why people are saying this just isn’t working. But regular seasons across their existence of the last what 20 or so years, a 461 regular season win percentage and a 373 postseason win percentage. They have gotten to the playoffs a couple different times. They haven’t really made a sustained run or or did well in the second round or got past the second round. I also realize that you’re looking at a city where the NBA has already left New Orleans. Now, it was a lifetime ago for me, more than a lifetime ago. Uh, 2 years before I was born in 1979, the Jazz were in New Orleans. They’ve already left. So, people, and this is not necessarily fair, but people do this. Oh, well, basketball has left New Orleans before, so they could do it again. History could repeat itself. Aren’t we under different circumstances? Isn’t New Orleans a different market? Different people, different team, different everything. The only things that are the same is that there’s an NBA team and there’s a city that that are the same and that team might leave. It has nothing to do with the people or the situation at hand right now versus 1979. But I also think it’s interesting that Gail Benson is the owner of two different teams. And because Gail Benson is owner of the Saints, maybe the Pelicans, and for some reason I almost keep wanting to say Hornets. And I know that was a weird history, a triangle between Charlotte and New Orleans and the Hornets name, but anyway, with the Pelicans here, because she is owner of two teams, and yes, probably the Saints and and an NFL team always take priority over the NBA team that maybe the Pelicans just aren’t Gail Benson’s number one priority. And the background on Gail Benson, she married Tom Benson in 2004 and then took over primary ownership of the Saints and Pelicans after Tom’s passing in 2018. So, it hasn’t been that long that she’s owned the teams. I don’t know if that is her ambition necessarily or something that she’s carrying the legacy on of her family and her husband. And maybe she is passionate about it because I’ll I’ll read you her quote. Gail Benson, don’t know much about her other than this quote and some other things that she said about owning teams. Here’s what she said to nola.com. Let me be clear about this. The teams are not for sale, Saints or Pelicans. That’s in capital letters. I want everybody to know the teams are not for sale. I get tired of people asking me if they’re for sale. I’m going to turn 79 in January, but I’m pretty healthy. I hear that people want to talk to me about buying the team. I’m like, well, that’s a waste of my time. That’s not going to happen. And people need to calm down about them moving. I think she’s talking to me about I feel I feel like I’m reading a quote that’s directly about me. No, but again, see, that’s why I’m not like this is from the source. Here’s the person who could a thousand% control whether this team moves or not or gets sold or not or anything like that. And Gail Benson is literally saying she wants to be very clear about this in capital letters. The teams, both of them, are not for sale. That’s not going to happen, she said. and people need to calm down about the team moving. So obviously she’s hearing that. She’s hearing these whispers and speculation and it’s getting back to Gail Benson, but she’s countering that in this interview with nola.com. It remains that when I die, both teams will be sold to the highest bidder and those proceeds will be used 100% to improve this community. Now, the one thing that’s not clear right there, so I mean, she’s she’s telling us, I suppose, what’s in the family’s estate or in her will that both teams get sold, but guaranteed sold to new ownership in New Orleans. Guaranteed that they’ll stay in New Orleans. Uh, you know, what is she trying to do with her life and these teams and 20 to 30 years down the road? Like there’s a lot to contemplate here when it’s it’s just somebody that’s older and that has to make these decisions and probably has some things written out in the will and you know upon her passing like if the teams won’t be sold until she’s no longer with us then she’s not there to stand up and say well this is how I want it to go moving forward a document is going to spell all that out for us. We don’t know exactly how that’s going to play out. So bringing it back to the present let’s let’s get away from the future. Let’s bring it back to the present here. What does this mean? She’s saying no, not going to happen. But again, I think a lot of us are just reading the room here. We’re seeing all these elements come into play and things that happened to an Oakland Athletics or a Phoenix Coyotes, an Arizona Coyotes, or a New Orleans Jazz way back in the day. And you’re saying if these things keep happening and if we’re interpreting all this correctly, then it’s not not a possibility. It is a possibility, but you heard it there from Gail Benson. Apparently not going to happen in capital letters. So, let me know what you think about all this in the comments section below. Am I right? Do you trust what she’s saying? How do you think this is all going to play out? Also, while you’re down there, thumbs up. That helps me and this video and this channel. And if you’re new here, great to meet you. Hope to have you back. Make sure you hit that subscribe button like right now so I can definitely see you back here next time.

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With NBA owners seemingly more focused on European expansion than on adding teams domestically, speculation has bubbled up about the potential sale of the New Orleans Pelicans and the team being moved to Seattle (or possibly Las Vegas).

Benson shot that idea down in an interview with Jeff Duncan of the New Orleans Times-Picayune (hat tip ProFootballTalk).

“Let me be clear about this: The teams are not for sale. That’s in capital letters. I want everybody to know the teams are not for sale. I get tired of people asking me [if they’re for sale]. I’m going to turn 79 in January, but I’m pretty healthy. I hear that people want to talk to me about buying the team. I’m like, well, that’s a waste of my time. That’s not going to happen. And people need to calm down about the team moving.”

“It remains that when I die, both teams will be sold to the highest bidder and those proceeds will be used 100 percent to improve this community.”

Read More: https://www.nola.com/sports/saints/gayle-benson-saints-pelicans-sale/article_63f624a1-3f02-4db3-9ab9-a11ce924bcf4.html

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