NEW ORLEANS -- If New Orleans gets the NBA's permission to take the Hornets from Charlotte, it probably won't have a hockey team next season.

The state has offered the New Orleans Brass $1.4 million to buy out the seven years left on its lease with New Orleans Arena, where the Hornets will play if NBA team owners approve the move.

The Brass has a May 9 deadline to accept the offer: $300,000 to cover its debt from the past three years, and $1.1 million which the East Coast Hockey League team had invested in the arena.

"I think it's probably likely, given the time frame, that we probably will not play hockey next year," co-owner David White said. "Does that mean that hockey is dead in New Orleans forever? I certainly hope not. And I also hope that the Brass isn't done in New Orleans forever."

He said that if the Brass accepts the state's offer, it could play next year only if it can get back into the Municipal Auditorium, where it started in 1997.

"We have not even entered into negotiations with the city about what it would cost to do that. We've been looking at UNO," he said.

Doug Thornton, general manager of SMG, which manages the Superdome and the Arena, confirmed the state's offer but declined further comment.

The Brass will lose premium playing dates and practice time if the Hornets move.

Team officials have talked with UNO about renovating Lakefront Arena to create an 8,500-seat hockey rink, but White said it would be extremely difficult to set up playing dates anywhere in three months.

"When we originally went into Municipal, we had six months to a year before we had negotiated everything and got everything done," he said. "The problem we've had is that we never really knew that we were going to have this issue until recently."

John Georges, who owns 39 percent of the Brass, said the team had been negotiating with the state to return its original investment and reduce its $300,000 yearly rent in line with other ECHL teams.

"When the Hornets came, they took that off the table," Georges said.

He said the team's only real choice is to "take the money that's on the table and live to fight another day, even if it means the potential of hockey going down for another year."

The ice at Municipal Auditorium was replaced by a new floor last year.

"That floor cost $200,000-something, and the ice would ruin it," White said.

So the team is almost out of options.

White said the state has turned down its proposals for sharing the arena with the Hornets for one year, with a lower lease, to give it time to find a new home.

White said that the Brass understands the Hornets' favored tenant status.

"I think the Hornets are going to be great for New Orleans," he said. "I bought tickets, and a lot of the Brass partners have bought tickets.

"The thing that concerns us is (the Brass) is a very inexpensive way for people to come with their families to enjoy a night out."

Hornets season tickets range from $795 to $10,750, averaging $40 per game, with suites going for $97,500. Brass season tickets range from $288 -- $8 per game -- to $900, with suites costing $1,080 -- 30 per game.