Ignoring a self-imposed goal of securing 8,000 season-ticket commitments in New Orleans by March 15, the Charlotte Hornets have begun finalizing a long-term lease agreement that would have the team calling the New Orleans Arena its home for the next 20 years.

	Ticket sales haven't been brisk, but the Hornets seem determined to move to New Orleans.

The Hornets still are more than 2,000 season tickets short of the quota it set soon after filing for relocation Jan. 17. They also are shy of meeting two other goals -- securing deposits for 2,500 club seats and 54 luxury suites. If the team failed to reach the goals, it could have backed out of its agreement to move to New Orleans.

But a Hornets official said Monday the team is confident it has found a suitable new home city and wants to finalize a lease agreement to help win NBA approval to relocate the team.

"We did not get where we are as businessmen making ridiculous judgments," said Hornets co-owner Ray Wooldridge. "We've done our homework, and the bottom line is that this is what is best for the team. Are we risking that something could go wrong? Absolutely. But this team is not for sale, and we are very, very confident that we're doing the right thing."

Wooldridge and his partner, George Shinn, have said the team will lose more than $20 million this season while playing in the 14-year-old Charlotte Coliseum, an arena that lacks key revenue generators such as luxury suites and club seating. Despite $400,000 spent by Wooldridge and Shinn in support of a referendum to build a new arena in Charlotte, voters soundly rejected the proposal last June. And though Charlotte's City Council approved $231 million for a new arena in February, it appears it was too late to keep the Hornets, which already had committed to relocating to New Orleans.

Since losing the Jazz to Salt Lake City in 1979, New Orleans has sought to lure another NBA team to the Crescent City. After previous flirtations with the Minnesota Timberwolves in 1994 and Vancouver Grizzlies last year, New Orleans seems finally to have found that team. Since the Hornets' owners announced their intentions to relocate the team to New Orleans, Wooldridge has touted the city as the team's only viable home in its future, and Shinn told a group of New Orleans businessmen that the collective city of Charlotte can "kiss my grits."

"It's my feeling that Charlotte doesn't want us, and they've made that quite clear," Wooldridge said. "There was the last referendum, and they confirmed there would be no public support for a new arena. Is there any turning back? No."

Bill Curl, a spokesperson for SMG, the management firm of the Louisiana Superdome and New Orleans Arena, confirmed that lease negotiations with the Hornets began Monday.

NBA officials have said they would prefer no change in ownership of the team, but if the NBA Board of Governors doesn't recommend New Orleans as the Hornets' next home to the rest of the owners, and Shinn and Wooldridge can't find another city, an ownership change would be inevitable. But Shinn and Wooldridge say they have no plans of selling. Two weeks ago, they turned down an offer for the team from Robert Johnson, founder of Black Entertainment Television, who said he would keep the Hornets in Charlotte.

The Hornets hope to have a lease agreement completed by March 20, when NBA commissioner David Stern and deputy commissioner Russ Granik visit New Orleans, said Alex Martins, the Hornets' director of operations in New Orleans. As part of a proposed deal, the city would commit $6 million for a team practice facility, and the state of Louisiana would kick in another $12 million to $20 million to increase the number of luxury suites in the 18,500-seat New Orleans Arena from 44 to 60. The state would pay another $1.5 million each year the team goes without a naming-rights deal for the arena, Martins said.

After Stern and Granik's visit, the NBA's seven-member relocation committee will examine the city's viability from several angles. Granik said the factors include gauging local interest in having an NBA team, the state of the arena, the population of New Orleans' metropolitan area and its median income levels. It also will take into consideration the TV market size (New Orleans ranks 43rd in the country), and the major businesses in town and their corporate support of the team. The Board of Governors then will make a recommendation to the other owners on April 9.

If 15 of the league's 29 team owners approve it at that point, the Hornets would be headed for New Orleans.

The household income in New Orleans is said to be the greatest obstacle for the Hornets to win league approval. The median household income in the city is $38,800 a year, $12,200 less than in Charlotte.

"Once the numbers are available they'll be able to see that New Orleans has been misread," Wooldridge said. "They'll see that within a 75-mile radius there are 2.5 million people. They'll see the city of Baton Rouge, whose household income competes with some of the larger cities around the country. They'll see the unity of the political and business leadership. This is simply an untold story, and once it is told, they will realize that we can achieve long-term growth here."

It appears that Shinn and Wooldridge want to do as much as they can to make it hard for the NBA to reject their request to relocate to New Orleans. Aside from working out the lease, Wooldridge said the team plans to announce several multimillion-dollar corporate partnership agreements with local businesses later this week.

Still, the final number of season-ticket package commitments the team secures is important. "We want to build that number as large as possible to create a strong impression," Martins said.

Although the attrition for season-ticket commitments is typically 20 percent for an expansion team, Martins said the Hornets expect theirs to be less after asking applicants to pay 25 percent of their season ticket costs up front, in addition to a $250 deposit. Martins said the current sales figures are legitimized by the fact only six businesses have bought blocks of at least 50 season tickets.

"Ultimately, in addition to the revenue, they have to get people in the seats," Granik said. "It's good for our teams to be financially secure, but if they don't have a fan base it's not going to be an exciting place to play in."

Darren Rovell, who covers sports business for ESPN.com, can be reached at darren.rovell@espn.com