Even accounting for the fact that attendance goes up after the All-Star break, the decline of the league in many cities this season has been swift. In 2006-07, Memphis was at the bottom of the NBA with an average of 14,654 fans per game. This season, eight teams are below that mark — in descending order, Charlotte, Minnesota, Sacramento, Seattle, Philadelphia, Memphis, New Orleans and Indiana. Minnesota is down 1,500 fans per game. Memphis and Seattle are down 2,000. Indiana is down 3,000. Sacramento is down nearly 4,000. On average, at least one out of every three seats at a Sixers home game is empty.

Every one of those cities has its own reasons for not watching the NBA live. The Grizzlies were a basket case of a franchise in Vancouver, are still one in Memphis, and probably will be wherever they go next. Seattle is staying away from owners who clearly want to bolt for Oklahoma City ASAP. Pacers fans are disgusted by a series of criminal acts by some players and an otherwise misfit team that doesn’t appear to treat the game of basketball with the religious reverence Indiana requires. In most cases, there is the local five’s lousy play — only the Hornets have a winning record among those bottom eight — dovetailing with recessionary times.

Given Shinn’s past and the refusal of NBA commissioner David Stern to make an ironclad commitment to New Orleans, the city’s fans can’t be blamed if they start thinking more like Seattle, wondering why they should pay good money to see a carpetbagger. For that matter, Stern, in an interview with the New Orleans Times-Picayune, lambasted the local business community, and businesses who set up shop to help with Katrina cleanup, for not supporting the team. (Dallas owner Mark Cuban, of course, is on the opposite side. He has blamed Shinn for not doing enough to market his team.)

Leaving New Orleans if the Hornets don’t reach the attendance minimum wouldn’t be simple for Shinn. He would have to pay off $100 million in penalties, reimbursement of state monies, relocation fees, and money to buy out a local minority partner. No doubt, though, a Kansas City, Anaheim, Louisville or Fargo will step up to cover Shinn’s debt.

With New Orleans still on a long, slow path to recovery — assuming it ever completely recovers from Katrina — the city and its people have to decide what is worth keeping, what is worth public money, and what isn’t essential. No one would blame the citizenry if it decided the George Shinn Hornets were on the nonessential list.

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