Saints owner Tom Benson buys Hornets from NBA

NEW YORK >> Tom Benson brought stability to the Saints nearly three decades ago and now plans to do the same for the Hornets in small-market New Orleans.

The Saints’ owner agreed Friday to purchase the Hornets from the NBA.

"We expect this club to be one of the most outstanding clubs in the league, otherwise I don’t want to get involved," Benson said. "This is just a good thing and I’m just glad to be a part of it."

A person familiar with the deal says the purchase price is $338 million. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the financial terms have not been announced.

The NBA has been trying to sell the Hornets since buying the club from founder George Shinn in December 2010. While preparing the team for sale the league negotiated a new lease for the Hornets to remain in the state-owned New Orleans Arena through 2024.

The sale of the team to Benson has to be approved by the NBA’s Board of Governors, which is meeting in New York on Friday.

"The city is one of the country’s treasures and we really have found the perfect owner," Commissioner David Stern said. "Our goal all along has been to get the Hornets bought by somebody whose commitment to New Orleans would be unrivaled."

The framework of ownership negotiations were handled in a way that a new Hornets owner would have to accept the lease worked out between the NBA and Gov. Bobby Jindal. The lease agreement also called for $50 million in improvements to the basketball stadium, which sits right across the street from the Superdome.

Once the NBA approves the sale of the team to Benson, the next step is for the state Legislature to approve the arena lease deal because of the funding needed for stadium improvements. But legislative leaders already have publicly voiced support for the proposed lease deal, which would take effect in July.

The 84-year-old Benson, a New Orleans-native, has owned the Saints since 1985, when he stepped in to block efforts by other prospective investors to move the NFL franchise to Jacksonville, Fla. Now Benson has made another major investment to stabilize the NBA’s presence in the Big Easy on the same day that the Hornets were hosting the Utah Jazz, the very team New Orleans lost to relocation in 1979.

Benson helped bring the Saints their first playoff appearance in 1987 and finally a Super Bowl title in 2010. His ownership of the Hornets means the two small-market franchises both will be locally owned and now can work as partners in their efforts to attract corporate sponsorships, and Hornets fans can at least hope that will translate to a better product on the hardwood.

At the very least, the move provided Benson with some refreshingly positive publicity on the heels of the Saints’ bounty scandal, which led the NFL to suspend head coach Sean Payton for the entire 2012 season — the same season that will see New Orleans host the Super Bowl.

Only a day before the Saints announced Benson’s purchase of the Hornets, the NFL club announced that assistant head coach Joe Vitt, who also oversees linebackers, would be elevated to interim coach for the coming football season, despite his own six-game suspension in connection with the bounty probe.

While the Saints have become a cherished institution that has become entrenched in the local culture since the club’s founding in 1967, the Hornets are relatively new to Louisiana’s pro sports landscape.

The Hornets moved to New Orleans from Charlotte in 2002, but have often been on shaky ground since, including when the club spent two full seasons in Oklahoma City after Hurricane Katrina devastated large parts of southeast Louisiana in August 2005.