Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer reports: NBA owners today approved the league's effort to find owners for an expansion team that would play in Charlotte starting in the fall of 2004.

Scott Dodd of the Charlotte Observer reports: A tentative deal reached between Charlotte and NBA negotiators has the city paying to build an uptown arena, with a new team operating the building and making all the money off it.

City Council members and NBA owners must still approve the agreement, which was presented to the council in a more than two-hour closed-door meeting Monday night and will be outlined by the league at an owners' meeting in New York today.

If both sides agree, a new team would be awarded to Charlotte to replace the Hornets. It would play the 2004-05 season in the Charlotte Coliseum, with the arena opening in fall 2005.

The league set up a six-member expansion committee that will consider various ownership candidates. That committee includes Hornets co-owner George Shinn, who commissioner David Stern said is "among the most enthusiastic supporters of a return to Charlotte."

Via Charlotte Observer

Expansion

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